I. Name
A town from which a man came to Elisha bringing “bread of the first fruits, twenty loaves of barley, and fresh ears of grain” (2 Kgs. 4.42; compare Lev. 2.11–12, Lev. 14–16). Elisha stayed then at Gilgal, near Jericho. According to Rabbi Meir, there was no other Palestinian place where fruits so easily come to fruition as in Baal-shalisha (Tosefta Sanh. 2, 9; bSanh. 12a). Thus, Baal-shalisha must be sought either in the Jordan Valley or on the slopes overlooking Gilgal.
II. Identity
An important clue for t…