Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 2.pdf/638

588 Bat Bat Kol

constructed in various meters and inscribed to the

that her

mother of Louis XIV.

Nazir.

Bibliography: Kayserling, Sephardim, Biblioteca Espan.-Port.-Jud.

pp. 243 et seq.; idem,

p. 26.

M. K.

G.

BAT

This well-known winged mammal (in Hebrew f)i?t3V, Lev. xi. 19; Deut. xiv. 18; Isa. ii. 20) was considered by the Hebrews as belonging to the

The ancients in general considered as a creature belonging both to the birds and to the mammalia, and partaking of the nature of both

class of birds. it

classes

Like all "Hierozoicon," s.i). was considered unclean by the The numerous caves and ruins of Pales-

(Bochart,

night-birds, the Bat

Hebrews.

tine afford shelter to

innumerable swarms of bats;

and Tristram (" Natural History of the Bible," pp. 45. 46) enumerates no less than seventeen species indigenous to that country. Several of these are also found in Europe and America. I. Be. ,j. jr.

BAT KOL (Hebrew,

Aramaic, ttbp 1113) $>ip J-|3 heavenly or divine voice which proclaims God's will or judgment, His deeds and His commandments



A

to individuals or to a

communities, and

number

even

meaning of the word

to

of persons, to rulers, whole nations. The

"sound," "resonance." In this sense it is used in Syriac and in the following Midrash and Talmud passages: "As oil has no Bat Kol [that is, gives no sound], so Israel is not heard of in this world; but, as it is said in Isa. xxix. 4, 6, Israel will enjoy great fame in the world The most significant pasto come " (Cant. R. i. 3). sage is Ex. K. xxix., end (compare xxviii., end): is

" Johanan said, ' When God revealed the Torah, no sparrow chirped, no bird flew, no ox lowed; the heavenly Ofanira [wheels] moved not; the Seraphim did not chant the Thrice Holy ; man spoke not ; the sea roared not ; no creature uttered a sound ; and the world was silent, while God's voice reThis is the meaning of sounded, " I am the Lord Thy God." the words, 'With a great voice: and he added no more,' in Deut. v. 19 [A.V. 221 (H D "S ). 'These words,' says Simeon ben Lakisn, ' are to be taken as follows It one man calls to another, his voice has a Bat Kol but the voice proceeding from God has no Bat Kol. If you marvel at this, think of the story of the prophet Elijah and the priests of Baal. God bade the upper and the lower world keep silence; and the world became like an empty desert, as if no living creature existed there was neither voice, nor answer, nor attention ' [I Kings xviii. 29, Hebrew]. For if a sound had been heard, the priests would have said ' Baal has answered us.' On Sinai God caused the whole world to be silent, in order that mankind might know there is none '

''







besides

588

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Him."

It is clear that in this passage Bat Kol does not mean an echo, as is the general opinion (Lampronti, " Pahad Yizhak " Levy, " Neuhebraisches Worterbueh"; Kohut, "Aruch Completum," «.».); but it means the reverberation or hum, caused by the mo;

which fills the whole world and which accompanies the human voice and every other sound. Of old the belief in the music of the spheres was universal and the Bat Kol tion of all things,



Not an Echo,

Talmud says (Yoma 206)

Rome would

that the noises

be heard all over the world but for the music of the spheres. Echo is called " kol habarah " (R. H. iii. 7; Yoma 196). Nor is an echo referred to in the dispute between the schools of Shammai and Hillel as to whether a woman may marry if a Bat Kol has been heard saying of

husband is dead (compare Yeb. 122a Tosef As Rashi remarked in his comment ary 1).

i.

.

(compare Lippman Heller, in " Tosafot Yom-Tob " to Yeb. xvi. 6), the Bat Kol here is more probably the same as when a voice is heard and no man is seen. A parallel is afforded in the case of Paul, when he heard a voice saying " Saul, Saul, why persecutest And the men which journeyed with thou me? him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing

.

no

man

"

(Actsix.

4, 7;

compare

xxii. 7, 9; xxvi. 14).

account Bat Kol was called a voice which The same idea is heard behind the back (Meg. 32a). " And I heard behind me a is expressed in Rev. i. 10 great voice, as of a trumpet. " In the Greek there is no adequate expression for Bat Kol [unless the unl /lavnuai in Sophocles' " CEdipus," 723, are com-

On

this



(ji7j

f

parable the

see S. Louis, in " Trans, of Soc. for Bib-



Archeology,"

lical

New

i/X" [see

John

182

ix.

et seq.

Testament renders

Matt.

iii.

28:

xii.

17;

(j>uvr/

Mark

he tov

it

— K] by



consequently but not by

furf,

Luke iii. 22; and i. 11; ovpavov ("a voice from

heaven ") Matt. xvii. 5 Mark ix. 7 and Luke ix. 35 "a voice out of the cloud"; Acts x. 13, 15: "a voice"; compare Lightfoot to Matt. iii. 17 K.]. According to the Talmud (Yer. Sotah ix. 246; compare Tosef., Sotah, xiii. 5) the high priest Johanan hears a Bat Kol in the sanctuary according to Josephus ("Ant." xiii. 10, § 3), he hears a (puvrj. The expression $>ip fQ ("daughter of a voice";





—



that

is,

a small voice)

from the usual also in the

is

intended to distinguish

Originally, however, called " kol " (voice) as is

voice.

Hebrew

it

was shown it

by the Aramaic ^QJ K'DB* p h>- " There fell a voice from heaven, saying, O King Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken: The kingdom is departed from thee" (Dan. iv. 28 [A. V. 31]); and A Voice, here and there in the Talmud it is briefly given as ^ip ("voice")

(Sanh.

compare Ta'anit 216; B. M. 856, Rashi). In the Aramaic versions of the Bible, in the Midrash and Talmud, the heavenly revelation is usually introduced with the formula; "A voice fell from heaven," "came from heaven," " was- heard," or " proceeded from heaven. " The New Testament has the same formula, H?i6Vv ovv (puvq e/c tov ovpavov (John xii. 28; compare Rev. x. 4, 8; xviii. 4, etc.), which 966;

T

the equivalent of the

Hebrew

D'DPn, and the Aramaic

WW p

is

p

$>lp

rn HNS'

1

&6p JVO npSJThrough frequent use the formula was abbreviated and it is not correct to differentiate into Bat Kol between the longer and shorter expressions. The fact probably is that the fuller form is used gener;

in the older sources. Since God permits His glory to abide in the Temple at Jerusalem, it results that a voice is also heard from the sanctuary (Yerushalmi and Josephus, I.e. Rev. xiv. 14, 17: "the temple which is in heaven " ib. 18, " another angel came out from the altar "). The characteristic attributes of the Bat Kol are the invisibility of the speaker and a certain remarkable quality in the sound, regardless of its strength or weakness. A sound proceeding from some invisible source was considered a heavenly voice, since the revelation on Sinai was given in that way " Ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude

ally