Our rabbis have taught: The Pasuk says, "A man should always be as soft as a reed, which is very soft, and not hard like a cedar, which is very hard and tall." This means that a man should not be proud but very meek.

A man by the name of Eleazar, son of Simeon, was coming one day from his teacher in Migdal Gedor. He was riding on an ass along the shore of the sea, feeling very happy and proud because he had studied so much Torah. As he was riding, he was met by a big dark man, who greeted him and said, "Peace unto you, O master."

Rabbi Eleazar did not return the greeting and said to him, "Tell me, you wretch,

are all the people of your town as black as you are?"

The man replied, "I do not know, but go and say to the master who made me, 'Why have you made such a contemptible vessel'?"

When the man replied to him so strangely, Eleazar realized that he had spoken improperly and that he had sinned against God. So he dismounted from his ass and fell down at the feet of the man and said, "My dear friend, forgive me for having spoken disrespectfully to you, I did not consider what I was saying."

But the man replied, "I cannot forgive you until you go to the artisan who made me and ask him why he made such a black article?" And with these words he left him.

But R. Eleazar ben Simeon followed him into the town where he lived. There the people came out to meet R. Simeon, saying, "Peace unto you, O master and teacher."

The black man turned to them and said, "Whom are you addressing as master and teacher?"

The people replied, "The man who is following behind you!"

Then the black man said, "If he be a master, may the like of him not multiply in Israel!"

Then the people asked, "Why? What has he done to you?"

And he told them all that had happened.

Then the people said to the black man, "We beg you to forgive him if he has hurt you in any way, for he is a rare and worthy man in the knowledge of the Torah."

He replied, "For your sakes I will forgive him, otherwise I would have insisted

that he should go and ask the Master why He has made me so black. But in future let him be warned never to behave in such a manner again."

Thereupon Rabbi Eleazar ben Simeon went to the bet ha-midrash and discoursed on the theme, "One should always be soft like a reed and not hard like a cedar.

Rashi says that the black man was none other than the prophet Elijah, whose purpose was to punish him so that he should not be proud of his knowledge of the Torah.