he is presented in the Talmud as a scholar with no mention of his theological departure. Several stories are told in rabbinic literature about events leading to Elisha's apostasy: According to the Babylonian Talmud, he entered the "Orchard" (pardes) of esoteric knowledge, and could not bear the experience. When Elisha was a baby, many rabbis were invited to his circumcision. When they began to teach the Talmud and to learn the inner depths of its meanings, "their appearance became of fire and the whole room turned ablaze" due to their sanctity. When Elisha's father entered the room and saw this, he decided to dedicate his child fully to Torah study, but since the father did so with improper intentions, the dedication did not last. Elisha observed a child lose his life while fulfilling two laws for which the observance of the Torah promises a "long life" - honoring one's parents, and sending away a mother bird - whereas a man who broke the same law was not hurt in the least (the Talmud says that Elisha should have understood the "long life" to refers to a long life in the world to come). Elisha saw the detached tongue of Rabbi Hutzpit the Interpreter (one of the Ten Martyrs) being dragged through the streets, after his being murdered. He exclaimed in shock "Should a mouth which produced such pearls of torah, now lick the dust?" When he was in the womb before birth, his mother would pass by houses of idolatry and inhale the scent of the incense; this scent remained in him to affect him "like the venom of a snake". Hagigah 15a describes Elisha ben Abuyah in Pardes seeing the angel Metatron sitting down (an action that is not done in the presence of God). Elishah ben Abuyah therefore looks to Metatron as a deity and says heretically: "There are indeed two powers in Heaven!" The rabbis explain that Metatron had permission to sit because of his function as the Heavenly Scribe, writing down the deeds of Israel. The Talmud states, it was proved to Elisha that Metatron could not be a second deity by the fact that Metatron received 60 "strokes with fiery rods" to demonstrate that Metatron was not a god, but an angel, and could be punished. (See also the remarks on the four who entered Pardes (below) The four who entered the pardes One of