Study Bava Batra folio 74B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
בר אמוראי לאתויה, ורגש ובעי לשמטיה לאטמיה, ושדא זיקא דחלא ונחת. נפק בת קלא אמר לן: ״מאי אית לכו בהדי קרטליתא דדביתהו דרבי חנינא בן דוסא, דעתידה דשדיא תכלתא בה לצדיקי לעלמא דאתי!״
i.e., a diver [bar amoraei] went into the water to bring up this chest, and the fish became angry and sought to sever his thigh, but the diver threw upon it a flask of vinegar and they descended and swam away. A bat kol emerged and said to us: What right do you have to touch the crate of the wife of R' Ḥanina ben Dosa, as she is destined to insert tekhelet wool in it to be used in the tzitzit of the righteous in the World-to-Come?
Rav Yehuda from India relates: Once we were traveling in a ship and we saw a certain precious stone that was encircled by a snake. A diver descended to bring it up, and the snake came and sought to swallow the ship. A raven came and cut off its head, and the water turned into blood due to the enormousness of the snake. Another snake came, took the precious stone, and hung it on the dead snake, and it recovered. It returned and again sought to swallow the ship, and yet again a bird came and cut off its head, took that precious stone, and threw it onto the ship. We had with us these salted birds; we placed the stone on them, and they took the stone and flew away with it.
תנו רבנן: מעשה ברבי אליעזר ורבי יהושע שהיו באין בספינה, והיה רבי אליעזר ישן ורבי יהושע נעור. נזדעזע רבי יהושע, וננער רבי אליעזר. אמר לו: מה זה יהושע, מפני מה נזדעזעת? אמר לו: מאור גדול ראיתי בים. אמר לו: שמא עיניו של לויתן ראית – דכתיב: ״עיניו כעפעפי שחר״.
§ Apropos the stories of large sea creatures, the Talmud discusses the large sea creatures mentioned in the Bible. A baraita states: There was an incident involving R' Eliezer and R' Yehoshua, who were traveling on a ship, and R' Eliezer was sleeping and R' Yehoshua was awake. R' Yehoshua trembled, and R' Eliezer awoke. R' Eliezer said to him: What is this, Yehoshua; for what reason did you tremble? R' Yehoshua said to him: I saw a great light in the sea. R' Eliezer said to him: Perhaps you saw the eyes of the leviathan, as it is written: “And his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning” (Job 41:10).