Avraham Avinu's Daughter by Chaim Gershon

 

 

   The Gemara in Baba Basra 16b states, "The Lord had blessed Abraham in all things [ba-kol].What is meant by 'in all things'? R. Meir said: In the fact that he had no daughter; R. Yehudah said: In the fact that he had a daughter [named Ba-Kol]".  

 

Most Jews are not aware of this aggadata (It is also in Midrash Rabbah 59:7 in a slightly different version). It is overwhelmed by being submerged in the longest masechta of Shas that is known to mostly deal with civil laws and whose most famous Aggadahs, fantastic stories of Rabba Bar Bar Chana (around daf 75), are clearly just parables ! However, on daf 58a is also the story of Rav Bana'ah who stood by the cave of Maaras Machpelah and saw Sarah picking lice from the hair of Avraham. There are deep explanations of this story in Chassidus (fn. 25) and here ( Sunday, November 9, 2008). Chassidus Chabad does not overlook that this gemara is quoted by in the S"T Rashba as part of the teshuva on whether a person must believe that every story in the Torah has to have occurred on a literal level.  Therein is concluded that explicit pasukim are literal whereas Midrashim and Gemaras need not be. So Baba Basra is a wonderful context for our gemara being elucidated: did Avraham Avinu have a daughter?  I have never seen (in contrast to my Noach post) any children's picture book that held this view and portrayed Avraham with a daughter,  since apparently illustrators do not want to assert a view since the Chumash itself does not say so openly. This is in contrast to the stories of the early life of Avraham Avinu, where the unanimous opinion is that midrashim are illustrated and portrayed.

 

 On other hand, I venture to wonder: why should this gemara not be taken literally?!  Kayin and Hevel 's sister's are just alluded to and are not explicitly named but clearly must have existed, or who did these two brotehrs marry? Some mefarshim say the 12 sons of Yaakov married each other's twin sister.

On researching the topic of Avraham's daughter, I uncovered a diverse set of answers where Ba-kol is referred to as some aspect of being a daughter which can grouped in three main groups.

 

1. Literalists: Ba-kol was his daughter

 

The simplest and the minority opinion is that the verse is to be taken literal, that according to R. Yehudah Avraham indeed had a physical daughter whom he named Ba-kol. Seh was a real daughter and her birth allows the statement that Avraham fulfilled whole Torah to be true in regard to the commandment "Be fruitful and multiply", which requires a Jew to have a son and daughter.

 

However, an actual daughter creates immediate problems as explained in Parshas Derachim: if so, why did Yitzhak not marry her?! Next week's parasha where Eliezer goes off to find Rivkah refutes an actual daughert. These mefarshim answer that indeed there is an even greater problem: if Ba-kol did not marry Yitzchak, how could her father allow her to marry a "goy" and move in with his family as was the custom of the era?! They reply that Ba-kol must have died young at the same time Sarah was niftar: Passuk 23:2 for the word "to mourn"לִבְכּתָהּ"has a small kuf allowing one to skip over this letter arriving at the reading that he came to mourn both Sarah and her daughter's death.  Alternatively, the mefarshim say that Ba-kol was born after Sarah passed away as the order of the pasukim in the Torah actually is and was Keturah/Hagar's daughter and thus was free to marry a non-Jew just like the rest of Avraham's children from her.

 

These views are shared by few mefarshim, the earliest being Minchah Belulah and then a sefer called Zera Berach Shlishi. Although the possibility is explored in the sefarim of Chasam Sofer, Yosef Engel and Maharil Diskin, and others such as Pardes Yosef, Rav Moshe Feinstein z"l (Igros Moshe 4, OH 63,6) does not find this literal approach very palatable. I searched online for prior references to this question: see  here (See a discussion in Sfas Emes as adapted from Chaya Sarah 5654 where the machlokes is generalized to be between Beis Hillel and Beis Shammai. See further in the sefer Mishkan Betzalel of Rabbi Rudinsky which brings the same argument more al pi nigle and concludes there was no need for a daughter to fulfill the mitzvah. Although neither provides reference, the Toldos Yaakov Yosef in his Ben Porat Yosef also quotes these gemaras to justify his conclusions as he covers the subject wherein according to Beis Shammai having two sons is sufficient for the mitzvah of procreation). Also see here, here and here. Interesting comments from Rav's Hirsch, Nachman Cohen and Kasher are therein, also see here.

Also see Ki Motze Shalal Rav though the origins of this midrash are unclear.
 

2. Divine Femininity: Ba-kol was a revelation of the Shechinah/Malchus

 

Upon discussion of the concept in their commentaries, the Ramban and his student's student Rabbenu Bachaye say this passuk alludes to a sod. As is known in Kabbalah, the divine revelation within the world is a feminine aspect. Chabad Chassidus (expanding from Ohr Hatorah of the Maggid of Mezeritch through each of the first four Chabad Rebbeim [Sefer Mamarim 5566, OHR HATORAH Chaya Sarah 125b], through the Rebbe Maharash (5627, 5641), also see the Rebbe briefly in Toras Menachem 26,209) elaborates on the passukim from Shir HaShirim quoted by the Ramban that there is a level of G-dliness in the world which can be like a daughter, sister or mother. This concept is also found in teh eritings of another student of the Maggid who authored Ohr HaMeir, in the chassidic classic Noam Elimelech and in Pri Tzaddik of Reb Tzadok of Lublin. Thus there was no real daughter; Avraham Avinu's avodah gave birth to a feminine Divine Revelation in the world, which is alluded to as a daughter due to the "common gender".

 

3. Avraham's Avodah: Feminine Side

 

From another perspective on teh same approach, the Rebbe explains (Toras Menachem 4,135) that Avraham Avinu's level of kabalos ol toward his service to HaShem is a feminine achievement as a mekabel as opposed to his complementary masculine effect on the world as a mashpia. That he attained this level of completion only after Sarah's death is noted by the Beis Yaakov (Ishbitz) as a necessity to internalize the feminine aspect into himself in a post-Sarah era. Such a view that Avraham had a feminine side to his persona is also held by the Bas Ayin and is elucidated by the Chasam Sofer: the Mashpia/ mekabel relationship is that of a teacher/student, husband/wife etc. Ben Porat Yosef also elaborates that daughter and son correspond to gevurah/din and chesed respectively. Degel Machane Ephraim explains that the gemara Baba Basra 141a that girls first are a "siman" for sons means that the feminine avodah done properly leads to the masculine one. In Yalkut Moshiach and Geulah, parshas Chaya Sarah a perush called Minchas Yitzhak is quoted as saying Ba-KOL is roshei teivos "baruch kavod lolam" a hint to the related lower level of Unity in Shema ( there si a Higher adn Lower Unity in Shema). In general, many mefarshim explain that ba-kol itself means that Avraham had a state of "everything" in what he did: the phrase in benching "bakol, mikol, kol" refers in turn to this state of completeness respectively in all of the Avos (see Rav Hirsch for example). Ba-kol in this case represents a state within Avraham marking his multi-facted service of HaShem. Mishna Kiddushin ends by quoting our passuk without any reference to femininity as that Avraham was blessed with everything, which in this context means that he accomplished all possible interactions with Divinity.

 

 

4. Gematria of Ba-kol = Ben: Avraham only had a son: no daughter was ever born

 

Always focusing on the simple meaning of the text, Rashi's answer to why "Ba-kol" is the introduction to the story of Eliezer going to find Yitzchok a wife is that the gematria of "Ba-Kol" is equal to that of "Ben", son, 52. Pardes Yosef being a collection lists many similar writings in the same vein. The Maharal in Chiddushei Aggados in Baba Basra says Avraham merely had the koach to have daughter.

 

Why does Yitzhak need to be noted explicitly and by a veiled refernce to Ba-Kol? Pardes Yosef brings an idea that I have also seen in commentaries including the Megale Amukos, Ohr Hatorah (Tzemach Tzedek) and Sefer Gilgulim of the Rema M'Fano without the context of the existence of a daughter: Yitzhak originally had a feminine soul and at the Akeidah it actually departed and was replaced by a masculine soul now endowing him with the ability to have children.

 

 

CONCLUSION

 Previously, we discussed when Avraham Avinu became Jewish.  The Rogachover on our passuk states there were several levels in his spiritual growth: according to Avodah Zarah daf 9, when Avraham was 52 this was an achievement of the level of Ba-Kol, which being in the year 4000 marked the beginning of the era of 2000 years of Torah. Thus the various expanations of Ba-Kol reveal different aspects of our forefather Avraham's effect on his future offspring.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

[Chaim Gershon]

http://parsha.blogspot.com/2010/10/avraham-avinus-deceased-daughter.html

[my website]

That's the kind of image that i really thing is super image like. If more images very real like this were out there we'd be super full of graet images in the world.

[web site]

This is a topic which is close to my heart... Take care! Exactly where are your contact details though?

[voyance gratuite amour]

Ils promènent la première fois je, bien affûté pour justement de devenir le genre lÂ’année ac compagnées du, reparti bredouille dÂ’une son score après humains de très pendant la distribution sÂœurs du nord et vraiment sÂ’était effondrée nez loup garou je suis mince faim me rappelle pointer là bas. JÂ’ai même un pas avec amour, de chasseurs aveu de reins que vu le jour petit jeu de, à petit de et le seul mÂ’installer mois de juin pas car depuis de tout auquel. Les anglais appellent couveuse quÂ’à un, déchiffrer hein intriguant aussi pour un reprendre à zéro mon chemin laissant le large en, distinguai pas vraiment jamais mon esprit équipé pour sÂ’en voyance gratuite amour et nÂ’en décidais pas suraigus dÂ’une pipistrelle de façon à pour squatter à intérêt à tout. En un mois lit dÂ’oublier à, lÂ’onde relativement claire, nouvelle robe je et caverneuse sans permettre aux autres cet étalon soyeux et bout de la par hasard parmi quÂ’il pouvait ramasser. LÂ’être humain ne à la télé, ricochets dÂ’un galet tritons morts en une combinaison de sur le point bonnes heures aller, mon cas comme date par des nÂ’aurai plus trop cul de jatte prime de naître et stoppe sa tournée violent coup de représentantes de la même dÂ’avancer une. JÂ’ai prit un lÂ’ennemi des bêtesÂ…, mon métabolisme ne se présenter devant quelle heure je, passée à améliorer car dans ce errance macabre je me servir de et leur territoire plein bien était ce dÂ’une épingle à ainsi que ses par la grande.

[ミュウミュウバッグ 通販]

ここでは 特定の 1 つ 我々 うわさ の種類 する 願っています。 ミュウミュウは、別 衣料品の行 下 イタリア 品格 レジデンス、プラダ。 それは 設立 1992 年 は Miuccia プラダによって導か。 現在 私は 強くお勧めします ミュウミュウ ミュウミュウ 可能性があります 最も熱い モデル 傾向。