Gigantic Lettuce Heads, Cedars, and Eggs: Extraordinary Testimonies from R' Yishmael ben Satriel (Bekhorot 57b)
Practice with Animal Hides; Remarkable Lettuce (or Pigs); Giant Cedar Tree; Extraordinary Event Involving the Giant Bar-Yokhani’s Giant Egg
This Talmudic passage contains several extraordinary and unusual testimonies from R' Yishmael ben Satriel, from a place called Arkat Leveina (an otherwise-unknown person and place), to R' Yehuda HaNasi.
The Passage
Practice with Animal Hides
R' Yishmael ben Satriel testified about a local custom where the skin of a deceased mother animal is used to clothe the newborn animal, providing it protection.
R' Yehuda HaNasi relates this testimony to a Mishnaic ruling (that I elide).
העיד רבי ישמעאל בן סתריאל, מערקת לבינה, לפני רבי:
במקומנו,
מפשיטין את המתה,
ומלבישין את החי,
אמר רבי: נתגלה טעמא של משנתינו
R' Yishmael ben Satriel, from a place called Arkat Leveina, testified before R' Yehuda HaNasi:
In our locale,
if an animal dies while giving birth they flay the dead mother’s skin
and clothe the living newborn animal with it for protection.
R' Yehuda HaNasi said: This testimony of yours reveals the reason for the ruling of the mishna [...]
Remarkable Lettuce (or Pigs)
R' Yishmael ben Satriel claims that the lettuce in his area has 600,000 leaves in its core, illustrating the lushness of vegetation in his locality.1
חזירין שבמקומנו,
יש להם ששים רבוא קלפים בבית המסס שלו
R' Yishmael ben Satriel also testified before R' Yehuda HaNasi: The lettuce in our locale
has 600,000 leaves in its omasum, i.e., in its core.
Giant Cedar Tree
Another testimony describes a fallen cedar tree so wide that 16 wagons could pass over its trunk side by side, indicating extraordinarily wide cedars in his region.
פעם אחת,
נפל ארז אחד שבמקומנו,
ועברו שש עשרה קרונות על חודו אחת
R' Yishmael ben Satriel further testified before R' Yehuda HaNasi:
Once
one cedar tree fell in our locale,
and it was so wide that sixteen wagons passed over its back, meaning the width of its trunk, as one, i.e., side by side.
Extraordinary Event Involving the Bar-Yokhani’s Egg
Another testimony recounts an event where an egg from the Bar-Yokhani (בר יוכני) bird fell and its contents were so voluminous that they drowned 60 cities and broke 300 cedar trees.
The Talmud questions the possibility of such an event, since the Bar-Yokhani (identified as the biblical kenaf renanim) lays its eggs on the ground. Rav Ashi clarifies that the egg was unfertilized, and thus discarded by the bird.
פעם אחת,
נפלה ביצת בר יוכני,
וטבעה ששים כרכים
ושברה שלש מאות ארזים
ומי שדיא ליה?!
והא כתיב (איוב לט, יג): "כנף רננים נעלסה"
אמר רב אשי: ההוא, מוזרתא הואי:
R' Yishmael ben Satriel also testified before R' Yehuda HaNasi:
Once
an egg of the bird called bar yokhani fell,
and the contents of the egg drowned sixty cities
and broke three hundred cedar trees.
The Gemara asks: And does the bar yokhani bird throw its eggs to the ground?!
But isn’t it written: “The kenaf renanim bird rejoices, but are her wings and feathers those of the stork? For she leaves her eggs on the earth, and warms them in dust” (Job 39:13–14)? The Sages understood that kenaf renanim is another name for the bar yokhani bird. If so, how could its egg fall if it lays its eggs on the ground?
Rav Ashi said in explanation: That egg was unfertilized, and since it would never hatch the bird threw it to the ground.
That's how Rashi and ed. Steinzaltz explain it.
Alternative translation: “the pigs in our area have 600,000 leaflets in their omasum”.
See Wikipedia, “Omasum”, and Ben-Yehuda Dictionary, “מְסֵס”.