Pt2 Talmudic Odyssey: Giant Creatures, Cosmic Wonders, and Other Tales (Bava Batra 73a-74a)

This is the second part of a three-part series. Part 1 is here; the outline of the series can be found at Part 1.

Rabba bar bar Ḥana - giant Frog–serpent (‘tanin’)–raven

A frog as large as fortress Hagronya

ואמר רבה בר בר חנה:

לדידי חזיא לי

ההיא אקרוקתא,

דהויא כי אקרא דהגרוניא.

ואקרא דהגרוניא כמה הויא?

שתין בתי.

And Rabba bar bar Ḥana said:

I have seen

a certain frog [akrokta]

that was as large as the fort [akra] of Hagronya.

And how large is the fort of Hagronya?

It is as large as 60 houses.

The frog is swallowed by serpent (‘tanin’), which is swallowed by raven that rests on a tree

• אתא תנינא --

  • בלעה.

• אתא פושקנצא --

  • ובלעה לתנינא,

וסליק יתיב באילנא.

תא חזי כמה נפיש חיליה דאילנא.

אמר רב פפא בר שמואל:

אי לא הואי התם,

לא הימני.

• A snake¹ came --

  • and swallowed the frog.

• A raven came --

  • and swallowed the snake,

and the raven flew up and sat in a tree.

Come and see how great is the strength of the tree, which could bear the weight of that raven.

Rav Pappa bar Shmuel said:

If I had not been there and seen this,

I would not believe it.

Rabba bar bar Ḥana - giant sea creature killed by parasite

Enormous sea creature killed by parasite

ואמר רבה בר בר חנה:

זימנא חדא

הוה קא אזלינן בספינתא,

וחזינן ההוא כוורא

דיתבא ליה אכלה טינא באוסייה,

ואדחוהו מיא

ושדיוהו לגודא

§ And Rabba bar bar Ḥana said:

Once

we were traveling in a ship

and we saw a certain fish (כוורא)

in whose nostril [be’usyeih] a mud eater [akhla tina], i.e., a type of insect, had sat and killed him.

And the waters thrust the fish

and threw it upon the shore.

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

1. וחרוב מיניה שתין מחוזי.

2. ואכול מיניה שתין מחוזי,

3. ומלחו מיניה שתין מחוזי,

4. ומלאו מחד גלגלא דעיניה תלת מאה גרבי משחא.

וכי הדרן לבתר תריסר ירחי שתא,

חזינן דהוה קא מנסרי מגרמיה מטללתא,

ויתבי למבנינהו הנך מחוזי.

1. And 60 districts (מחוזי) were destroyed by the fish,

2. and 60 districts ate from it,

3. and another 60 districts salted its meat to preserve it.

4. And they filled from one of its eyeballs 300 flasks of oil.

And when we returned there after the 12 months of the year had passed,

we saw that they were cutting beams from its bones,

and they had set out to build those districts that had been destroyed.

Rabba bar bar Ḥana - sea creature mistaken for land

Sailors mistake giant sea creature for land

ואמר רבה בר בר חנה:

זימנא חדא

הוה קא אזלינן בספינתא,

וחזינן ההוא כוורא

דיתבא ליה חלתא אגביה

וקדח אגמא עילויה.

And Rabba bar bar Ḥana said:

Once

we were traveling on a ship

and we saw a certain fish

upon which sand had settled,

and grass (אגמא) grew (קדח) on it.

They (unknowingly) cook on the sea creature’s back until it turns, nearly drowning them

סברינן יבשתא היא,

וסלקינן

ואפינן

ובשלינן אגביה.

וכד חם גביה --

אתהפיך,

ואי לאו דהוה מקרבא ספינתא --

הוה טבעינן.

We assumed that it was dry land

and went up

and baked

and cooked on the back of the fish,

but when its back grew hot --

it turned over.

And were it not for the fact that the ship was close by --

we would have drowned.

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

Ship sails 3 days between a sea creature’s fins

ואמר רבה בר בר חנה:

זימנא חדא

הוה אזלינן בספינתא,

וסגאי ספינתא בין שיצא לשיצא דכוארא --

תלתא יומי ותלתא לילוותא

And Rabba bar bar Ḥana said:

Once

we were traveling in a ship

and the ship traveled between one fin [shitza] and the other fin of a fish --

for 3 days and 3 nights.

The sea creature swam opposite current; identified as sea ‘gildana’

• איהו

  • בזקיפא

• ואנן

  • בשיפולא.

וכי תימא: לא מסגיא ספינתא טובא,

כי אתא רב דימי אמר:

כמיחם קומקומא דמיא --

מסגיא שתין פרסי,

ושאדי פרשא גירא –

וקדמה ליה.

ואמר רב אשי:

ההוא גילדנא דימא הוא,

דאית ליה תרי שייצי.

The fish was swimming in the opposite direction of the ship, so that

• it --

  • was swimming upward (זקיפא) against the wind and the waves,

• and we --

  • were sailing downward (שיפולא)

And if you would say that the ship did not travel (מסגיא) very fast,

when Rav Dimi came from Eretz Yisrael to Babylonia he said:

In the short amount of time required to heat a kettle of water --

that ship can travel 60 parasangs.

And another demonstration of its speed is that a horseman shot an arrow --

and yet the ship was traveling so swiftly that it outraced it.²

And Rav Ashi said:

That fish was a sea gildana,

which has two sets of fins.

Rabba bar bar Ḥana - giant bird with head in sky

Bird with feet in sea, head in sky

ואמר רבה בר בר חנה:

זימנא חדא

הוה אזלינן בספינתא,

וחזינן ההוא ציפרא

דקאים עד קרצוליה במיא,

ורישיה ברקיע.

ואמרינן: ליכא מיא,

ובעינן לחות לאקורי נפשין

And Rabba bar bar Ḥana said:

Once

we were traveling in a ship

and we saw a certain bird

that was standing with water up to its ankles [kartzuleih]

and its head was in the sky.

And we said to ourselves that

there is no deep water here,

and we wanted to go down to cool ourselves off.

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

ונפק בת קלא ואמר לן:

״לא תיחותו הכא,

דנפלת ליה חציצא לבר נגרא הא שב שני,

ולא קא מטיא אארעא״.

ולאו משום דנפישי מיא,

אלא משום דרדפי מיא.

אמר רב אשי:

וההוא זיז שדי הוא,

דכתיב: ״וזיז שדי עמדי״.

And a bat kol emerged and said to us:

Do not go down here,

as the ax of a carpenter fell into it 7 years ago

and it has still not reached the bottom.

And this is not because the water is so large and deep.

Rather, it is because the water is turbulent.

Rav Ashi said:

And that bird is called ziz sadai, wild beast,

as it is written: “I know all the fowls of the mountains; and the ziz sadai is Mine” (Psalms 50:11).³

Rabba bar bar Ḥana - Fat geese

In desert, sees fat geese with oil flowing

ואמר רבה בר בר חנה:

זימנא חדא

הוה קא אזלינן במדברא,

וחזינן הנהו אווזי

דשמטי גדפייהו משמנייהו,

וקא נגדי נחלי דמשחא מתותייהו.

And Rabba bar bar Ḥana said:

Once

we were traveling in the desert

and we saw these geese

whose wings were sloping because they were so fat,

and streams of oil flowed beneath them.

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

אמינא להו: אית לן בגוייכו חלקא לעלמא דאתי?

חדא דלי גדפא,

וחדא דלי אטמא.

כי אתאי לקמיה דרבי אלעזר,

אמר לי: עתידין ישראל ליתן עליהן את הדין.

[...]

I said to them: Shall we have a portion of you in the World-to-Come?

One raised a wing,

and one raised a leg,

signaling an affirmative response.

When I came before R' Elazar,

he said to me: The Jewish people will eventually be held accountable⁴ for the suffering of the geese.

Since the Jews do not repent, the geese are forced to continue to grow fat as they wait to be given to the Jewish people as a reward.

[...]

R’ Yoḥanan - giant sea creature with moon-eyes

Sees sea creature lifting head from sea, eyes like two moons, water from gills like rivers of Sura

רבי יוחנן משתעי:

זימנא חדא

הוה קא אזלינן בספינתא;

וחזינן ההוא כוורא

דאפקיה לרישיה מימא,

ודמיין עייניה כתרי סיהרי;

ונפוץ מיא מתרתי זימיה

כתרי מברי דסורא.

§ R' Yoḥanan relates:

Once

we were traveling on a ship

and we saw a certain fish

that took its head out of the sea,

and its eyes had the appearance of two moons,

and water scattered (נפוץ) from its two gills (זימיה)

like the two rivers (מברי) of Sura.

Rav Safra - horned sea creature

Sees horned sea creature

רב ספרא משתעי:

זימנא חדא

הוה קא אזלינן בספינתא;

וחזינן ההוא כוורא

דאפקיה לרישיה מימא,

והוה ליה קרני

Rav Safra relates:

Once

we were traveling on a ship

and we saw a certain fish

that took its head out of the sea,

and it had horns

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

וחקיק עליה:

״אנא בריה קלה שבים

והוינא תלת מאה פרסי,

ואזילנא לפומא דלויתן"

אמר רב אשי:

ההוא עיזא דימא הוא,

דבחישא

ואית לה קרני.

and the following was inscribed on them [=the horns]:

“I am a lowly sea creature

and I am 300 parasangs long,

and I am going into Leviathan’s mouth”

Rav Ashi said:

That is the “sea goat”,

which searches (בחישא) through the sea

and has horns.

1. תנינא - ‘tanina’.

See Wikipedia, “Tannin (mythology)“:

Tannin (Hebrew: תַּנִּין tannīn; Syriac: ܬܢܝܢܐ tannīnā plural: tannīnē; Arabic: التنين tinnīn, ultimately from Akkadian 𒆗𒉌𒈾 dannina) or Tunnanu (Ugaritic: 𐎚𐎐𐎐 tnn, likely vocalized tunnanu) was a sea monster in Canaanite and Hebrew mythology used as a symbol of chaos and evil.

Canaanite mythology

Tannin appears in the Baal Cycle as one of the servants of Yam (lit. 'Sea') defeated by Baʿal (lit. 'Lord') or bound by his sister, Anat.

He is usually depicted as serpentine, possibly with a double tail.

Hebrew mythology

The tanninim (תַּנִּינִים) also appear in the Hebrew Bible […]

They are explicitly listed among the creatures created by God on the fifth day of the Genesis creation narrative, translated in the King James Version as "great whales".

The tannin is listed in the apocalypse of Isaiah as among the sea beasts to be slain by Yahweh "on that day", translated in the King James Version as "the dragon".

In Judaism, tannin is the term used for sea monsters such as Leviathan and Rahab.

Along with Rahab, "Tannin" was a name applied to ancient Egypt after the Exodus to Canaan.

The word Tannin is used in the Hebrew Bible fourteen times.

Aaron's staff becomes Tannin in the Book of Exodus (Exodus 7:9-12), it is used in the meaning "snake" in the Book of Deuteronomy (Deut 32:33) and Psalms (Psalm 91:13).

It represents Nebuchadnezzar II (the king of Babylon) in Jeremiah (Jeremiah 51:34) and Pharaoh in Ezekiel (Ezekiel 29:3, 32:2).

In the Book of Job (Job 7:12) the protagonist questions God "Am I the sea or the sea dragon that you have set a guard over me?"

2. Looking at this passage literally:

From the kettle timing:

• 60 parasangs ≈ 360 km (using ~6 km per parasang)

• Time to heat a kettle ≈ 15 minutes

• Speed = 1,440 km/h (895 mph)

From outracing the arrow:

• Ancient arrows traveled ~180-250 km/h

• Ship must exceed this speed

The kettle calculation gives the higher estimate, suggesting this mythical vessel traveled at roughly 1,440 km/h - faster than modern jet aircraft and clearly supernatural in nature.

3. See Wikipedia, “Ziz“:

The Ziz (Hebrew: זיז‎) is a giant griffin-like bird in Jewish mythology, said to be large enough to be able to block out the sun with its wingspan.

It is considered a giant animal/monster corresponding to archetypal creatures […]

There is only passing mention of the Ziz in the Bible, found in Psalms 50:11 "I know all the birds of the mountains and Zīz śāday [וְזִיז שָׂדַי] is mine" and Psalms 80:14 "The boar from the forest ravages it, and zīz śāday feeds on it", and these are often lost in translation from the Hebrew, being referred to in most English translations as ambiguous "beasts" and referred to as neither singular nor avian (śāday usually being translated as "of the field")

4. ליתן עליהן את הדין - literally: “to render judgment upon them.”

This is a common Talmudic idiom meaning that a person or group will ultimately be held accountable for this matter, whether in the afterlife or in the messianic future.

Compare my discussion of the future “judgement day” in “Rome and the Final Judgment: The Messianic-Era Judgement Day in the Talmud and Rome's Role (Avodah Zarah 2a-b)“.