Bava Batra 73b (עג:) — the Talmud in English

Once, they had saddled

[each was separately fastened to a saddle]

two mules

[female mules]

and they were standing,

at the bridges of the Rognag

[the name of a river].

And he leaped

[jumped]

from this one to that one and from that one to this one.

Once, there were two mules, each separately fastened to a saddle and ready for him to ride. The two mules stood on two bridges over the Rognag River, and the bridges were far from one another: one mule stood on one bridge and the other mule stood on the other, while the demon leaped from one mule to the other.

And he held

the demon

two cups of wine in his hands, and poured from this

cup

into that

cup

and from that into this, and not a single drop fell to the ground.

The demon held two cups of wine in his hands,

and while leaping from one mule to the other he poured one cup into the other, then poured from the second back into the first; not even a single drop of wine fell to the ground.

And that day,

a day of storm winds, when those who descend to the sea

“ascend to the heavens and descend to the depths”

in their ships because of the wind,

was,

and nevertheless not a drop fell to the ground.

Until they heard in the house of the kingdom

of the demons

and they killed him

[they killed him], because it is not the way of a demon to display its powers so openly.

b.

Rabbah said:

I myself saw an oryx

[a re’em]

that was one day old,

born that very day,

which was

as large

as Mount Tabor.

And how large is Mount Tabor? Forty

parasangs.

And the length

of

its neck,

that of the one-day-old re’em, was

three parasangs.

And at the place where its head rested

[the place where it laid its head when lying on the ground] it measured

one and a half parasangs.

It cast dung

[the re’em excreted],

and it blocked

the dung

the Jordan,

because of its great size, until the water gradually dissolved it, after which the waters of the Jordan could flow in their usual manner.

c.

And Rabbah bar bar Ḥana said: I myself saw a certain frog

[a frog]

that was

large

like the city of Hagronia

[the name of a city].

And how large is Hagronia?

It is

sixty houses.

I saw a giant frog, as large as the town of Akra de-Hagronya; and this town contained sixty houses.

Rabba continued and said:

A serpent came and swallowed it—

the frog;

a female raven came

(a female raven)

and swallowed the serpent, and it rose—

the raven—

and sat in a tree.

Rabba saw that a serpent came and swallowed that frog, and afterward a female raven came and swallowed the serpent, which had swallowed the giant frog; afterward the raven rose and sat upon a tree.

Come and see how great is the power of the tree!

Come and see how great is the power of the tree, which was able to bear the raven that had swallowed the serpent that had swallowed the giant frog.

Rav Pappa bar Shmuel said: Had I not been there,

and seen this thing,

I would not have believed it

[I would not have been able to believe] that such a thing was possible.

The Gemara now brings four statements concerning what Rabba bar bar Ḥana and his companions saw when they traveled by ship:

a.

And Rabba bar bar Ḥana said: Once, we were traveling by ship

[once we traveled by ship].

And we saw a certain fish, into whose nostrils a small creature entered, and it died,

and it died,

and the waters cast it out and threw it onto the shore.

We saw a gigantic fish, into whose nostrils a small creature entered, and the large fish died because of it,

and then the sea waters pushed it to the seashore, as happens with every dead thing that the waters expel onto the shore.

And sixty districts were destroyed through it

[the sea cast the gigantic body of the fish onto a place containing sixty towns, and all of them were destroyed].

And they ate from it,

from its flesh, people from

sixty districts

[towns] that were near the place where the fish lay and could eat its flesh while it was still moist and fresh.

And they salted from it,

from its flesh, for the people of

sixty districts

[towns] far from the place where the fish fell, who could not eat fresh flesh from this fish. Therefore, they salted its flesh so that it would keep, and carried it to their towns.

And they filled from

the fat in

one of its eyes three hundred jugs

[seahs ]

of oil,

oil.

And when we returned

to that place

after twelve months, we saw that they were sawing beams from its bones and sitting to rebuild those districts.

When we returned to that place twelve months later, we saw them sawing “beams” from the fish’s bones in order to rebuild those towns that had been destroyed because of it.

b.

And Rabba bar bar Ḥana said: Once, we were traveling by ship.

And we saw a certain fish, upon which sand had accumulated, and grass grew upon it.

We saw a certain fish that remained in its place for a long time, until sand accumulated on its back, and vegetation grew on the sand.

We thought it was dry land, and we climbed up

onto it,

and baked and cooked upon it; and when its back became hot,

through the baking and cooking,

it turned over,

the fish, and we fell into the water,

and had the ship not been nearby, we would have drowned.

We thought that this place, where there was sand and vegetation growing, was one of the islands of the sea. Therefore, we descended from the ship and climbed onto it, kindled a fire, and baked and cooked. When the fish’s back became hot, the fish turned over and we fell into the water; had the ship not been nearby, we would have drowned.

c.

And Rabba bar bar Ḥana said: Once, we were traveling by ship.

And the ship traveled

[sailed]

between the fins of a fish

[between the fish’s fins]

for three days and three nights; it was upright,

against the wind,

while we were in the lower position.

The ship sailed for three days and three nights between the front fin and the rear fin of a certain fish. The fish was swimming against the wind,

while the ship was propelled by the wind in the opposite direction.

And if you would say: The ship does not travel very far

[quickly]

—when Rav Dimi came

from the Land of Israel to Babylonia,

he said: While a kettle of water is being heated, it travels

the ship

sixty parasangs, and when a rider shoots an arrow

[an arrow]

the ship overtakes it

the ship.

If you would say: The fish was not so extraordinarily large, since the ship traveled slowly during those three days and nights—do not say so. When Rav Dimi came from the Land of Israel to Babylonia, he gave two indications of the ship’s speed. The first indication: while a kettle of water was being heated, the ship advanced sixty parasangs. The second indication: when a person stood and shot an arrow parallel to the ship’s course, we would see that the ship moved faster than he did and overtook the arrow.

And Rav Ashi said: That

fish

was a “gildana of the sea”,

one of the smaller sea fish,

which has two fins

[fins], whereas the other sea fish have only one fin in the middle of the back.

d.

And Rabba bar bar Ḥana said: Once, we were

traveling by ship.

And we saw that bird standing up to its ankles

[ankles]

in the water, while its head was in the heavens

[we saw that bird standing in the water, with the water reaching only to its ankles, while its head reached the heavens].

And we said:

If the water reached only the bird’s ankles, then

there is no deep water

here,

and we need to descend

[into the water] in order

to cool ourselves

[to cool ourselves].

And a Divine voice emerged and said to us: Do not descend here,

to bathe in these waters,

for

this

an axe fell

into the river for a carpenter seven years ago, and it has not reached the ground,

the riverbed,

and not merely because the waters are abundant

has it failed to reach the ground,

but

also

because the waters are swift.

A Divine voice emerged and said to us: It is dangerous to bathe here, lest you drown, for an axe fell here to a carpenter seven years ago [an extremely long time ], and the axe has still not reached the riverbed; and the reason that it has not yet reached the riverbed is not only that the waters are deep, but also that the river current is swift and carries along with it everything in the water.

Rav Ashi said: That,

the same bird that Rabba bar bar Ḥana saw,

was a “ziz sadei”,

for even if its feet were on the ground, its head would reach the heavens,

as it is written

[Psalms 50:11]:

“And the ziz sadei is with Me”,

meaning that it reaches the heavens.

The Gemara brings statements of Rabba bar bar Ḥana concerning what he saw when he and his companions traveled in the desert:

And Rabba bar bar Ḥana said: Once, we were traveling in the desert.

And we saw those geese, whose wings were falling from their fat, and streams of oil were flowing

from beneath them.

We saw those geese, which were so fat that their feathers were falling from them, and streams of oil were flowing beneath those geese.

I said

[I asked]

to them: Do I have a portion among you for the World-to-Come

[do I have a portion in you that I will merit to receive in the World-to-Come]?

One lifted

[raised]

a wing

[a wing]

for me, and one lifted a thigh

[a thigh], indicating to me: This will be your portion in the future.

When I came

[when I came]

before Rabbi Elazar,

and told him what I had seen,

he said to me: Israel will ultimately be held accountable for them,

because on account of their sin the Messiah’s coming is delayed, and these geese suffer because of their fatness. [

A mnemonic:

Like dust, the blue wool, the scorpion struck it, and crushed it].

And Rabba bar bar Ḥana said: Once we were traveling in the wilderness.

And that Arab merchant joined us, who would take up earth, smell it, and say: This is the road to such-and-such a place, and this is the road to such-and-such a place.

An Ishmaelite merchant joined us. He would take up earth, smell it, and say: This is the road to such-and-such a place, and this is the road to such-and-such a place.

We said to him: How far are we from water

[We asked him: How far are we from a place where there is water]?

And he said to us,

the Arab merchant,

Give me earth

to smell!

We gave him

earth, and he smelled it,

and he said to us:

We are

eight parasangs

[eight parasangs] away.

After we had advanced along our way,

we returned

[we went back]

and gave him

earth, to determine how far we were now from a place where there was water.

He said to us,

the Arab merchant,

that we were

only

three parasangs

away from a place where there was water.

Therefore,

I mixed it up for him,

exchanging this earth with that earth, to test him, to see whether he was indeed so skilled at discerning, from the earth alone, the distance between the place from which the earth had come and the water.

But I could not overcome him

[I did not succeed in “defeating” him], for the Arab merchant was able to distinguish precisely between this earth and that earth and to say how far the place from which the earth had come was from water.

He said to me,

that same “Arab merchant”:

Come, I will show you

[Come and I will show you]

those who died in the wilderness,

the Israelites who died during the forty years that they traveled in the wilderness.

I went,

I went with him,

I saw them,

I saw those “who died in the wilderness,”

and they appeared

to be radiant and joyful in countenance

as though they were intoxicated

[like those drunk on wine ].