Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- The Babylonian Talmud: an introductory note
- 1 How much of the Babylonian Talmud is pseudepigraphic?
- 2 The Babylonian Talmud: an academic work
- 3 Rabbinic views on the order and authorship of the Biblical books
- 4 Literary analysis of the sugya in Bava Kama 11a-12b
- 5 Literary analysis of the sugya in Bava Kama 20a-21a
- 6 Literary analysis of the sugya on taking the blame on oneself
- 7 Literary analysis of the sugya of ‘half and half’
- 8 Rabbi Joshua b. Hananiah and the elders of the house of Athens
- 9 Bavli and Yerushalmi on Rabban Gamaliel and Rabbi Joshua
- 10 Bavli and Yerushalmi on Rabbi Dosa and the Sages
- 11 The Rabbi Banaah stories in Bava Batra 58a-b
- 12 The device of addehakhi, ‘just then’
- 13 Conclusion
- Glossary
- Notes
- Bibliography
11 - The Rabbi Banaah stories in Bava Batra 58a-b
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- The Babylonian Talmud: an introductory note
- 1 How much of the Babylonian Talmud is pseudepigraphic?
- 2 The Babylonian Talmud: an academic work
- 3 Rabbinic views on the order and authorship of the Biblical books
- 4 Literary analysis of the sugya in Bava Kama 11a-12b
- 5 Literary analysis of the sugya in Bava Kama 20a-21a
- 6 Literary analysis of the sugya on taking the blame on oneself
- 7 Literary analysis of the sugya of ‘half and half’
- 8 Rabbi Joshua b. Hananiah and the elders of the house of Athens
- 9 Bavli and Yerushalmi on Rabban Gamaliel and Rabbi Joshua
- 10 Bavli and Yerushalmi on Rabbi Dosa and the Sages
- 11 The Rabbi Banaah stories in Bava Batra 58a-b
- 12 The device of addehakhi, ‘just then’
- 13 Conclusion
- Glossary
- Notes
- Bibliography
Summary
The passage we are considering is first given in translation.
Bava Batra 58a–b
R. Bannaah used to mark caves [in which the dead had been buried, i.e. he used to mark the outlines of the caves on the surface so that people would avoid stepping over the graves and suffer ritual contamination, Numbers 19]. When he came to the cave in which Abraham was buried [the Cave of Machpelah], he found Eliezer, Abraham's servant, at the entrance, and he said to him: ‘What is Abraham doing?’ He replied: ‘He is lying in the wings of Sarah [i.e. in her arms] and she is gazing at his head.’ Said he: ‘Go and tell him that Bannaah waits at the entrance.’ Said he: [Abraham]: ‘Let him enter. He knows full well that there is no yetzer [‘inclination’, i.e. no sexual desires] in that world.’ He entered, gazed there [to take the measurements of the cave] and then went out. When he came to the cave of Adam [who was also buried there together with Eve but in a separate compartment], a Bat Kol [‘Heavenly voice’] proclaimed: ‘You have looked upon the resemblance of Mine image [the patriarch Jacob.] Do not look upon Mine image itself’ [i.e. Adam, created in God's image, Genesis 1:29]. ‘But I have to mark the cave.’ ‘The inner cave [in which Adam and Eve are buried] has the same measure as the outer cave’ [in which Abraham and the other patriarchs and matriarchs are buried].
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- Structure and Form in the Babylonian Talmud , pp. 91 - 94Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1991