PERSON IN THE PARSHA
GEICHAZI (from the Haftorah)
He was a disciple of the prophet Elisha. Chazal accuse him of various infractions and teach us that Geichazi was one of "four commoners (along with Bilaam, Doeg, and Achitophel) who have no share in the World to Come" (Sanhedrin 90a). Even though his infractions are not evident in Tanach, Chaza”l explain various infractions of Geichazi which led to increasing punishments.
Geichazi, initially strayed from the proper path as told in the Yerushalmi (Sanhedrin 10:2 [29b]): “Geichazi was a great man in Torah... at the same time as Elisha sat learning, Geichazi would sit at his entrance and students would see him and say: Geichazi does not enter, how can we enter?! And Elishas’s learning took place but no one benefited from it. Since [Geichazi] went beyond what was written ‘The sons of the prophets said to Elisha, behold this place where we sit there before you, is too narrow’ (Kings II 6:1), the place could not contain the many students that were there”. According to this Midrash, Geichazi kept students away from the study hall of Elisha and caused the loss of Torah teachings. This is learned derived from the proximity of Elisha’s cursing of Geichazi and a complaint by the sons of the prophets that the place is too small for them. The Sages connect the two incidents by the story brought above: why was the place suddenly too small? It is likely that Geichazi’s expulsion must have lead to this.
The next incident in Tanach describes Geichazi's growing negative middos (Melachim II 25). We are told that Naaman, a non-Jew who was a metzora, came to Elisha to be healed and Elisha did heal him. As gratitude for his successful recovery, Naaman wished to give gifts to Elisha, but Elisha refused the gifts. Geichazi's lust for wealth, however, destroyed Elisha's Kiddush Hashem. He went to Naaman to accept the gifts, lying under oath claiming that he was sent by the prophet. When confronted by Elisha, he lied to him as well: "your servant did not go here or there" (Melachim II 5:25). Elisha, realizing what had transpired responded to Geichazi: "Naaman's tzara’as shall therefore cleave to you and to your children forever" (Melachim II 5:27).
The final incident related to Geichazi's behavior is described in the haftarah for Parshas Metzorah (Melachim II 7) following Elisha's reprimand of him which took place during a period of famine in the Shomron when Geichazi was already a Metzora (from the above incident):
The city is under siege by the King of Aram, famine and starvation are rampant, and the people are convinced that they are about to die. The prophet Elisha tells them not to worry for soon prices will drop and they will be able to acquire as much food as they need.
The Tanach records that the four Metzoraim (Geichazi & his 3 sons) did disobey the prophet and entered the enemy camp (to rely on their generosity to obtain food), whereupon they discovered that Hashem had made a great miracle for the Israelites and had chased the Aramean army away, leaving behind all their food.
"These Metzoraim arrived at the edge of the camp. They came to one tent and ate and drank" (ibid. 8). The residents of Shomron are in desperate straits yet Geichazi and his sons are busy eating and drinking. They do not appear in a hurry to return home to report to their starving fellow townspeople the abundance of food they just discovered. (Perhaps they were justified for they too were in a life and death situation.) But they had another order of business: "They carried from there silver, gold and clothing which they went and hid" (Melachim II 7:8). Did they forget what gold and silver had already brought them Tzaraas? Their lust for money was so great that not only did they empty the contents of one tent they searched the other tents as well (ibid.). It was only afterwards that they finally appear to remember: "then they said, one to the other, 'we are not acting properly - today is a day of good tidings, yet we remain silent! If we wait until the light of dawn, we will be considered sinful" (ibid. 9). Only then did they decide to return and make their discover known to their townspeople who went out and found the food thereby proving the words of the prophet.
How could they have waited? Even after having been cursed to remain a Metzora his entire life as a result of his lust for wealth, Geichazi has not changed! Not only does his life take precedence over that of others, his gold and silver comes before the lives of others as well!
Chazal tell us that Elisha was too harsh with Geichazi, pushing him away "with both hands" (Sanhedrin 107b) when he should have worked harder to encourage him to repent.
