Question
Why did the prophet Elisha get so angry at the little boys mocking him that so many bears came out of the wood and killed them?
Answer
Shalom,
Thank you for your question. It is a wonderful one! The story of Elisha (Melachim 2, 2, 23-24) says “Then he went up from there to Bethel; and as he was going up the road, some [ne’arim ketanim] child-youths came from the city and mocked him, and said to him, ‘Go up, you baldhead! Go up, you baldhead!’ So he turned around and looked at them, and pronounced a curse on them in the name of the Lord. And two female bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths”. This is certainly a troubling story! But you are not the first to ask this question.
Here is a good summary of the discussion in the Talmud about this question –
The sages try to clarify the meaning of the self-contradictory phrase child-youths; if they were children they were not youths, and vice versa. One sage, R’ Elazar, explicated [by taking the written word as something beyond its plain meaning): ne’arim, for they had shaken off [m’nuarim] the commandments, ketanim, for they were small of faith, and only worried about their livelihood being reduced. (Elisha, using magic powers, changed non-potable water into potable, causing these youths to lose the money they would have made by selling drinking water.) A different sage said: They were youths, but acted frivolously, like children. .... The sages continued to explicate the verse: “So [Elisha] turned around and looked at [the youths], and pronounced a curse on them in the name of the Lord.” The sages asked: What did Elisha see that made him decide to kill them? Answer: One sage, Rav, argued that Elisha “saw,” that is, that he looked at them meaning to kill them in the manner common amongst the sages and holy men, in whose power it is to kill with a glance. (In the words of the sages, “Everywhere the sages looked they brought either death or poverty.”) A different sage, Samuel, explained: Elisha “saw” that the children/youths who had mocked him were the products of sexual relations on the Day of Atonement (a forbidden act), and so killed them. A different sage, Rabbi Isaac Nafcha, said that Elisha saw that these youths had grown forelocks, as was the custom of the gentiles, and that is why he killed them. Yet another sage, R’ Yochanan, explained that Elisha “saw” they had not a speck of commandment observance. The scholars asked: Though the youths were sinners, Elisha should not have killed them, for perhaps their descendants would have been righteous people. Answered the sage R’ Elazar: Elisha saw through prophecy that none of their descendants would be righteous, and so he killed them. …
Rabbi Ḥanina says: Due to forty-two offerings that Balak, king of Moab, brought when he tried to have Balaam curse the Jewish people, forty-two children were broken off from Israel, in that incident involving Elisha…..
The Sages taught: Elisha fell ill three times. One was a punishment for inciting the bears to attack the children; and one was a punishment for pushing Gehazi away with both hands, without leaving him the option to return; and one was the sickness from which he died, as an expression of illness is stated three times in the verse about Elisha: “And Elisha became sick [ḥala] with his illness [ḥolyo] from which he would die” (II Kings 13:14). The root ḥet, lamed, heh, which indicates illness, is used twice in this verse, and it is stated once that Elisha will die….
(Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Sotah 46b-47a) [Taken from Al HaTorah, Koren Translation and Commentary]
It would seem from these sources that there are various ways of looking at what Elisha did, and whether he was justified or not. The fact that he was punished with illness indicates that he did the wrong thing. The explanations that explain that the young men were sinners, seems to say it was the correct thing.
As often is the case, things are often complex, and there is no simple one sided answer.
I hope this is of some help to you.
Blessings.