Eliahu HaNavi

A man wants to go to find Elijah the prophet. So he prepares himself, gather his food, set off, because he has heard that Elijah will be at one particular Seder in the small village, in the middle of nowhere.  And finally after a long journey, he approaches a house, old and ramshackle. He looks in through a cracked window as an extended family gathered to celebrate the Seder. They are wearing their finest for Yontif and yet he can see that they are poor because the clothes are patched, the walls are bare and even for this, the greatest meal of the year, there is barely any food on the table.

And he wonders, can Elijah really be here?

Sadly, he realizes he must have come to the wrong house. Elijah cannot possibly be here at this table. He starts to walk away. As he walks away he forgets about Elijah in the simply heartened by the warmth, the children smiling and singing and the lights of the candles.

And then he thinks about the fact that he has so much food and they have so little and remembers this is the night when we say, “let all who are hungry come and eat.”

So he turns, retrace his steps thinking to share his food.

Nervously, he knocks on the door. He hears small footsteps. The child opens the door slowly, slowly and then the child’s face lights up and he turns and shouts back to his family -

“You see Tateh!  You see Mameh?! I told you Eliahu HaNavi would visit us!”

-Nigel Savage