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Adapted from Talmud Bavli, Bava (Bava Batra 73a)
Edition William Davidson Edition - Vocalized Aramaic Translation English translation by Maggid , since no free public English translation of this passage exists.
License Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC-BY-NC) And Rabbah bar bar Channah said: One time we were traveling on a ship, and we saw a certain bird that was standing up to its ankles in the water, with its head in the sky. And we said: There is no water here, and we wanted to go down to cool ourselves off. But a heavenly voice came forth and said to us: "Do not go down here, for an axe fell from a carpenter's hand here seven years ago, and it has not yet reached the ground." And this was not because the water was deep, but because the water was swift. Rav Ashi said: And that bird was the Ziz of the field, as it is written: "And the Ziz of the field is with Me" (Psalms 50:11).
וְאָמַר רַבָּה בַּר בַּר חָנָה: זִימְנָא חֲדָא הֲוָה אָזְלִינַן בִּסְפִינְתָּא, וַחֲזֵינַן הָהוּא צִיפְּרָא דְּקָאֵים עַד קַרְצוּלֵיהּ בְּמַיָּא, וְרֵישֵׁיהּ בִּרְקִיעַ. וְאָמְרִינַן לֵיכָּא מַיָּא, וּבָעֵינַן לֵחוּת לְאִקּוֹרֵי נַפְשִׁין; וּנְפַק בַּת קָלָא וְאָמַר לַן: ״לָא תֵּיחוּתוּ הָכָא, דִּנְפַלַת לֵיהּ חֲצִיצָא לְבַר נַגָּרָא הָא שַׁב שְׁנֵי, וְלָא קָא מָטְיָא אַאַרְעָא״. וְלָאו מִשּׁוּם דִּנְפִישִׁי מַיָּא, אֶלָּא מִשּׁוּם דִּרְדִפִי מַיָּא. אָמַר רַב אָשֵׁי: וְהָהוּא זִיז שָׂדַי הוּא, דִּכְתִיב: ״וְזִיז שָׂדַי עִמָּדִי״.
Commentary So too did the Ziz pick up a young scholar named Shlomo from the roof of his house where he was studying and drop him in the garden of the king of Spain. The king took a liking to him, and let him live in a hut in the garden. There he met and fell in love with the princess, who studied Torah with him and secretly married him. But then the Ziz picked him up out of that garden and brought him back to the roof of his parents' house. In this way Shlomo was separated from the princess, but after great trials she found her way back to him. The flesh of the Ziz will be served to the righteous at the messianic banquet that will take place at the end of days. The Ziz is one of three mythical gigantic creatures that often appear in Jewish lore. The others are Leviathan and Behemoth. The Ziz is mentioned in Psalms 50:11: And Ziz-Sadai is with Me. In Jewish folklore the Ziz serves as the incarnation of fate. The two folktales noted are two famous examples. See "The Princess in the Tower" in Elijah's Violin, pp. 47-52, and "The Flight of the Eagle," pp. 82-88 in the same book. The account of the sighting of the Ziz by a passing ship is attributed to Rabbah bar Bar Hannah, a talmudic sage who reported on many strange sightings in his sea and land journeys. These are found in B. Bava Batra 73a-74a. Because of their outlandish nature, the tall tales of Rabbah bar Bar Hannah were often interpreted allegorically. The Maharsha, Rabbi Samuel Eliezer Edels, interpreted these fables this way, as did Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav. For the Maharsha, the waters that first appear shallow but turn out to be very deep represent the Torah, which may appear to be only ankle deep, but is actually profound and difficult to fathom. The bird's head that reaches the sky represents the hidden aspects of the Torah — the secrets of kabbalah. In Likutei Moharan, Rabbi Nachman expands on the Maharsha's interpretation in which the deep waters represent the deepest secrets of the Torah. He interprets the voice that warned against diving in as a warning to those who are not trained in the Torah against seeking out its deepest secrets. This is the esoteric view taken by kabbalah and succeeding stages of Jewish mysticism. Rabbi Nachman sees the carpenter as God, and the axe dropped into the sea as the Messiah, since the Messiah is called God's "axe." He finds that the reference to seven years refers to the 7,000 years that the world is supposed to exist. Most interesting is Rabbi Nachman's interpretation that the falling of the axe refers to the Messiah's own probing of the deepest secrets of the Torah. And when he reaches those secrets, then the messianic era will arrive. When that takes place, the Messiah will reveal these secrets to the whole world. Note that here Rabbi Nachman has created a new messianic myth. It is said that the Ziz, like Leviathan, will be served to the righteous at the messianic banquet at the End of Days. From this the rabbis concluded that the Ziz must be kosher. See "The Messianic Banquet," p. 508.
