Tafsiran yang Mengutip untuk 1 Raja-raja 17:8

Eliyahu HaNavi’s behavior in Melachim I 17:8-16 seems utterly outrageous and inexplicable! How can he demand food from the extremely desperate Almanah (widow)? Not only does he demand food, but he also demands that he be fed before the Almanah feeds herself and her son.

וישלח את העורב, “he sent out the raven, etc.” Our sages in Sanhedrin 108 claim that the raven had an incontrovertible argument against Noach, claiming that both G-d and Noach hated it. G-d hated the impure creatures, seeing that He had commanded Noach to save only a single pair of each. Noach hated the raven seeing that he was prepared to endanger its survival as a species by sending it on a dangerous mission when he could have sent out a dove or another pure bird of which there were seven pairs. It therefore taunted Noach by accusing him of having sexual designs on its mate. Noach retorted by telling the raven that it was being deliberately vicious seeing it was well aware that he had refrained from indulging in sexual relations in the Ark even with his own wife, someone with whom he was permitted to have relations. Why then would the raven suspect him of having designs on a species which was forbidden to him, i.e the raven’s mate? The raven was not willing to accept Noach’s argument. As a result, Noach told the raven that it would neither be fit to eat nor to be offered as a sacrifice to G-d. At that point G-d intervened and told Noach to take the raven back into the Ark at least until the waters on the earth had dried off. G-d explained that in the future a certain righteous individual (the prophet Elijah) would dry out the world (decree drought) and at that time G-d would need the raven who would carry food to Elijah who would be in hiding at that time. (compare Kings I 17,8). The word יבשת, “dry land,” is closely related to the word תשבי, a favourite description of the prophet Elijah whose home town appears to have been Tishbi or something similar.

According to another Midrash (Bereshit Rabbah 5,4) G’d had made an agreement with the water at the time of creation that it would submit to being split when the Israelites would need to cross it on foot. This tradition is based on Isaiah 45,12: “it was I Who made the earth... My own hands stretched out the heavens and commanded their host. As soon as the heavens had been stretched across the firmament and all their hosts, I commanded the sea to split on account of the Israelites. I commanded sun and moon to obey Joshua’s command (Joshua 10,12) to temporarily arrest their orbits, etc. I commanded heaven and earth to remain silent when Moses would begin his speech in Deut. 32,1 and I commanded the ravens to carry bread and meat to the prophet Elijah (Kings I 17,8). I commanded the fire (heat) not to harm Chanayah, Mishael, and Azaryah (Daniel 3,27). I ordered the lions not to harm Daniel (Daniel 6,23). I ordered the whale to spit out Jonah (Jonah 2,11).” Thus far the Midrash. This Midrash is at pains to prove that all the miracles which interfere with the normal functioning of the universe which have been activated by various prophets or by G’d directly, had been provided for within the framework of the six days of creation during which G’d established the laws of nature. There has never been something which could be termed “a new act of creation” after G’d had completed the universe on the eve of the first Sabbath.
This is also the whole point of the Mishnah in Avot 5,6 which tells of the 10 miracles for which G’d laid the basis at dusk on the first Sabbath eve. When the Mishnah speaks about Bileam’s (talking) ass having been created during the last few minutes prior to the commencement of the first Sabbath, this means that at that time G’d had made provision for this miraculous phenomenon to occur when needed. The same applies to the earth swallowing Korach and supporters at Moses’ command (Numbers 16,31). When the sages spoke about the ten miracles having been נבראו, “created” at that time, they meant that the creative power for these phenomena to materialize at one time or another was part of the process of the six days of G’d’s creative activity at that time. in other words: “the miracle itself was part of nature,” though only G’d and His inert creatures involved were aware of it. That which the sages referred to as a תנאי, “a condition” which G’d imposed on such creatures of His as the water, etc., was in fact a condition that such “miracles” would be part of what is טבע, “nature,” according to G’d’s definition of this term. When we speak of something “supernatural” occurring, this is a subjective truth applicable only to the beholder of that phenomenon, not to its Creator. Whenever such miracles occur this does not mean that G’d made a sudden revision in His plans for the world and was forced to adopt measures He had not previously thought of, but that the time had arrived at that moment to activate plans He had made already during the six days of creation.