Pt3 “Endless Water”: Eight Stories of Uncertain Drowning of a Husband in the Context of Remarriage (Yevamot 121a-b)

Story from R’ Akiva - ship that sank, survivor later appeared in front of him in Cappadocia; Story of the drowning of daughter of Neḥunya the Well Digger, her safety prophesied by R' Ḥanina ben Dosa

Part three of a three-part series. First part here; second part here. This part contains stories #7-8 (see the outline in first part). A future series will be about a further Eleven Stories Regarding the Reliability and Validity of Gentile Testimony (Yevamot 121b-122a).

Story from R’ Akiva - ship that sank, survivor later appeared in front of him in Cappadocia

Essentially the same exact story as the previous one narrated and witnessed by Rabban Gamliel, is now narrated and witnessed by R' Akiva.

The Torah scholar aboard the ship is identified by a gloss of the anonymous Talmud as R’ Meir.¹

R’ Akiva is specified to have landed in Cappadocia.²

תניא, 

אמר רבי עקיבא: 

פעם אחת הייתי מהלך בספינה, 

וראיתי ספינה אחת שמטרפת בים, 

והייתי מצטער על תלמיד חכם שבה, 

ומנו — 

רבי מאיר. 

כשעליתי למדינת קפוטקיא, 

בא, וישב, ודן לפני בהלכה. 

אמרתי לו: בני, מי העלך? 

אמר לי: גל טרדני לחברו, וחברו לחברו, עד שהקיאני ליבשה. 

[...]

It is taught in a baraita: 

R' Akiva said: 

Once I was traveling on a boat, 

and I saw a certain boat sinking at sea, 

and I was grieved over the apparent death of the Torah scholar who was on board. 

And who was it? 

R' Meir. 

But when I disembarked at the province of Cappadocia, 

he came, and sat, and deliberated before me about halakha. 

I said to him: My son, who brought you up from the water? 

He said to me: One wave carried me to another, and that other wave to another, until I reached the shore, and a wave cast me up onto dry land. 

[...]

Story of the daughter of Neḥunya the Well Digger, who fell into the Great Cistern, her safety prophesied by R' Ḥanina ben Dosa

In this story, set in the 1st century, the daughter of Neḥunya the Well Digger³ fell into the Great Cistern (בור הגדול). The community approached R' Ḥanina ben Dosa (a prominent miracle-worker, who lived at the end of the Second Temple period) to pray for her rescue. R' Ḥanina assured them at various intervals—after the first, second, and third hours—that the girl was safe and ultimately, that she had been rescued from the cistern.

When the girl met R' Ḥanina, she explained that a ram, led by an old man, had miraculously come to her aid and pulled her out of the cistern. 

Amazed by R' Ḥanina ben Dosa's prescience, the people questioned whether he was a prophet. He denied being a prophet, instead explaining his confidence as a logical deduction from the righteousness of her father's work, which involved digging wells for public use. He reasoned that it was unlikely that Neḥunya's own daughter would perish in a situation related to his life-saving work.

However, the Talmud quotes R’ Abba (רבי אבא - an obscure sage) as saying that despite this, Neḥunya's son died of thirst. 

תנו רבנן: 

מעשה בבתו של נחוניא חופר שיחין, שנפלה לבור הגדול, 

ובאו והודיעו לרבי חנינא בן דוסא. 

1. שעה ראשונה, אמר להם: שלום. 

2. שניה, אמר להם: שלום. 

3. שלישית, אמר להם: עלתה.

אמר לה: בתי, מי העלך? 

אמרה לו: זכר של רחלים נזדמן לי, וזקן מנהיגו. 

אמרו לו: נביא אתה? 

אמר להם: ״לא נביא אנכי ולא בן נביא אנכי״, 

אלא: דבר שהצדיק מתעסק בו — יכשל בו זרעו?!

אמר רבי אבא: אף על פי כן מת בנו בצמא, 

[...]

The Sages taught: 

An incident occurred involving the daughter of Neḥunya the well digger, who fell into the Great Cistern, 

and they came and notified R' Ḥanina ben Dosa and asked that he pray for her. 

1. After the first hour, he said to them: She is at peace and unharmed. 

2. After the second hour, he said to them: She is at peace. 

3. After the third hour he said to them: She has ascended from the cistern.

When she came to R' Ḥanina ben Dosa, he said to her: My daughter, who pulled you up from the cistern? 

She said to him: A male sheep, i.e., a ram, happened by and sensed me in that cistern, and there was an old man leading him who pulled me out. 

They said to R' Ḥanina ben Dosa: Are you a prophet with knowledge of what is happening far away? 

He said to them, using a figure of speech from the Bible: “I am not a prophet, nor the son of a prophet am I” (Amos 7:14). 

Rather, I reasoned as follows: Could it be that concerning the endeavor that the righteous Neḥunya is engaged in, i.e., digging for the benefit of the public, his offspring would stumble upon its fruits and thereby be killed?! I therefore knew that God would certainly save her.

R' Abba said: Even so, the son of Neḥunya the well digger died of thirst, 

[...]

1. It is noteworthy that R’ Meir is one of the sages cited in the Mishnah, as himself retelling a story of drowning, quoted in the mishnah, brought in the first part of this piece.

2. A region of Asia Minor. The version quoted in Talmud Yerushalmi specifies that this was the Cappadocian city of Mazaca - מגיזה של קפודקיא, and that original ship that sank was in the Mediterranean - ים הגדול.

3. נחוניא חופר שיחין - a personality mentioned in the Mishnah in a list of fifteen people with a position related to the Second Temple, see my previous piece.

In that mishnah, “digs wells” - חופר שיחין - is likely simply describing what he did. But in the Talmud, it becomes a kind of descriptive surname - “Digger of Wells”.