God's Oath

But let it say that it is a dispute between Rabbi Shimon and the Rabbis! This teaches us that Rabbi Menachem the son of Rabbi Yose holds the same view as Rabbi Shimon. We have completed "He Who Sells the House." He who sells the ship has sold the mast, and the sail, and the anchors, and all the implements that steer it. But he has not sold the slaves, nor the packing-sacks, nor the cargo. And when he said to him, "It and everything that is in it," then all of them are sold. Gemara. "Mast" (toren) means iskarya. And so it says: "They took a cedar from Lebanon to make a mast for you" (Ezekiel 27:5). "Sail" (nes) means adra. And so it says: "Fine embroidered linen from Egypt was your sail, to serve you as a banner" (Ezekiel 27:7). "Anchors" (ogin): Rabbi Chiyya taught: These are its anchors. And so it says: "Would you wait for them till they were grown? Would you shut yourselves up for them and have no husband?" (Ruth 1:13). "Steering implements" (manhigin): Rabbi Abba said: These are its oars. And so it says: "Of oaks from Bashan they made your oars" (Ezekiel 27:6). And if you wish, say from here: "And all who handle the oar shall come down from their ships" (Ezekiel 27:29). Our Rabbis taught: He who sells the ship has sold the gangway and the water-cistern that is within it. Rabbi Nathan says: He who sells the ship has sold the skiff. Symmachus says: He who sells the ship has sold the dinghy. Rava said: A "skiff" (bitzit) is the same as a "dinghy" (dugit). Rabbi Nathan was a Babylonian; he called it "butzit," as people say: "the boats (butziyata) of Meishan." Symmachus was a man of the Land of Israel; he called it "dugit," as it is written: "And your posterity in fishing-boats (dugah)" (Amos 4:2). Rabbah said: The seafarers told me: This wave that sinks a ship appears like a flash of white fire at its crest, and we strike it with clubs upon which is engraved, "I Am That I Am, Yah, the LORD of hosts, Amen, Amen, Selah," and it subsides. Rabbah said: The seafarers told me: Between one wave and another there are three hundred parasangs, and the height of a wave is three hundred parasangs. Once we were going on our way, and a wave lifted us up until we saw the resting-place of a small star, and to me it appeared as large as the area for sowing forty se'a of mustard seed. And had it lifted us higher, we would have been scorched by its heat. And one wave called out to its fellow: "My fellow, have you left anything in the world that you did not wash away, that I may come and destroy it?" The other said to it: "Go out and see the power of your Master: by a thread's breadth of sand I do not pass over, as it is said: 'Do you not fear Me, says the LORD; will you not tremble before Me, who have placed the sand as a boundary for the sea, an everlasting decree that it cannot pass?' (Jeremiah 5:22)." Rabbah said: I myself saw Hormin the son of Lilith, when he was running upon the parapet of the wall of Mechoza, and a horseman was riding below him on a beast and could not catch up with him. Once they saddled for him two mules, and they stood