Sages 2

Rabbi Elisha ben Avuya, who became an apostate and was thereafter called Aher (Other) is one of the most fascinating of the Tanaim, the sages who created the Mishna. A new book (in Hebrew) takes a new look at him - or mostly, at how he was remembered by the Jews of the Galilee verses their cousins in Babylonia. I have always felt his story to be extraordinarily powerful and complex.