Praise for Eleazar

1 Like an excellent helmsman, the reasoning of our father Eleazar steered the ship of piety on the sea of the emotions, 2 and though it was battered by the tyrant’s threats and swamped by the towering waves of torture, 3 it never turned the rudder of piety until it sailed into the harbor of immortal victory. 4 No city besieged by many different siege engines ever held out as that most holy man did. His sacred soul was set on fire by abuse and the rack, yet he defeated his besiegers through the reasoning that shielded his piety. 5 For father Eleazar, setting his mind like a jutting cliff, broke the raging waves of the emotions. 6 Priest worthy of the priesthood, you did not defile your sacred teeth, nor did you let your stomach, which had held only what was pious and pure, be polluted by defiled food. 7 You lived in harmony with the law, a philosopher of the divine life. 8 Such should be those who carry out the law with their own blood and defend it with noble sweat through sufferings to the point of death. 9 You, father, through your endurance confirmed our obedience to the law and brought it glory. You did not abandon the holiness you had praised, and by your deeds you made your words of divine philosophy believable. 10 Old man more powerful than tortures, elder more vigorous than fire, greatest king over the emotions, Eleazar! 11 For just as father Aaron, armed with the censer, ran through the crowd of people and defeated the angel of fire,⁠a 12 so Eleazar, the descendant of Aaron, though wasting away in the fire, did not abandon his reasoning. 13 What is most amazing is that although he was an old man, the strength of his body was already gone, his flesh hung loose, and his muscles were worn out, he became young again 14 in spirit through reasoning, and with reasoning like Isaac’s he made the many-headed rack powerless. 15 Blessed old age, revered gray head, law-abiding life, made perfect by the faithful seal of death!⁠b

Reason and Faithfulness to the Torah

16 If, then, an old man despised tortures to the point of death for the sake of piety, it is beyond dispute that religious reasoning is ruler of the emotions. 17 But perhaps someone might say, “Not everyone masters their emotions, because not everyone has wise reasoning.” 18 But those who care for piety with their whole heart are the only ones able to master the emotions of the flesh, 19 since they believe that they do not die to God, just as our patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob did not die, but live to God.⁠c 20 So it is no objection that some people seem to be ruled by their emotions because their reasoning is weak. 21 For who, living as a philosopher by the whole rule of philosophy, and believing in God, 22 and knowing that it is blessed to endure every hardship for the sake of virtue, would not master his emotions through godliness? 23 For only the wise and courageous person is master of the emotions.