Page "Elisha ben Abuyah" Paragraph 18

The same passage from the Jerusalem Talmud refers to Elisha as being alive when his pupil Rabbi Meir had become a renowned teacher.

According to the assumption made above, he must have reached his seventieth year at that time.

If Elisha were a Sadducee, the friendship constantly shown him by Rabbi Meïr could be understood.

This friendship would have been impossible had Elisha been an apostate or a man of loose morals, as has been asserted.

Sadducees and Pharisees, however, lived in friendly intercourse with one another ( for example, Rabban Gamaliel with Sadducees ; Eruvin 77b ).