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11 - The Rabbi Banaah stories in Bava Batra 58a-b

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 September 2009

Louis Jacobs
Affiliation:
Lancaster University
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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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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1991

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