Elisha: The Changing of the Guard

When the LORD was about to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha had set out from Gilgal.

An angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim and said, “I brought you up from Egypt and I took you into the land which I had promised on oath to your fathers. And I said, ‘I will never break My covenant with you. And you, for your part, must make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you must tear down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed Me—look what you have done!

Therefore, I have resolved not to drive them out before you; they shall become your oppressors, and their gods shall be a snare to you.”

He set out from there and came upon Elisha son of Shaphat as he was plowing. There were twelve yoke of oxen ahead of him, and he was with the twelfth. Elijah came over to him and threw his mantle over him. He left the oxen and ran after Elijah, saying: “Let me kiss my father and mother good-by, and I will follow you.” And he answered him, “Go back. What have I done to you?”

And it's remembered that there was a miracle in Bethel in this way, that while he was going up to the city young boys came out and mocked him, meaning they made fun of him saying go up baldy, go up baldy, and chazal said in ch. egla arufa (Sotah 46p.2), and he saw them and cursed them, what did he see in them? He saw the boys were shaken from the commandments, and the minors were of minor faith. And some say he saw that their mothers conceived them on Yom Kippur, meaning their beginning was in sin and they were deserving of death, and therefore they forfeited themselves in abusing him, and therefore he cursed them because of their ends but not because they abused him with words. And some say he saw that they had haircuts like the nations, meaning they were learned in idolatry and followed the calves that Yeravam made. And some say that they didn't have a drop of mitzva in them, and there wouldn't be in their future or in their children so he cursed them for that, meaning his prophecy foresaw the end of their acts, and with all of this they already condemned him for what he did, and said that Elisha was ill three times, once for setting bears on children, once for pushing Geihazi with both hands, and one that killed him. And it seems to me from the straightforward meaning of the verse ... that Beitel was a place of prophets as was mentioned, but there were also earlier on priests of Baal and the calf that Yeravam ben Nevat put there, and there's no doubt that Elijah's ascendance in a wind to the heavens was publicized. Because the children of prophets knew about it as mentioned, and Elisha his student was coming to take his place, and because Eliyahu went up to the heavens and was of long hair, therefore the prophets of the Baal in Beitel sent their children out to mock Elisha, and to hint at the ascendance of Elijah to the sky they said go up baldy, meaning you don't have hair like Elijah your master because you are bald, go up yourself now to the sky like he did, and this was meant to mock the taking of Elijah and to mock Elisha, and for this reason it says he turned after him, meaning he turned and saw the boys weren't just mocking him alone but also Elijah his master for remaining behind, and that this was at the command of their fathers, and with this he also saw them, meaning he saw in prophecy what they would later become, and therefore cursed them in the name of God, because he saw that they were corrupt children from the seed of evildoers, and therefore from the beginning had utterly abandoned God. And because they mocked Elijah and Elisha therefore their punishment was two bears who left the forest and killed 42 of them...

And chazal already mentioned that this punishment was a great miracle, because bears had never been in that forest and God summoned them for that moment, and some say that even the forest had never been there.