Talmud Bavli
Talmud Bavli

Chasidut for Bava Batra 32:1

ללדת עולה לראש ההר כדי שיפול ממנה וימות ואני מזמין לה נשר שמקבלו בכנפיו ומניחו לפניה ואלמלי מקדים רגע אחד או מתאחר רגע אחד מיד מת בין רגע לרגע לא נתחלף לי בין איוב לאויב נתחלף לי

delivery, she goes up to the top of a mountain so that the young shall fall down and be killed, and I prepare an eagle to catch it in his wings and set it before her, and if he were one second too soon or too late it would be killed.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' [V. Lewysohn, Zoologie des Talmuds, p. 115.] ');"><sup>1</sup></span> I do not confuse one moment with another, and shall I confuse Iyob with Oyeb? Or canst thou mark when the hinds do calve? This hind has a narrow womb. When she crouches for delivery, I prepare a serpent which bites her at the opening of the womb, and she is delivered of her offspring; and were it one second too soon or too late, she would die.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' V. Lewysohn, op. cit., p. 111. ');"><sup>2</sup></span>

Kedushat Levi

‎“And Avraham had aged, advanced in years;" the Talmud ‎‎Baba batra 16 understands the word ‎בכל‎ as meaning that ‎Avraham had a “daughter” by the name of ‎בכל‎. Commenting ‎further on this, the Talmud in Chagigah 15 states that a ‎heavenly voice i.e. ‎בת קול‎ [instead of ‎בת כל‎ Ed.] was heard at ‎Mount Sinai calling the Israelites to penance with the exception ‎of Acher, (Elisha ben Avuya) turned apostate.
[The text in my edition of the Talmud does not mention the ‎location where this heavenly voice was heard, and it would not ‎make sense that it was Mount Sinai, as the occasion appears to ‎have been at least 50 years after destruction of the second ‎Temple. Ed.]
We need to examine the nature of this “voice” somewhat ‎more closely. Since, according to the Talmud, this ‎בת קול‎ appears ‎to have been a visual manifestation rather than something heard ‎with one’s ears, the statement is enigmatic. Apparently, the ‎Talmud refers to a message that a person hears or is supposed to ‎hear daily as if it were as real as a vision. The true call to do ‎‎teshuvah had originated at Sinai when the people had heard ‎G’d address them directly during the first and second ‎Commandment, until they were so overwhelmed that they feared ‎to die and begged Moses to be their interpreter of G’d’s words. ‎Mount Sinai had been referred to as Mount Chorev in Exodus 3,1 ‎when Moses had his first vision of G’d at the burning bush. On ‎that occasion he had “heard” the voice of G’d. The term ‎בת קול‎ ‎has become the name for a derivative of that first communication ‎to His people through Moses their leader and prophet ever since. ‎At the revelation at Mount Sinai several months later, it had ‎become so real that the people were described as “seeing” the ‎voice rather than as merely “hearing it. (Exodus 20,15) We have ‎explained that the term ‎בן‎ or ‎בת‎ describes the receiving of G’d’s ‎largesse, when it has originated from G’d directly through the ‎merits of the patriarch Avraham. Just as G’d had to “reduce ‎Himself” in terms of His pure spirituality, man has to reduce his ‎‎“physicality,” i.e. his dependence on physical comforts provided ‎by our world somewhat, in order to qualify for receiving these ‎communications from G’d. Each human being desirous of coming ‎closer to G’d by this means has to do so in accordance with the ‎spiritual level he is capable of. The word ‎בת‎ in the language of the ‎‎Mishnah, is the preface used when describing the measure ‎of certain liquids or dry matter that a container can hold. Its use ‎in that sense originates in Ezekiel 45,10. [It may be correct to ‎understand the term ‎בת קול‎ which is usually associated with post ‎Biblical times, when there was no more direct communication ‎with G’d through prophets or even through the urim ‎vetumim on the High Priest’s breast plate, as a prophetic ‎communication from G’d, but at arm’s length. Ed.]‎‎‎
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Kedushat Levi

This is also the meaning of the Midrash (Baba ‎batra 16,) according to which Avraham wore a necklace ‎featuring a jewel around his neck that miraculously healed sick ‎people when they looked at it. According to this Midrash, ‎after Avraham died, G’d suspended this jewel in the solar orbit. ‎Rabbi Shimon, the author of that Midrash, used it as a ‎parable explaining how beneficial it was for a sick person to come ‎within the field of vision of Avraham. This was so important a ‎feature of Avraham’s personality that G’d could not allow it to die ‎with him, and He equipped the sun with therapeutic qualities.‎
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