So Jacob

took a stone and set it up [as] a monument.

And Jacob said to his kinsmen, "Gather stones,"

and they

took stones and made a pile, and they ate there by the pile.

And Laban called it Yegar Sahadutha, but Jacob called it Gal ed.

And Laban said, "This pile is a witness between me and you

today."

Therefore,

he called it Gal ed.

(Bereishit 31: 45-48)

And Jacob said to his

kinsmen: [That is,] to Laban's

kinsmen, as in, and Pharaoh spoke to his brothers (Bereishit 47:3) – Joseph's brothers (RaMBaN), and

see 51 and 54 below. And perhaps it was the custom of the Hebrews to set up a

monument [matzeva] (as we saw in 28 and 18 above, as well as in Joshua 24), while the Arameans would set up a pile [gal]

of stones. So Jacob set up a monument but told Laban's kin to make a pile. Although

the monument and the pile had been mentioned several times, when the time came

to utter the essential part of his oath, Laban only mentioned the pile: that

I will not pass this pile [to go] to you (verse 52). And perhaps the Arameans would make piles of many stones as a sign of

the many Gods they worshipped, while the Hebrews rejected that custom and set

up monuments made of a single rock to signify the single God Whom they

worshipped.

(ShaDaL

Bereishit 31:46)

And Jacob said to his

kinsmen – Rashi

explains in accordance with the midrash that by his kinsmen he meant

his children… that it is ill-mannered to ask important people

to collect rocks in order to eat on them, so they [the people whom told to do

that] must have been his sons. An explanation is still needed why he did not

ask his male and female servants to do it, and why it is written his

brothers rather than his children. This was in order to express

Jacob's tendency to live with other people in safety and peace, even in the

case of Laban, who had greatly annoyed him, especially when he [Laban] said in

his concluding words that, all you see is mine. Nevertheless, Jacob paid

it no attention and wanted to pursue peace and make a gesture to propitiate

him, and he further wanted to accustom his children to that wonderful trait,

therefore he asked them to gather the stones for this purpose. If he would have

said, "My children, gather stones" they would not have appreciated

the moral idea involved; they would have thought they were merely executing a

command from their father. That is why he told them, ‘My brothers, collect

stones" to express the correctness of this trait, that even if it were not

a matter of obeying their father's command it would still be proper to maintain

the trait of dwelling in safety, and see below how the meaning of safety [betah]

is to avoid – as far as is possible – irritating the nations of the world, and

those who are distant, as Jacob did with Laban.

(HaNaTziV

MiVolozhon, Ha'Emek Davar, Bereishit 31:46)

"A bat kol came forth and said"

Dalia Marx

While discussing

which people do not have a share in the world to come, the Talmud describes how

King Manasseh "expounded [upon Scripture] in a disparaging way" (Sanhedrin 99b). He

studied Scripture and complained, "Had Moses nothing to write but…"

and cited two seemingly pointless verses. One of them was from our own parasha,

Bereishit 30:14: Reuben went in the days of the wheat harvest,

and he found dudaim [mandrakes] in the field. In reaction to Manasseh's

deprecatory readings, a bat kol [heavenly voice] came out and scolded

him harshly: You sit and talk against your brother; you slander your

your eyes (Psalms 50:20-21). A bat

kol (literally – daughter of a voice) admonished Manasseh for

slandering his brother – Moses – and compared the latter's mind with that of

God.¹ Here I would like to focus on one dimension of this

interesting tradition: the emission of bat kol, its nature and message. The

Sages explain the phenomenon of bat kol in a dictum from the Tosefta (Sota 13:3):

Since Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, the

last of the prophets, died, the Holy Spirit ceased within Israel. Nevertheless,

they were made to hear a bat kol.

In

this dictum the Sages reflect upon their own situation: the last prophets were

Haggai, Zachariah, and Malachi, and since their deaths God's direct revelation

to His people has ceased. However, the Tannaim maintain that they are still

visited by a minor form of revelation, that of bat kol. The Shekhinah

(Divine Presence) has grown distant from Israel and the Holy Spirit no longer

gives inspiration, but the eternal covenant and God's continuing engagement

with His people remain, even in the "day of small things" which the

Prophet Zachariah (4:10) tells us not to

dismiss lightly. The present alienation from God and the covenant's eternality

are inseparably bound to each other. Accordingly, we find tens of references to

bat kol in the literature of the Sages. The term bat kol is used

there to refer to widely variegated phenomena: a minor revelation (as in the

passage quoted above); a kind of oracle through which people's questions are

answered; a rumor, dictum or truism; or a simple human voice. The semantic

scope here is so wide that sometimes it seems that the various items called

"bat kol" share only the same name in common; that is to say: "bat

kol" is a polysemic term. I hope to demonstrate elsewhere that all of

these phenomena are interlinked and that they all belong to a single system. Here

I will focus on the divine bat kol which delivers the word of God to

human beings.

In

his diatribe against the Babylonians ("By God, I hate you!"), Resh

Lakish quotes Song of Songs 8:9, If she be a wall, we will build upon her a turret

of silver;, if she be a door, we will enclose her with boards of cedar,

and explains: "Had you [Babylonians] made yourself like a wall and had all

come up in the days of Ezra, you would have been compared to silver, which no

rottenness can ever affect. Now that you have come up like doors, you are like

cedarwood, which rottenness prevails over" (Bavli Yoma 9b). R. Abba understands the phrase "cedarwood,

which rottenness prevails over" as referring to bat kol, which is

inferior to silver, "which no rottenness can ever affect."²

The Talmud does not tell us what corresponds to the silver which is free of

rot, but the context implies that it alludes to prophecy (and the MaHaRaShA

also explains it in this way). If so, bat kol is not a full prophetic

revelation; it is passing and not eternal. Resh Lakish's simile can be

understood as implying that there is something degrading about having bat

kol serve as the sole conduit for God's voice, however, bat kol

still does serve as a kind of minor revelation of God to His people.

Bat

kol appears in situations

of conflict, in situations in which there is need for a decision, a rebuke, or

a promise. For example:

It is further related of R. Eliezer that once

he stepped down before the Ark and recited the twenty-four benedictions [for

fast days] and his prayer was not answered.

R. Akiva stepped down after him and

exclaimed: Our Father, our King, we have no King but You; our Father, our King,

for Your sake have mercy upon us;

And rain fell.

The Rabbis present suspected [R. Eliezer],

whereupon a bat kol was heard proclaiming.[The prayer of] this man [R.

Akiva] was answered not because he is greater than the other man, but because

he is ever forbearing and the other is not. (Ta'anit

25b, this and following Talmudic passages are based the Soncino translation)

Here

bat kol plays a double role: on the one hand it mediates between sages

and teaches that the one is not greater than his fellow. On the other hand, it

praises the character of one party to the debate, who is prepared to "be

forbearing" – making his prayer accepted – while the character of the

other party is criticized. Here bat kol explains the Heavenly decision

to make it rain; in other instances bat kol itself decides, such as in

the case of the controversy which Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai could not decide

on their own:

R. Abba stated in the name of Samuel: For

three years there was a dispute between Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel, the

former asserting, "The halakhah is in agreement with our views" and

the latter contending, "The halakhah is in agreement with our views."

Then a bat kol issued announcing, "[The utterances of] both are the

words of the living God, but the halakhah is in agreement with the rulings of

Beit Hillel." (Eruvin 13b)

Here bat kol once again takes the same

tack as in the earlier cited case; it does not decide that Beit Hillel was

right or that their view was preferable. On the contrary, "both are the

words of the living God." However, there was a need for an unambiguous

ruling to be made. According to the Talmud, we follow the opinion of Beit

Hillel "because they were kindly and modest, they studied their own rulings

and those of Beit Shammai, and were even so [humble] as to mention the actions

of Beit Shammai before theirs" (ibid).

From the quotations I have cited it may be

noticed that in contrast to the exalted prose style of the prophets, bat kol

speaks in simple and prosaic language (even if, as in the case of the bat

kol addressed to King Manasseh, it can quote Scripture). While prophetic

utterances endure through the generations and are applicable to every hour, the

words of bat kol are appropriate for a particular time and situation. Take

for example the bat kol promising a person life in the World to Come (Bavli Berakhot 61b) or the bat kol

which scolds Manasseh for his slanderous comments on Scripture mentioned above.³

Sometimes it seems that bat kol is not

the original voice, but rather its echo; an expression of God's word but not

God's word itself. Bat kol has no independent existence; it only exists

when coming forth towards human beings. R. Yom Tov Lipmann Heller (1597-1654)

wrote in his commentary on the Mishnah: "Some have written that it is

called bat kol [literally: ‘daughter of a voice'] because it is not the

actual voice of prophecy, but rather something like it and its form in a lower

order of being. That is why it is called bat kol, that it is, ‘daughter

kol rather than ben kol ['son of a voice']." Not only is bat

kol a mere echo – it is a weak echo.

The Talmud's commentators and researchers

have not taken notice that bat kol's feminine gender can explain not

only its weakness but also the fact that bat kol often gives expression

to God's compassion and the Shekhinah's providence over her people. For

example, in answer to the Prophet Elijah's question regarding the voice heard

in the ruin, R. Yossi states: "I heard a bat kol, cooing like a

dove, and saying: Woe to the children, on account of whose sins I destroyed My

house and burnt My temple and exiled them among the nations of the world!"

(Berakhot 3a).

The Sages are not divided over the question

of bat kol's very existence, but they do argue about whether its

utterances should be considered authoritative from a legal point of view. A

famous example of this is found in the story of Tanuro shel Akhna'i [the

debate over ritual purity involving an oven constructed from independently

existing segments]. After R. Eliezer fails in his impressive attempts to

convince his colleagues to accept his opinion on this halakhic matter, we read:

Again he said to them: "If the halakhah

agrees with me, let it be proved from Heaven!"

Whereupon a bat kol cried out: "Why

do you dispute with R. Eliezer, seeing that in all matters the halakhah agrees

with him!"

R. Yehoshua arose and exclaimed: "It

is not in heaven" (Devarim 30:12).

What did he mean by It is not in heaven?

R. Yirmiyah said: That the Torah had already

been given at Mount Sinai; we pay no attention to a bat kol. (Bava Metzia 59b)

Even

though the Sages recognize bat kol's divine origin, they reject its

authority to determine halakhah. The Sages recall that the age of prophecy has

ended and that from now on it has been given over to fools; decisions must be

made in house of learning. Nevertheless they do not desist from seeking God's

voice, even if it is a mere reflection of His voice.

May

we also merit hearing even the echo of God's voice, as we walk along the road,

as we lie down and rise up, even if it were the faintest of faint voices

arising through our good deeds and pure thoughts, calling us to good and the

worthy actions! May we seek it all our days!

1. It is unclear why Manasseh was troubled by this verse

in particular. In a parallel version of the story found in Mahzor Vitri,

a further question is appended to his complaint: "What are dudaim

to you?" (section 426). That is to say, what point was there in Moses

including such a trivial deed in the Torah? Further on, the Talmud mentions a

tradition attributed to the Amora Rav which explains why the story needed to be

mentioned: "From here we learn that the righteous keep clear of

theft." Rashi explains that even though the incident occurred after the

field had been harvested and "everyone was allowed to enter into their

fellow's field," Reuben took care not to collect wheat but rather only dudaim,

which are ownerless and permitted to all, and from this we learn that the

righteous are careful about theft.

2. Rashi

explains R. Abba's statement thus: "Some of it is eaten away by worms, and

some of it endures, thus some of the vision of the Shekhinah was there [in the bat

kol] but it was not entirely there" (ad loc)

3. Sometimes the words of

a bat kol are repeated over and over. After R. Yossi exited the ruin in

the story cited above, the Prophet Elijah tells him: "By your life and the

life of your head! It [the bat kol] does not say this only at this time;

rather it speaks thus three times every day."

Dr. Dalia Marx

is spending the year as a visiting professor at Potsdam University and at

Geiger College in Berlin.

And the Stone

was Great on the Mouth of the Well

Generally the cover of a well designed for general public

use, is made to be removed as easily as possible to facilitate its use for

everybody. But here – this introduces us to the character of the Arameans – no

one trusted the other and nobody meant anybody else to have the slightest

advantage. One person might take a drink more than the other. Hence they made

the cover so heavy that no person alone but only by their combined effort could

the well be used.

(Rabbi S.R. Hirsch on Bereishit 29:2, Levy

translation)

And he said, "The day is yet long; it is not the time to take

in the livestock. Water the sheep and go, pasture."

(Bereishit 29:7)

The day is yet long – The righteous despise injustice even when

perpetrated against strangers, as it says, The unjust man is an abomination

to the righteous, and he whose way is straight is an abomination to the wicked

(Proverbs 29:27).

(Sforno 29:7)

…So Moses fled from before Pharaoh. He stayed in the land of Midian,

Moses arose and rescued them and watered their flocks.

(Shemot 2:16-17)

So Moses arose and rescued them – Since both parties to the dispute were

strangers to him, he was not motivated by vengeance. Neither did he rebuke them

in order to reform their ways. He simply rose up to rescue the oppressed from

the hands of their oppressors.

(Seforno ad loc)

God

Cares for the Weak

And the Lord saw that Leah was unloved.

(Bereishit

29:31)

As Scripture says: The Lord supports all who stumble (Psalms

145:14) –

The qualities of the Holy One Blessed be He are unlike those of humans. When a

human has a wealthy friend he cleaves to him and submits to him, and when he

sees that he has faltered and become impoverished, he no longer values him, but

rather places a stone on him. But when the Holy One Blessed be He sees someone

who has been subdued and faltered, he lends him a hand and stands him upright,

as it says, The Lord supports all who stumble and makes all who are bent

stand straight.

(Aggadat Bereishit, 49)

And the first-born is

the son of the unloved one – Scripture states this with certainty, in the same

manner as it states, and the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, for the

Lord sees the broken-hearted so as to support them.

(Or HaHayyim on Devarim 21:15)

Fairness in Labor

Relations is Required Equally of Both Employer as well as Employee

In the same way that

the home owner is warned not to rob the poor-man's wage or delay its payment,

so too the poor-man is warned not to rob the employer of work by repeatedly

taking breaks from work so that he spends the day dishonestly. Rather he is

required to be strict with his own time. See how they said he should not recite

the fourth blessing of the grace after meals [so that he would get back to work

quickly], and so he is required to work with all his strength, for the saintly

Jacob said I have served your father with all my might. That is why he took his

reward even in this world, for it says so the man became exceedingly

prosperous.

(RaMBaM Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Sekhirut 13: 7)

Readers respond

Issue 572 of Shabbat Shalom

quoted a passage from a book by Prof. Yeshayahu Leibowitz z"l, He'arot

LeParshiyot HaShavu'a in which he drew conclusions that he thought were

implied by the midrash Pitron Torah's comments on the verse, He

surrounds him all day (Devarim 33:12). Here is

part of what Leibowitz had to say:

In

this midrash we read something new about, He surrounds him all day and

between his shoulders he dwells. Moses' prophetic blessing was actually

realized, for the sanctuary which stands there today, the sanctuary of an alien

nation, is not a site of idolatry. This sanctuary is a temple of a people which

recognizes the Oneness of God and means to serve God, even if it did not

receive the Torah and does not serve God by observance of the commandments. We

find, then, that this is still a

temple for those who worship God in truth [my emphasis – A.S.].

Leibowitz's statement may create

the impression that the author of the midrash was being tolerant of Islam and

Moslems, and perhaps even sympathetic to them and that he had to some extent

made his peace with the fact that the Moslems who controlled the Land of Israel

in his day had erected a mosque on the Temple Mount. This impression is

blatantly false. Prof.Efraim Urbach, who edited the midrash, mentions how,

taken as a whole, Pitron Torah reflects its author's strongly negative view

of Moslems and their religion. For some reason Leibowitz decided to ignore the

midrash's attitude towards the Moslems, apparently in order to amplify the

implied significance of its mentioning that the mosque standing atop the Temple

Mount is in the possession of monotheists.

The author of the midrash does

write that, "even today those people who control the Temple [Mount] made

it into a choice and great and honorable house of worship to the one God Who

created heaven and earth…that is why it says [He surrounds him] all

day (pg.339). However, he did not relate to the situation

he faced as something normal with which one should become reconciled. Indeed,

according to the author, Jews could find a degree of comfort in the fact that the

place of the Temple continued to be honored in his day (in the language of our

generation: it had not become a "piece of real estate"), since, even

if "the Shekhinah did not dwell in" the place of the Temple, the

continuing honor granted it constituted a kind of fulfillment of the verse, He

surrounds him all day. However, according to the author of the midrash, the

honor granted to the place of the Temple in his day was only of a temporary

sort. It would only continue "until the arrival of the teacher of justice

and the future day, and in that day the righteous worship will resume in it,

which will be acceptable before God [Shaddai]."

Amos Samuel, Jerusalem

Pinchas Leiser, editor of Shabbat

Shalom, responds:

I thank Rabbi Amos Samuel for

his response.

Unfortunately, Prof. Yeshayahu

Leibowitz z"l is not capable of clarifying his intentions, but I do not

think that he attributes any attitudes to the author of Pitron Torah

beyond those he explicitly mentions. Furthermore, Prof. Leibowitz quotes the

midrash in its entirety in his longer work, Sheva Shanim shel Sihot al Parashat

HaShavua (pp.

948-950). My own opinion is that

despite Leibowitz's principle that all prophecies are "conditional,"

he quotes Pitron Torah as nothing more than an illustration of how a

commentator grapples with midrashim which read the verse He surrounds him

all day as an absolute prophecy even while the verse appears to be

contradicted by existing reality.

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