Pt1 Talmudic Odyssey: Giant Creatures, Cosmic Wonders, and Other Tales (Bava Batra 73a-74a)

This is the first part of a three-part series. The outline of the series is below.

Intro and Analysis

This well-known aggadic sugya¹ presents a series of wondrous travel tales, mostly in the voice of Rabba and Rabba bar bar Ḥana. The stories blend seafaring lore, mythic creatures, cosmic landscapes, and theological motifs. The line between visionary allegory and sailors’ exaggerations is deliberately unstable.

These narratives collect rabbinic-period travel myths, some rooted in Mediterranean sailor lore, others in apocalyptic imagination. They serve several functions:

1. Theological: Waves and voices emphasize divine power restraining chaos.

2. Cosmological: The sea and desert are spaces where ordinary categories collapse—fish as islands, birds spanning earth and sky, corpses of Exodus generation intact.

3. Moral: Episodes with Korah’s rebels and God’s oath confront enduring sin and punishment.

4. Eschatological: The geese and the crate of pearls prefigure Israel’s future reward.

The sugya constructs a cosmic geography populated by hybrid creatures, immense bodies, and voices from beyond, collapsing the line between travel-report, allegory, and visionary narrative.

Tropes

Giant Creatures of Sea and Land

• A day-old antelope the size of Mount Tabor, damming the Jordan with its excrement.

• A frog the size of a fortress, swallowed by a snake, itself swallowed by a raven that perches on a tree—an illustration of scale and the tree’s resilience.

• Enormous fish:² one killed by a parasite, feeding and destroying 60 districts, yielding oil from its eye, and later harvested for beams.

• Another fish mistaken for an island, with sailors cooking on its back until it overturns.

• A fish so vast that sailing between its fins takes 3 days.

These stories blur zoology and cosmology, amplifying scale until ordinary categories collapse.

Further Seafaring Marvels

• Fish with eyes like moons and horns inscribed with “I am the lowliest creature, 300 parasangs long, headed for Leviathan’s mouth.”

• A chest of pearls encircled by sharks, destined for R' Ḥanina ben Dosa’s wife in the World-to-Come.

• A gem guarded by a sea creature (תנינא), lost to birds.

• R' Eliezer and R' Yehoshua see the eyes of Leviathan as a great light at sea.

Desert Wonders

• A thigh of meat that regenerates when cut, its coals still burning a year later. Ameimar interprets the grass as life-drug (samterei).

Recurring patterns, literary formulas and rhetorical structures

The stories in the sugya follow identifiable literary formulas and rhetorical structures.

These stories follow a “marvel-tale” formula:

1. Narrative frame →

2. Hyperbolic wonder →

3. Verification/test →

4. Scriptural echo →

5. Rabbinic comment/rebuke.

We can identify several recurring patterns:

1. Frame Formula

• Attribution: “Rabba said: Seafarers related to me…” or “Rabba bar bar Ḥana said: Once we were traveling on a ship…”

• First-person eyewitness: The narrator claims personal or transmitted experience (“I saw…”,³ “they said…”).

• This rhetorical device lends (supposed) testimonial authority while signaling the marvelous.

2. Hyperbolic Measurements

• Vast scales expressed in parasangs (distances), astronomical comparisons (stars, moons), or geographical markers (Mount Tabor, Jordan River).

• Numbers like “300 parasangs,” “60 towns,” or “twelve months”

3. Cosmic or Mythic Imagery

• Sea waves personified, boasting or constrained by divine decree (Jer. 5:22).

• Encounters with giant creatures: Leviathan, colossal sea creature, birds spanning heaven and earth, antelopes as mountains.

• These enact biblical verses in narrative form, dramatizing psalms or prophetic imagery.

4. Tests, Proofs, and Demonstrations

• Objects inserted into phenomena (wool in earth’s fissures, basket in the firmament).

• Arab guide has knowledge by dust-smelling; sailor experiments with divine names inscribed on clubs.

• Empirical-seeming experiments stage theology as demonstrable fact.

5. Rabbinic Commentary and Rebuke

• After marvels, Rabbis are said to have sharply critiqued him: “Every ‘Abba’ is a donkey, every ‘bar bar Ḥana’ an idiot.”

• Rebukes highlight misplaced curiosity (tzitzit corner, God’s oath), shifting emphasis back to halakhic or theological priorities.

• Thus, wild narrative is re-anchored in rabbinic discourse.

6. Voice of Heaven (Bat Kol)

• Several episodes climax with a divine voice (“Woe is Me… who will annul My oath?”; warning against diving).

7. Thematic Groupings

• Maritime Wonders: waves, giant fish, Leviathan, treasures guarded by creatures.

• Cosmic Boundaries: heaven and earth, stars, Mount Sinai, Korah’s rebels.

• Gigantic Creatures: antelopes, frogs, birds, geese.

• Guides and Proofs: Arab tracker (Bedouin), wool test, divine name clubs.

• The structure oscillates between sea voyage marvels and desert/cosmic revelations, creating a double cycle of wonder.

Outline

Intro and Analysis

1. Tropes

2. Giant Creatures of Sea and Land

3. Further Seafaring Marvels

4. Desert Wonders

5. Recurring patterns, literary formulas and rhetorical structures

   1. Frame Formula

   2. Hyperbolic Measurements

   3. Cosmic or Mythic Imagery

   4. Tests, Proofs, and Demonstrations

   5. Rabbinic Commentary and Rebuke

   6. Voice of Heaven (Bat Kol)

   7. Thematic Groupings

Outline

The Passage - Talmudic Odyssey: Giant Creatures, Cosmic Wonders, and Other Tales (Bava Batra 73a-74a)

1. Rabba via sailors - Giant Wave

   1. Giant wave with appearance of white fire at its crest

   2. The wave is subdued with clubs inscribed with divine names

2. Rabba via sailors - Lifted by a wave to a star

   1. Distance and height between waves: 300 parasangs

   2. Lifted by a wave to height of a star

   3. Waves converse: one boasts of destroying the world

   4. … the other replies that it is restrained by sand set by God

3. Rabba - Hurmin bar Lilith

   1. Sees Hurmin bar Lilith (a demonic figure) outrunning horses

   2. Leaping bridges

   3. Juggling cups; later executed

4. Rabba - giant day-old antelope

   1. A day-old antelope the size of Mt. Tabor (4 parasangs)

   2. The antelope’s neck was 3 parasangs long; dams the Jordan River with its excrement

5. Rabba bar bar Ḥana - giant Frog–snake–raven

   1. A frog as large as fortress Hagronya

   2. The frog is swallowed by snake, which is swallowed by raven that rests on a tree

6. Rabba bar bar Ḥana - giant sea creature killed by parasite

   1. Enormous fish killed by parasite

   2. The fish’s carcass destroys 60 towns, feeds 60, salts for 60; oil from its eye; bones later used for building

7. Rabba bar bar Ḥana - sea creature mistaken for land

   1. Sailors mistake giant fish for land

   2. They (unknowingly) cook on the fish’s back until it turns, nearly drowning them

8. Rabba bar bar Ḥana - Ship sails between fins of giant sea creature

   1. Ship sails 3 days between a fish’s fins

   2. The fish swam opposite current; identified as sea ‘gildana’

9. Rabba bar bar Ḥana - giant bird with head in sky

   1. Bird with feet in sea, head in sky

   2. Bat kol warns not to descend, ax had sunk 7 years without reaching bottom

10. Rabba bar bar Ḥana - Fat geese

    1. In desert, sees fat geese with oil flowing

    2. The geese signal yes to his question about Israel’s share in them; R’ Elazar: Israel will be held accountable for their suffering

11. R’ Yoḥanan - giant sea creature with moon-eyes

    1. Sees fish lifting head from sea, eyes like two moons, water from gills like rivers of Sura

12. Rav Safra - horned sea creature

    1. Sees horned fish

    2. Fish’s horns inscribed: “I am lowly, 300 parasangs, going to Leviathan’s mouth”

13. R’ Yoḥanan - Chest of pearls

    1. Sees chest filled with pearls, guarded by sharks

    2. Diver tries to retrieve it; bat kol says it belongs to wife of R’ Ḥanina b. Dosa for World-to-Come

14. Rav Yehuda from India - Precious stone & sea creature

    1. Sees precious stone guarded by snake; diver descends

    2. Ravens cut off snakes’ heads; stone briefly retrieved but carried off by birds

15. R’ Eliezer & R’ Yehoshua - Leviathan’s eyes

    1. R’ Eliezer & R’ Yehoshua on ship

    2. R’ Yehoshua sees great light; R’ Eliezer explains it may have been Leviathan’s eyes

16. Rav Ashi citing Huna bar Natan - Self-healing meat

    1. In desert, thigh of meat regenerates after being cut

    2. A year later coals still glowing; identified as ‘samterei’ and broom coals

Appendix - Rabba bar bar Ḥana - Arab guide in the desert

1. An Arab guide demonstrates uncanny abilities by smelling dust to determine directions and distances

2. The Arab shows giant corpses of Exodus generation

   1. Rabba bar bar Ḥana cuts a corner of tzitzit, cannot move until returned

   2. Rabbis rebuke Rabba bar bar Ḥana for folly—he could have counted threads

3. Arab shows Mount Sinai encircled by scorpions; bat kol laments God’s oath with no annulment

   1. Rabbis rebuke Rabba bar bar Ḥana for folly

4. Arab shows fissures of Korah’s rebels; smoke, scorched wool, voices cry “Moses and his Torah are true, we are liars” every 30 days

5. Arab shows boundary of heaven and earth; he places basket in a “window” of heaven, but it vanishes with the rotation of the sphere

The Passage

Bava_Batra.73a.8-74b.4

Rabba via sailors - Giant Wave

Giant wave with appearance of white fire at its crest

אמר רבה,

אשתעו לי נחותי ימא:

האי גלא דמטבע לספינה –

מיתחזי כי צוציתא דנורא חיוורתא ברישא

§ The Talmud cites several incidents that involve ships and the conversation of seafarers.

Rabba said:

Seafarers (נחותי ימא) related to me:

this wave that sinks a ship —

it appears like a ray (צוציתא) of white fire at its head

The wave is subdued with clubs inscribed with divine names

ומחינן ליה באלוותא דחקיק עליה –

1. ״אהיה אשר אהיה

2. יה

3. ה׳ צבאות

4. אמן אמן סלה״,

ונייח.

and we strike it with clubs (אלוותא) that are inscribed with the names of God:

1. “ ‘I am that I am’

2. Yah,

3. ‘YHWH of Hosts’

4. amen amen, Selah”

And the wave then abates.

Rabba via sailors - Lifted by a wave to a star

Distance and height between waves: 300 parasangs

אמר רבה,

אשתעו לי נחותי ימא:

בין גלא לגלא תלת מאה פרסי,

ורומא דגלא תלת מאה פרסי.

Rabba said:

Seafarers related to me that

in a certain place between one wave and the next wave there are 300 parasangs,

and the height of a wave is 300 parasangs.

Lifted by a wave to height of a star

זימנא חדא

הוה אזלינן באורחא,

ודלינן גלא

עד דחזינן בי מרבעתיה דכוכבא זוטא,

והויא לי כמבזר ארבעין גריוי בזרא דחרדלא.

ואי דלינן טפי –

הוה מקלינן מהבליה.

Once, seafarers recounted,

we were traveling along the route

and a wave lifted us up

until we saw the resting place (בי מרבעתיה) of a small star,

and it appeared to me the size of the area needed for scattering forty se’a (גריוי) of mustard seeds.

And if it had lifted us higher --

we would have been scorched⁴ by the heat (הבליה) of the star.

Waves converse: one boasts of destroying the world

ורמי לה גלא קלא לחברתה:

״חבירתי!

שבקת מידי בעלמא דלא שטפתיה,

דניתי אנא ונאבדיה?״

And the wave raised its voice and shouted to another wave:

“My friend!

did you leave anything in the world that you did not wash away,⁵

that I may come and destroy it?”

… the other replies it is restrained by sand set by God (Jeremiah 5:22)

אמר ליה:

״פוק חזי גבורתא דמריך,

מלא חוטא חלא –

ולא עברי,

שנאמר:

׳האותי לא תיראו?!

נאם ה׳,

אם מפני לא תחילו?!

אשר שמתי חול גבול לים,

חק עולם ולא יעברנהו׳״

The second wave said to it:

Go out and see the greatness of your Master (מריך), God,

as even when there is as much as a string of sand on the land⁶ --

I cannot pass,

as it is stated:

“Will you not fear Me?!

said YHWH;

will you not tremble at My presence?!

Who has placed the sand for the bound of the sea,

an everlasting ordinance, which it cannot pass” (Jeremiah 5:22).

Rabba - Hurmin bar Lilith

Rabba reports seeing a supernatural being (a demon), Hurmin son of Lilith, outrunning horsemen and leaping across bridges while juggling cups of wine without spilling a drop.

He is eventually killed by royal order.

Sees Hurmin bar Lilith (a demonic figure) outrunning horses

אמר רבה:

לדידי חזי לי

הורמין בר לילית,

כי קא רהיט אקופיא דשורא דמחוזא,

ורהיט פרשא כי רכיב חיותא מתתאיה,

ולא יכיל ליה.

§ Rabba said:

I have seen

the one called Hurmin, son of Lilith,

when he was running on the pinnacles (קופיא) of the wall of the city of Meḥoza,

and a horseman was riding an animal below him

but was unable to catch up to him.

Leaping bridges

זמנא חדא

הוה מסרגאן ליה תרתי כודנייתי,

וקיימן אתרי גישרי דרוגנג;

ושואר מהאי להאי

ומהאי להאי,

Once,

they saddled for him two mules (כודנייתי)

and they stood on the two bridges of the river Rognag,

and he jumped from this one to that one,

and from that one to this one.

Juggling cups; later executed

ונקיט תרי מזגי דחמרא בידיה,

ומוריק מהאי להאי

ומהאי להאי,

ולא נטפא ניטופתא לארעא;

ואותו היום ״יעלו שמים ירדו תהומות״ הוה.

עד דשמעו בי מלכותא,

וקטלוהו

And he was holding two cups (מזגי) of wine in his hands

and was pouring from this one to that one,

and from that one to this one,

and not one drop fell to the ground.

And that day was stormy, similar to the description in a verse dealing with seafarers: “They mounted up to the heavens, they went down to the deeps; their soul melted away because of trouble” (Psalms 107:26).

He continued in this manner until word of his behavior was heard in the house of the king,

and they killed him.

Rabba - giant day-old antelope

A day-old antelope the size of Mt. Tabor (4 parasangs)

אמר רבה:

לדידי חזי לי

אורזילא בר יומיה,

דהוה כהר תבור.

והר תבור כמה הוי?

ארבע פרסי.

Rabba said:

I have seen

a day-old antelope [urzila]

that was as large as Mount Tabor.

And how large is Mount Tabor?

It is 4 parasangs.

The antelope’s neck was 3 parasangs long; dams the Jordan River with its excrement

• ומשאכא דצואריה —

  • תלתא פרסי,

• ובי מרבעתא דרישיה —

  • פרסא ופלגא.

רמא כופתא,

וסכר ליה לירדנא.

• And the length of its neck —

  • was 3 parasangs,

• and the place where his head rests —

  • was a parasang and a half.

It cast feces [kufta]

and thereby dammed (סכר) up the Jordan River

1. See a partial bibliography of commentaries and scholarship on this sugya here: וְנֶעֶלְמָה מֵעֵינֵי כָל חָי / אגדות רבה בר בר חנה. As usual, my concern here is primarily with the plain (pshat) sense of the text.

2. Throughout, ed. Steinsaltz translates the relevant Aramaic word (כוורא) as “fish.” However, while this translation is technically correct, the word presumably extends beyond the modern biological sense of fish (compare Jonah’s “fish/whale”). For that reason, I often render it as “sea creature.”

3. לדידי חזי לי.

4. מקלינן - “roasted”.

5. שטפתיה - “flood it”.

6. I.e. beach sand, referring to the coastline/shoreline.