For the source text click/tap here: Bechorot 17
To download, click/tap here: PDF
If an ewe gave birth to two male lambs and their heads emerged from the womb simultaneously, then Rabbi Yose HaGlili says that both are firstborn and both are given to a kohen, since the Torah said, "The males belong to God."
However, the Sages disagree and say that it is impossible for two events to happen exactly at the same time. Therefore, one was the firstborn, only we don't know which one, and the kohen gets one animal.
Rabbi Yose then says that this Torah phrase is exactly the source teaching that simultaneous events occur. And the Sages? The say that "males" just means all males in general.
On our daf the Gemara connects this tannaitic dispute to the broader question of whether “it is possible to achieve exactness” (efshar letzamtzem): whether one may rely on sensory perception to determine that two objects are exactly equal in size, that two events occurred at precisely the same time, or that a particular object possesses an exact size, shape, or weight.
My question is what this legal discussion can contribute to an apophatic theology of encounter. In my work on divine concealment, the patient as a subject of interpretation, and therapeutic tzimtzum, I have argued that a claim to know can overreach its object We explore this.