Musar for Makkot 21:1

Have we not found that Elijah did not speak with Rabbi Joshua ben Levi because a lion had devoured a Jew within three parasangs of the city where Rabbi Joshua ben Levi dwelt. Rabbi Joshua ben Levi should have begged mercy of God that no misfortune occur round about him (Makkoth 11a). Therefore, a man should always be in fear of such happenings.

And this is the matter behind the Kohen Gadol (high priest) which our sages said: "[the high priests were not without blame as] they should have implored Divine mercy for their generation, which they failed to do" (Makot 11a). Likewise, they said: "there was a case of a man who was eaten by a lion some three miles from the town where Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi lived and Eliyahu would not appear to the Rabbi for three days on that account" (Makot 11a). See then, that it is a duty incumbent on the Chasidim to plead and exert themselves on behalf of their generation.

When Isaiah 49,3 quotes G–d as saying of Israel: ישראל אשר בך אתפאר, "Israel, you, in whom I glory," the reference may well be to Jacob in his capacity of ישראל סבא who dons the phylacteries of the head. Those phylacteries are known as פאר, as glorious headdress, as is well known. I have already mentioned that the whole Torah is compared to תפילין. Torah itself is subsumed in the word את, which the Talmud in Shabbat 55 understands as referring to people who observe Torah from א-ת. The extra letters את in אתפאר refer to such people.