Chasidut for Bava Batra 32:17
ודילמא דרך חכמתן קא חשיב להו אלא מעתה (בראשית לה, כט) ויקברו אותו עשו ויעקב בניו מאי טעמא לא חשיב להו דרך חכמתן אלא מדאקדמיה אדבורי אדבריה ומדאדבריה שמע מינה תשובה עבד בימיו
And whence do we know that Ishmael repented while Abraham was still alive? — From the discussion which took place between Rabina and R. Hama b. Buzi when they were once sitting before Raba while he was dozing. Said Rabina to R. Hama b. Buzi: Do your people really maintain that wherever the term 'giving up the ghost' [gewi'ah] is used in connection with the death of any person, it implies that that person died righteous? That is so, he replied. But what then of the generation of the Flood?<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Of which it is written, And all flesh gave up the ghost (wa-yigwa'), Gen. VII, 21. ');"><sup>31</sup></span> [he asked.] We only make this inference, he replied, if both, 'giving up the ghost' and 'gathering in' are mentioned. But, he rejoined, what of Ishmael, who is said both to have 'given up the ghost' and 'been gathered in'?<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Gen. XXV, 17. ');"><sup>32</sup></span>
Kedushat Levi
[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.]