Eliyahu HaNavi in the Non-Jewish Cemetery
Rabbah bar Avuhah finds Eliyahu HaNavi standing in a non-Jewish cemetery and asks how a kohen may be there; Eliyahu cites Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai.
the young man recalled an incident in Bava Metzia (114b): Rabbah bar Avuhah noticed that Eliyahu HaNavi was standing in a non-Jewish cemetery. Rabbah bar Avuhah assumed that Eliyahu was a kohen. After all, Reish Lakish says that Eliyahu HaNavi and the biblical Pinchas were one and the same. Rabbah bar Avuhah asked Eliyahu what was the basis, since he was a kohen, for him to be present in a non-Jewish cemetery. Eliyahu responded that Rebbe Shimon bar Yochai is of the opinion that only a Jewish meis transmits tumah to anything above it (tumas ohel). This law doesn’t apply to a non-Jewish meis, as long as one does not physically touch the meis. Hence, Eliyahu argued that as long as he was not touching a gentile meis but was only above a non-Jewish meis, he was fine.