In response to Aries (and anyone else who cares):
“A father asking Hashem to kill his own child because she is too pretty?”
It just so happens that she was very pretty (the gemara stresses that), but the way the maharsha understands his reaction she could have looked like a llama and he would have done the same.
“Please, didn’t he have enough faith and trust in Hashem that He made her that way for a reason?”
He had plenty faith in hashem. See the gemara 2 lines up how he dealt with his son.
“Couldn’t he have built a bigger fence or one that was not see through?”
He had a mighty fine fence. The way Rashi learns the gemara, the fellow bored a hole into the fence so that he could peek through. He caught the peeping tom in the act.
Regarding the “neighbor”. The gemara doesnt say who he was, but he may have been one of his talmidim, the way he addresses him. There MUST be more to the story than the gemara tells us. Does it sound logical to ask a father, I wont be zoche to marry your daughter, let me instead gaze at her beauty and enjoy myself that way.
“Hashem didn’t kill the child because HE made her too pretty. If it is true, he killed the child to punish the father for even thinking and asking for such an horrendous bakasha.”
According to the girsa in our gemara, it is not clear, at all, if she died. the bach has a girsa (he adds one or two words to our text) that she did in fact die.
It should be pointed out, that the Maharsha states that Rav Yosi bar Avin was absolutely positive that Rav Yosi bar (I forget bar who – but the father was also a Rav Yosi) was wrong. His proof? the way avraham Avinu handled the situation with Sarah 9thats all he says, we need to understand the maharsha too).
Also left unanswered is, what was the father thinking with this approach and where does it come from. Also, Rav Yosi bar Avin told Rav Ashi this (and another story recorded about his son) is the reason he left as a talmid and came to learn by Rav Ashi. We dont see that Rav Ashi responded positively, or negatively, although Rav Ashi DID choose to record this story in shas for all generations to learn and understand, so we definitely must try and understand, both sides.
I dont have access to the Maharal on aggados. It is probably something he would go through. the Ben Ish Chai probably explains this gemara too. For now, this is one of those gemaras that you know you cant get bogged down on as you try and finish the massechta, but you definitely want to get back to.