BaKol

Some readers after reading THIS may have thought “what?”. So I present the following for the dear ladies. Mrs. Littmann who writes a weekly column/page in the Hamodia Shabbos paper edition wrote this about Bakol. [i typed this from the paper copy, so any errors are mine]

“The MeAm Loez says on this that Avraham Avinu had a daughter named BaKol. Knowing that Jewish women are the jewel in the Crown of Hashem, Avraham Avinu recognized that the Ribbono shel Olam appreciates, values and loves all that a woman does to serve Him.

Therefore, Avraham Avinu gave Bakol clear instructions of how to cause Hashem nachas. Starting with her name, Avraham Avinu gave Bakol complete instructions on how to behave.

The name Bakol is derived from the roshei teivos of “bris krusah la’einayim – a covenant should be forged on the eyes.” By naming his daughter thus, Avraham Avinu informed her she should be modest in dress and manner and thereby not cause men to stumble through her.

Alternatively, Avraham intended “bris krusah lasfanayim – a covenent should be forged on the lips.” The Gemara says 10 parts of sichas (speech) were given to the world, of which women took nine parts. Rav Tzaddok HaKohen of Lublin explains that this shows the highest peak of the greatness of a woman. Rashi expounds on Bereishis 25:63, where we are told that Yitzchak went “lasuach basadeh – to converse in the field,” that sichah is lashon tefillah. There, Rashi also brings a passuk from Tehillim (102:1) to show us that sichas means tefillah: “Tefillah l’ani ki yatof v’lefnei Hashem yishpoch sicho – A prayer of the poor [afflicted] man when he faints and in front of Hashem, he pours his supplications.” From the fact that Yitzchak went “lasuach basadeh,” Chazal learn that Yitzchak established the tefillah of Minchah.

Ten parts of tefillah were given to the world, and 90% of that tefillah was implanted in the hearts of the Jewish daughter. Ninety percent of the koach of prayer is [in] the hands of the Jewish women. The generations’s power of tefillah is held by the women of the Jewish people.

About 30 years ago it was debated whether to close the ezras nashim in Yeshivas Ponevez for the Yamim Nora’im. Both Rav Shach, zt”l, and Rav Dovid Povarsky, tz”l, said that the teifllos of the awesome days in Ponevez would not succeed without the input of the women: We do not close. A similar question arose in Belz and the Rebbe said that the “yiddeshe treren” (Jewish tears) of the women were needed and therefore the ezras nashim should remain open.

Chazal tell us, “All the gates were locked except for the gate of tears.” They say further, “Women’s tears are close by [a woman is easily moved to tears].” Tefillah with tears is immensely powerful. Tefillah with tears breaks through all the barriers in heaven. Tears are 10 kilograms worth of hammers tearing apart all obstructions and entering all the heavenly gates to bring down brachah. And women have the power of tefillah and the power of tears.

This empowers a woman to daven profusely that her offspring succeed and be upright. That she should be privileged to raise holy generations who are wise and understanding, who love Hashem and fear Him. people of truth, attached to Hashem, who illuminate the world with Torah and good deeds and toil with every labor in the service of Hashem.

Furthermore, the power of speech a woman has helps and enables her to educate her children. It empowers a lady to speak soothingly and compassionately to her little (and not so little) children and grandchildren to train them in the ways of Hashem.

Unfortunately, the ability to speak so much has the disadvantage that it can be used incorrectly in forbidden speech. Avraham Avinu was telling his daughter to use her ability to speak correctly.

As all Jewish women are the daughters of Avraham Avinu, Avraham Avinu was also speaking to us. We all need to take his messages personally.

(Heard from Rabbi Aryeh Leib Shapiro and Rabbi Baruch Rosenblum)

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Discover the inner essence and history of Yerushalayim from a Torah perspective in Mrs. Littmann’s new book “Her Children Return.” The work also contains over 1,500 photos of the city.

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AN AMAZING EVENT:  

In a shiur that Rav Moshe Mordechai Schlesinger gave before the Gulf War in 1991, he spoke about the time that Rommel, Hitler’s, y”s, messenger was in Egypt at the gates of Eretz Yisrael. It was July 1942. There seemed to be no way of escape from his deadly advance. On 15 Tammuz, the Or HaChaim’s HaKadosh”s yahrtzeit, thousands of thousands went to his kever, where tears were spilled like rivers of water. On 17 Tammuz, women left their babies in their cribs and went and filled the shuls. The women opened the aronos kodesh and screamed in tefillah for Hashem’s salvation. These were tefillos prayed out of desperation. Rommel’s offensive was stopped at the small railway halt of El Alamein. There are derech hateva reasons given for his defeat  – the eternal curse of the desert war, long supply lines, and so on – but the Torah hashkafah is that it was the tefillah of the women that achieved his defeat.

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footnote: In our day, the phenomenon of  'jender altering' negatively falls on the female creation of Hashem, and I see this as another axe chopping away at all that Hashem created in His Kindness. Plus the ‘kneedle’ penetrating our children, daughters, and women of child-bearing age (and now the babies) is meant to “halt” this also as created by Hashem for humanity.