Bava Batra 74a — the Talmud in English

. And they lay on their backs:

they were lying as sleepers, with their faces upward.

And the knee of one of them was upright, and an Ishmaelite merchant entered beneath his knee while riding a camel and with his spear upright, and it did not touch him.

One of the “deceased of the wilderness” was lying with his knee upright,

an Ishmaelite merchant entered beneath his knees, riding a camel and holding his spear upright in his hand, and the spear did not touch the knee of that dead man.

I cut

[I cut]

one corner of blue wool

one corner of his tallit

of one of them

in order to bring it before the Sages, to learn from it the laws of tzitzit: whether, in the time of Moses our Teacher, they followed the view of the House of Shammai or the view of the House of Hillel, as is explained below.

And we were unable to proceed:

the animals upon which we were riding were unable to walk.

He said to me

that merchant who had joined us:

Perhaps you took something from them

perhaps you took some object from them?

If you took something—

return it:

return it, so that we can continue on our way.

For it is received:

we have a received tradition,

that whoever takes something from them cannot proceed:

one who takes something from them is unable to walk.

We proceeded; I returned it:

I returned the corner of the tallit that I had cut,

and then we were again able to proceed:

we were able to continue on our way.

When I came before the Sages:

I told them this incident.

The Sages were angry with me and

said to me: Every

person whose name is

Abba,

he is a fool like

a donkey, and every

person who is

bar bar Hana

[the grandson of Hana] is

a siksa

[a fool]. And their intention was to express their anger at Rabbah—Rabbi Abba—who was bar bar Hana.

Behold,

for what halakhic purpose did you do this:

for what purpose did you cut off the corner of the tallit of that dead man? What halakha did you intend to learn by examining that corner?

You certainly did this in order

to know whether

the halakha was

like the House of Shammai,

who hold that there are four doubled threads in each of the four tzitzit on the corners of the tallit,

or like the House of Hillel,

who hold that there are three doubled threads there.

If so, although you were not able to bring the corner itself in order to show it to the Sages,

you should have counted the threads and counted the coils:

you could have counted for yourself the number of threads in the corner and the number of its coils in order to know according to whose view the halakha is; and why did you return the corner without examining it first!?

The merchant added and

said to me: Come, I will show you

come and I will show you

Mount Sinai.

We proceeded, and I saw that a scorpion encircled it, and it stood like

white donkeys.

I went with him and saw that a scorpion encircled Mount Sinai in order to prevent access to the mountain,

and it was standing there like a white donkey.

One who makes a vow or swears an oath and regrets it may go to a Sage, so that he may release his vow and his oath.

I heard a “heavenly voice” saying: Woe is me that I swore, and now that I have sworn, who will annul it

for me.

When I came before the Sages

when I returned and told the Sages what I had heard there.

They were angry with me and

said to me: Every

person whose name is

Abba,

he is a fool like

a donkey, and every

person who is

bar bar Hana,

he is

a siksa,

a fool.

For certainly the intention of the “heavenly voice” was the oath that the Holy One, blessed be He, swore to exile Israel, if so,

you should have

you were required

to say: It is annulled for you

and to release the oath; then we would have gone out from exile to redemption.

And he,

Rabbah bar bar Hana, who did not release the oath about which the “heavenly voice” had spoken,

thought

and was concerned:

Perhaps it is the oath concerning the Flood:

perhaps that oath which the Holy One, blessed be He, swore that a Flood would not descend again, was the oath that the “heavenly voice” sought to have released; and therefore Rabbah bar bar Hana did not wish to release it, so that the world would not be destroyed by a Flood.

And the Sages

who were angry with him thought: the “heavenly voice” was not speaking about the oath of the Flood, but rather it was speaking about the Flood itself;

if so, why “Woe is me”

did the “heavenly voice” say? And what reason would the Holy One, blessed be He, have to suffer over this oath!?

Rather, certainly the “heavenly voice” spoke about the oath of exile: “Woe is me,” for the Holy One, blessed be He, suffers over the distress of Israel, as it is stated [Isaiah 63:9]: “In all their distress, He is distressed.”

The merchant added and

said to me: Come, I will show you

come and I will show you

the swallowed ones of Korah

Dathan and Abiram and their companions from the congregation of Korah, whom the earth opened its mouth and swallowed.

I went with him and

saw two cracks

in the ground,

and they were emitting smoke:

smoke was emerging from those cracks.

He took a tuft of wool and soaked it in water, and he fixed it on the head of his spear, and he inserted it there; and when he brought it out, it was scorched and scorched.

The merchant took a tuft of wool and soaked it in water; the merchant fixed the soaked tuft of wool on the head of his spear and inserted it into the crack in the ground; when the merchant removed his spear, the tuft of wool had been scorched by the fire of Gehinnom.

He said to me

the merchant:

Listen

pay attention

to what did you hear

from the words of the swallowed ones of Korah?

And I heard that they were saying:

Moses and his Torah are true, and they

[we]

are liars

and false.

He said to me

the merchant:

Every thirty days

every New Moon,

Gehinnom turns them back here, like meat

that one turns over

in a cooking pot,

a cooking vessel, so that it will cook well,

and they say thus: Moses and his Torah are true, and they are liars.

The merchant added and

said to me: Come, I will show you

come and I will show you

the place where earth and sky touch one another

the place where the heavens and the earth meet.

I proceeded and saw that the

heavenly sphere

was made of windows, windows

windows, windows.

I took my basket and placed it in a window of the firmament

I placed my bread basket in the window of the firmament and stood to pray.

When I had finished praying

after I had completed my prayer,

I sought it and did not find it.

I said

I asked

him

that merchant: Surely

are there thieves here

who stole my basket while I was praying!?

He said to me

that merchant:

This

window in which you placed your basket

is the sphere of the firmament that revolves

it revolves and will return to its place tomorrow.

Wait

wait

until tomorrow

when the sphere returns

here, and you will find it

you will find your basket.

Four accounts that the amoraim related from what they saw when they traveled on a ship:

A.

Rabbi Yohanan related

[he related]:

Once, we were traveling on a ship, and we saw a certain fish that brought its head out of the sea, and its eyes appeared like two moons, and water spurted from its two nostrils like the two rivers of Sura.

[Rabbi Yohanan related: Once, we were traveling on a ship, and we saw a certain fish that brought its head out of the sea; its two eyes appeared like two moons, and water flowed from its two nostrils like the two rivers in the city of Sura].

B.

Rav Safra related: Once, we were traveling on a ship, and we saw a certain fish that brought its head out of the sea, and it had horns, and it was engraved upon it: I am one of the small creatures of the sea, and I am three hundred parasangs long, and I go to the mouth of the Leviathan.

[Rav Safra related: Once, we were traveling on a ship, and we saw a certain fish that brought its head out of the sea; this fish had horns, and it was engraved upon it: I am one of the small creatures of the sea; my length is three hundred parasangs, and I am going to the mouth of the Leviathan, so that it may eat me today].

Rav Ashi said: That one is a goat of the sea, which digs, and it has horns.

[Rav Ashi said: This fish that Rav Safra saw is the “goat of the sea”];

it has horns, and it digs with its horns in the bottom of the sea, in order to seek its food].

C.

Rabbi Yohanan related: Once, we were

traveling on a ship, and we saw that chest

[a box]

in which precious stones and pearls were set, and there surrounded it

[they surrounded the box]

various kinds of fish called krasha.

[Rabbi Yohanan related: Once, we were traveling on a ship, and we saw one chest in which precious stones and pearls were set, and fish of a certain type called “krasha” surrounded it].