Our Gemara on amud aleph presents a curious interpretation of the verse about Avraham in Bereishis (24:1):

“And Avraham was old, well advanced in age; and the Lord had blessed Avraham with everything [bakkol]” (Genesis 24:1). Rabbi Yehuda explains that this blessing meant Avraham had a daughter, whom he named Bakkol.

At first glance, this statement seems puzzling—would the Sages have us believe that the phrase “blessed with everything” means Avraham had a daughter literally named “Everything”? The Ramban, commenting on Bereishis 24:1, offers a deeper, mystical interpretation:

“The word bakkol hints at a profound matter: the Holy One, blessed be He, has an attribute called Kol (All), because it is the foundation of everything… It is the eighth of the thirteen attributes. And there is another attribute called bas [literally ‘daughter’] that emanates from it, and through it He moves everything… This attribute was as a daughter to Avraham because he was a man of kindness and conducted himself in accordance with it.”

While the mystical significance is challenging to grasp, it suggests a form of expansive generosity and fullness reflecting Hashem’s boundless kindness. In this sense, “the daughter of Kol” represents a spiritual state of completeness. This completeness enables one to embody divine generosity and kindness—being “blessed with everything” means having a sense of wholeness that allows for selfless giving.

This idea may help us better understand the Chasam Sofer’s comment on Bereishis 23:5. The verse says,

“Avraham proceeded to mourn for Sarah and to cry over her.”

In the Torah text, the letter kaf in the word “to cry over her” is traditionally written smaller than the other letters, which, through a process of elimination, can be rearranged to spell “over his daughter” rather than “to cry over her.” The Chasam Sofer suggests that as long as Sarah was alive, Avraham possessed this “daughter,” meaning this sense of fullness, generosity, and completeness—the very middah of the “daughter of Kol” we described above.

This interpretation offers a profound insight into the nature of masculinity, femininity, and relationships. Through Sarah, and perhaps through the interplay of her nurturing qualities with Avraham’s more protective and assertive traits, Avraham attained a higher capacity for divine-like generosity and completeness. Their relationship, rooted in complementary energies, unlocked a unique spiritual wholeness that Avraham experienced as “having everything.”

Translations Courtesy of Sefaria, except when, sometimes, I disagree with the translation

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