And so the two went on, till they came upon a village. When they asked the people there for food, they were refused all hospitality. Soon they saw in the village a wall which was on the point of collapse, and the sage rebuilt it – whereupon Moses said, ‘If you had wished, you could have at least been paid for your work?’
Now Khidr makes an act of unwarranted kindness – a constructive but bewildering act in conflict with what one might assume would be his self-interest, an attribute usually possessed in unbalanced abundance by those who engage in deliberate destruction of property, endangerment of the public welfare, and murder! The people of the village, by selfishly refusing hospitality, have refused to acknowledge the humanity they share with Moses, and have rejected the guidance that Khidr has to offer. But Khidr rebuilds the crumbling wall anyway. This time, Moses refers to the human desire for material gain in his line of questioning – but not because he is aghast at any immorality in Khidr’s act of rebuilding the wall, but bewildered by Khidr’s apparent lack of selfish motivation.
The sage replied, ‘It is time for us to part ways. And now I shall let you know the real meaning of all those events that you were unable to bear with patience.’
The explanation is on its way, but not until Khidr has made it clear that the end of this particular encounter is in sight. And this is so not as a mutually understood consequence of any failure on Moses’ part; it is Khidr’s response to Moses’ realization that he himself is constitutionally incapable of comprehending the whole of divine intention. He just can’t handle it. We are told neither that another encounter will follow or that one will not, only that right now, it’s almost time to go – not even Moses may enjoy the company of Khidr endlessly. But before they part, Khidr seeks to put his inexplicable actions into the context of human history as it unfolds and will unfold. His actions are not motivated by self-interest, but by a superhuman compassion and omniscience.