Raise Your Voice Bat-Galim and the Legacy of Abraham

"The words of Jeremiah." Rabbi Abba bar Kahana opened: "Cry aloud with your voice, O daughter of Gallim; hearken, O Laish; O poor Anathoth" (Isaiah 10:30). "Cry aloud with your voice": be glad with your voice. "O daughter of Gallim" (bat gallim): just as these waves (gallim) are distinguished in the sea, so your fathers are distinguished in the world. Another interpretation: "daughter of Gallim" (bat gallim) — daughter of exiles (bat golim), the daughters of those who descend from idolaters (gilulim). The house of Abraham, what is written of it? "And the LORD said to Abram, Get you out of your country," etc. (Genesis 12:1). The house of Isaac, what is written of it? "And Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines, to Gerar" (ibid. 26:1). The house of Jacob, what is written of it? "And Jacob obeyed his father and his mother" (ibid. 28:7). "Hearken" (Isaiah ibid.): hearken to My commandments, hearken to the words of Torah, hearken to the words of prophecy; and if not, "O Laish" (laisha) — behold, a lion (aryeh) comes up against you, this is the wicked Nebuchadnezzar, of whom it is written, "A lion is gone up from his thicket" (Jeremiah 4:7). "O poor" (aniyah) (Isaiah ibid.): poor of the righteous, poor of the words of Torah, poor of the commandments and of good deeds; and if not, "Anathoth" (Isaiah ibid.) — behold, the man of Anathoth comes and prophesies against you words of rebuke. Therefore Scripture needed to say, "The words of Jeremiah son of Hilkiah" (Jeremiah 1:1).