Bava Batra 73b — the Talmud in English

Once, they had saddled him

each one was separately tied to a saddle

two mules

mules

and they were standing, ![](pamud.bmp "

exact page location")

at the bridges of Durgang

the name of a river.

And he jumped

jumping

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

Once, there were two mules, each separately tied to a saddle and ready for him to ride. The two mules stood on two bridges over the river “Durgang,” and the bridges were far from one another; one mule stood on this bridge, and one mule stood on that bridge, and the demon jumped from this mule to that mule.

And he held

the demon

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

cup

to that one

cup

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

The demon held two cups of wine in his hands,

and while jumping from mule to mule he poured one cup into the other, and again poured from the second into the first, and not even one drop of wine fell to the ground.

And that day,

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

“go up to the heavens and descend to the depths”

in their ships, through the wind,

was,

and nevertheless not a drop fell to the ground.

Until they heard in the royal court

of the demons

and they killed him

they killed him, since it is not the way of a demon to display its powers so greatly.

b.

Rabbah said:

I myself saw an oryx

a wild ox

one day old,

born on that very day,

which was

large

like Mount Tabor.

And how large is Mount Tabor? Forty

parasangs.

And the length

length

of its neck,

of that one-day-old oryx

was three parasangs.

And in the place where its head rested

the place where it laid its head, when it was lying on the ground

it was one and a half parasangs.

It cast dung

the oryx cast excrement,

and it blocked

the excrement

the Jordan,

because of its great size, until the water dissolved it little by little, and the waters of the Jordan could again flow as usual.

c.

And Rabbah bar bar Chana said: I myself saw that frog

a frog

which was

large

like the frog of the fortress of Hagrunia

the name of a city

and how large is the frog of Hagrunia?

large?

Sixty houses.

I saw a large frog, as large as the city “Akra of the Throat”; and this city contains 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 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 enormous 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 support the raven that had swallowed the serpent that had swallowed the enormous 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 Hana and his companions saw when they traveled by ship:

a.

And Rabba bar bar Hana said: Once, we were traveling in a ship

[once we traveled in a ship].

And we saw a certain fish, upon which a small creature settled and ate its nostril,

and it died,

and the waters pushed it away and cast it onto the shore.

We saw an enormous 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 because of it

[the sea cast the enormous body of the fish onto a place where there had been sixty cities, and all of them were destroyed].

And they ate from it,

from its flesh, people from

sixty districts

[cities], which were near the place of the fish and could eat from its flesh while it was still moist and fresh.

And they salted from it,

from its flesh, for people from

sixty districts

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

And they filled from

the fat of

one of its eyes, three hundred jugs

[seahs ]

of oil,

oil.

And when we returned

to that same place

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

When we returned to that same place after twelve months, we saw that they were sawing “beams” from its bones in order to build those cities that had been destroyed because of it.

b.

And Rabba bar bar Hana said: Once, we were traveling in a ship.

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

We saw one fish, which remained in its place for a long time, until sand gathered upon its back, and grass grew upon the sand.

We thought it was dry land, and went up

upon 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 near, we would have drowned.

We thought that this place, where there was sand and plants grew, was one of the islands of the sea. Therefore we descended from the ship and went up onto it, lit a fire, baked and cooked; when the fish’s back became hot, the fish turned over and we fell into the water, and had the ship not been near, we would have drowned.

c.

And Rabba bar bar Hana said: Once, we were traveling in a ship.

And it 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 below.

The ship sailed for three days and three nights between the front fin and the rear fin of one fish. The fish sailed against the wind,

while the ship sailed by means of the wind in the opposite direction.

And if you say: The ship did not travel very much

[quickly]

—when Rav Dimi came

from the Land of Israel to Babylonia,

he said: Like the boiling of a kettle of water, it travels

the ship

sixty parasangs, and when a rider shoots an arrow

[an arrow]

it overtakes him

the ship.

If you say: The fish was not so extraordinarily large, since the ship sailed slowly during those three days and nights—do not say so. For 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 managed to advance 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 hurried past him and overtook it.

And Rav Ashi said: That

fish

was a “gildana of the sea,”

which is one of the small fish of the sea,

which has two fins

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

d.

And Rabba bar bar Hana said: Once, it happened

that we were traveling in a 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 reaches 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 voice went forth and said to us: Do not descend here,

to bathe in these waters,

for

this

axe fell

outside the carpenter’s [place] seven years ago, and it has not reached the ground,

the bottom of the river,

and not only because the waters are abundant

did it fail to reach the earth,

but

also

because the waters rush.

A voice went forth and said to us: It is dangerous to bathe here in the water, lest you drown, for an axe fell here from a carpenter seven years ago [a very long time ago ], and the axe still has not reached the bottom of the river; and the reason that the axe still has not reached the bottom is not only because the waters are deep, but also because the river’s current is swift and carries along everything within the water.

Rav Ashi said: That

same bird that Rabba bar bar Hana saw

was a “wild bird,”

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

as it is written

[Psalms 50:11]:

“And the wild bird is with Me,”

that is, it reaches the heavens.

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

And Rabba bar bar Hana 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, and beneath those geese streams of oil were flowing.

I said

[I asked]

to them: Is there among you a portion for me in the World to Come

[is there a portion of you that I will merit to receive in the World to Come]?

One raised

[lifted]

a wing for me

[a wing],

and one raised a thigh for me

[a thigh], to hint 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 in the future be held accountable concerning 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, of sky-blue wool, a scorpion struck it, to its basket].

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

And that Ishmaelite trader joined us, who would take up earth and 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.

The Ishmaelite trader joined us; he would take earth and 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 trader,

Give me earth

to smell it!

We gave him

earth, and he smelled it,

and he said to us:

We are far

eight parasangs

eight parasangs.

After we had advanced on our way,

we repeated

we returned

and gave him

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

He said to us

the trader,

that we were far

from a place where there was water, only

three parasangs.

There was still room to think that perhaps the trader was lying and did not know at all how far we were from the water, or that he knew how to discern this by calculating the travel time or the like.

Therefore:

I mixed it up for him,

this earth with that earth, to test him whether he was indeed so expert, to discern from the earth alone how far the distance was between the place from which the earth had come and the water.

And I was unable to overcome him

I did not succeed in “defeating” him, for the trader knew how to discern very well between this earth and that earth, and to say how far the place of the earth was from water.

He said to me

that “trader”:

Come, I will show you

Come and I will show you

the dead of the desert,

the Israelites who died during those forty years in which they traveled in the desert.

I went,

I went with him,

I saw them,

I saw those “dead of the desert,”

and they appeared

they looked, with radiant and joyful faces,

like those who are intoxicated

like those drunk with wine