Elisha the prophet is one that often makes miracles in Tanakh. But for some reason, he’s not the most popular of prophets, despite the fact that he does some pretty cool stuff. In this week’s haftarah, there is a beautiful story of a miracle that he performed for the people of Israel.
A man brings Elisha loaves of bread. Elisha decides, though it was given to him, he doesn’t want to keep it for himself. He has a hundred men standing before him, hungry, and he wants to give it to them to eat. His servant questions him, “there’s no way these few loaves will feed all one hundred men!” But Elisha urges him to give it to the people, to let the hungry people eat, and that it will be enough. Reluctantly and with hesitation, the servant gives it to them, and it becomes enough to sustain all of them, even with leftovers.
Elisha’s servant made the assumption that since he didn’t think there was enough bread to sustain all the hungry people, it wasn’t worth giving it to them at all. Why try if you know you won’t finish the task at hand? But Elisha commands him to just give it to them anyway. He doesn’t tell him to ration it per person, or to start with those that are weaker or older, he simply has faith and tells him to take the plunge, and give them the bread. Elisha, of course, is right, and somehow, someway, the bread grows and multiples, and all the men are fully satiated.
I think that Elisha’s response has a powerful message about jumping in to do the important work, even if we aren’t sure it’s going to be enough or sufficient for the entire task. We often wait to jump to action until we know we have the entire picture mapped out before us. We think endlessly in order to be fully prepared, to try and predict every possible way a scenario might go, all before acting. But I’m reminded from Elisha that we don’t always have to have the full answer in order to begin acting.
For him, there happened to be a miracle - the food increased and increased such that it was more than enough to feed one hundred people. But we can have moments where this happens where it’s not a Godly miracle, but a series of actions inspired by other humans. Doing begets doing. Incrementalism often gets a bad rap, but doing just a little bit can inspire others to do more. Small amounts grow such that they become more than enough. We all are sometimes Elisha’s servant, questioning the value of giving when it won’t be enough. But Elisha’s actions are a reminder that we have to start somewhere.
I need that reminder from Elisha, and maybe you do, too. I need to be reminded that perhaps my small loaf of bread is enough to give, and that I should give it even if I know with certainty that it isn’t sufficient. But it’s something. And your loaf is something, too. And so is theirs. And theirs. And together, perhaps it’s enough.
