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Listen "Year: 5772 - Hayei Sara - audio"
Episode Synopsis
All or Nothing: Meet Bakol - We would expect the ambience of the parsha to be one of darkness and disappointment. Considering the grand promises made to Avraham in terms of descendants and inheritance, he is left with nothing more than an unmarried son and a small burial plot for his wife in Chevron. Yet, the parsha nonetheless describes Avraham as immensely fulfilled. The source of his satisfaction comes from the enigmatic blessing “bakol.”
Chazal have a strange way of interpreting “bakol.” R. Yehudah’s opinion is that it is the name of Avraham's daughter; R. Meir suggests just the opposite – that Avraham was blessed by not having a daughter. This contradiction is resolved by examining the reason why R. Shimon b.Yochai was so troubled by the pasuk, “The crown wherewith his mother has crowned him.” This pasuk implies that the universe is a representation of what it was given, rather than what it has become. This is intolerable, as it negates the entire process of self-organization and self-discovery which is the essence of Creation.
R. Shimon b. Yochai receives tremendous relief and joy from R. Yose's explanation of the pasuk, based on a parable of a king whose love for his daughter couldn’t be fully expressed until he called her “my sister,” and ultimately, “my mother.” This indicates that, in the sampling of possibilities offered by the full potential of existence, lies the justification of the entire universe and the source of “Yismach Hashem b’maasav” – i.e., a specific development that occurs on its own is so wonderful that it should be as if, “This is what I created.”
R. Yose’s explanation is also the solution to the problem facing Ephron: how could Avraham be a nasi and still insist on having a personal identity? Again, there is no contradiction – an individual can only have something of his own if it comes from a place of malchus – in this sense, he either has everything, or he has nothing.. (BW)
Chazal have a strange way of interpreting “bakol.” R. Yehudah’s opinion is that it is the name of Avraham's daughter; R. Meir suggests just the opposite – that Avraham was blessed by not having a daughter. This contradiction is resolved by examining the reason why R. Shimon b.Yochai was so troubled by the pasuk, “The crown wherewith his mother has crowned him.” This pasuk implies that the universe is a representation of what it was given, rather than what it has become. This is intolerable, as it negates the entire process of self-organization and self-discovery which is the essence of Creation.
R. Shimon b. Yochai receives tremendous relief and joy from R. Yose's explanation of the pasuk, based on a parable of a king whose love for his daughter couldn’t be fully expressed until he called her “my sister,” and ultimately, “my mother.” This indicates that, in the sampling of possibilities offered by the full potential of existence, lies the justification of the entire universe and the source of “Yismach Hashem b’maasav” – i.e., a specific development that occurs on its own is so wonderful that it should be as if, “This is what I created.”
R. Yose’s explanation is also the solution to the problem facing Ephron: how could Avraham be a nasi and still insist on having a personal identity? Again, there is no contradiction – an individual can only have something of his own if it comes from a place of malchus – in this sense, he either has everything, or he has nothing.. (BW)
In God we trust