Rabbah bar bar Hana was the Talmud's greatest traveler of the impossible. His sea voyages, recorded in Bava Batra 73a–b, describe creatures so vast they reshape the geography around them.
Once, his ship encountered a fish so enormous that a mud-eating parasite had lodged in its nostril and killed it. The sea threw the dead fish onto shore. Sixty cities were destroyed by the impact. Sixty more cities ate from its flesh. Sixty more cities salted the remaining meat for preservation. From a single eyeball, they filled three hundred flasks of oil. When Rabbah bar bar Hana returned twelve months later, workers were still cutting beams from its bones to rebuild the cities it had destroyed.
On another voyage, his ship came upon a fish covered in sand and grass. The sailors assumed it was an island. They disembarked, baked bread, and cooked meals on its back. When the fish's skin grew hot, it flipped over. If their ship had not been close by, they would have drowned.
Another time, the ship sailed between a single fish's two fins for three days and three nights. The fish was swimming upstream against the wind. The ship was sailing with it. And this was no slow vessel—Rav Dimi testified that it could travel sixty parasangs in the time it takes to boil a kettle of water.
A day-old antelope was as large as Mount Tabor, with a neck three parasangs long. A frog the size of a fortress was swallowed by a snake, which was swallowed by a raven—and the raven sat in a tree that somehow bore the weight of all three.
Rav Pappa bar Shmuel said: "If I had not been there and seen this, I would not believe it." These visions echo the Psalmist's praise of God's vast creations: "There go the ships; there is that Leviathan, which You have made to play therein" (Psalms 104:26). The Talmud presents these tales without commentary—refusing to say whether they are literal, symbolic, or something beyond both.
The Gemara asks: But let us say that this is the dispute between Rabbi Shimon and the Rabbis, as it was concluded previously that according to Rabbi Shimon himself, even the carob and sycamore trees are not consecrated. The Gemara answers: Reish Lakish teaches us this, that Rabbi Menaḥem, son of Rabbi Yosei, holds in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Shimon, and therefore Rabbi Shimon is not the only Sage who holds this opinion. MISHNA: One who sells a ship has sold along with it the toren, and the nes, and the ogin, and all of the equipment that is used for directing it. But he has not sold the slaves who serve as oarsmen, nor the packing bags that are used for transporting goods, nor the antikei on the ship. And when one said to the buyer: You are purchasing it, the ship, and all that it contains, all of these latter elements are also sold. GEMARA: The toren is the mast [iskarya]. And in this regard it states: “They have taken cedars from Lebanon to make masts [toren] for you” (Ezekiel 27:5). The nes is the sail, and in this regard it states: “Of fine linen with richly woven work from Egypt was your sail, that it might be to you for an ensign [nes]” (Ezekiel 27:7). With regard to the meaning of ogin, Rabbi Ḥiyya teaches: These are the ship’s anchors, and so it states: “Would you tarry for them until they were grown? Would you shut yourselves off for them [te’agena] and have no husbands?” (Ruth 1:13). This demonstrates that the root ayin, gimmel, nun, means being shut up and held firmly in one place. The mishna teaches that the buyer acquires all the equipment used for directing the ship. Rabbi Abba says: These are the ship’s oars. And this is as it states: “Of the oaks of Bashan they have made your oars” (Ezekiel 27:6). Since a verse discussing ships focuses on its oars, evidently the oars are an integral part of the ship. And if you wish, say instead that it is demonstrated from here: “And all that handle the oar, the mariners, and all the pilots of the sea, shall come down from their ships” (Ezekiel 27:29). The Sages taught: One who sells a ship has also sold the gangway [iskala] used for boarding the ship, and the water tank it contains. Rabbi Natan says: One who sells a ship has sold the ship’s boat [bitzit], which is used as a lifeboat or for fishing in shallow waters. Sumakhos says: One who sells a ship has sold the dugit, as explained below. Rava said: The bitzit is the same as the dugit. Rabbi Natan was a Babylonian, and therefore he called small boats butzit, as people say: The botziata, small boats, of Miashan. Sumakhos, who was from Eretz Yisrael, called these boats dugit, as it is written: “You shall be taken away with hooks, and your residue in fishing boats [duga]” (Amos 4:2). § The Gemara cites several incidents that involve ships and the conversation of seafarers. Rabba said: Seafarers related to me that when this wave that sinks a ship appears with a ray of white fire at its head, we strike it with clubs that are inscribed with the names of God: I am that I am, Yah, the Lord of Hosts, amen amen, Selah. And the wave then abates. Rabba said: Seafarers related to me that in a certain place between one wave and the next wave there are three hundred parasangs, and the height of a wave is three hundred parasangs. Once, seafarers recounted, we were traveling along the route and a wave lifted us up until we saw the resting place of a small star, and it appeared to me the size of the area needed for scattering forty se’a of mustard seeds. And if it had lifted us higher, we would have been scorched by the heat of the star. And the wave raised its voice and shouted to another wave: My friend, did you leave anything in the world that you did not wash away, that I may come and destroy it? The second wave said to it: Go out and see the greatness of your Master, God, as even when there is as much as a string of sand on the land I cannot pass, as it is stated: “Will you not fear Me, said the Lord; will you not tremble at My presence? Who has placed the sand for the bound of the sea, an everlasting ordinance, which it cannot pass?” (Jeremiah 5:22). § Rabba said: I have seen the one called Hurmin, son of Lilith, when he was running on the pinnacles of the wall of the city of Meḥoza, and a horseman was riding an animal below him but was unable to catch up to him. Once, they saddled for him two mules and they stood
