Bava Basra - Daf 74

• Audio Timestamps

0:00 - The 3 Sugyos

3:15 - Review of 3 Sugyos

6:12- Siman

7:50 - 4 Blatt Back Chazarah

15:24 - Pop Quiz (Last 7 blatt)

For access to all Zichru resources including PDFs, and illustrations CLICK HERE

• Rabbah bar bar Channah’s sightings of מתי מדבר, Har Sinai, and those swallowed with Korach

An Arab merchant showed Rabbah bar bar Channah the people who had died in the מדבר, and they shone as if they were drunk. The Arab was able to ride on a camel, with his spear upright, under the knee of one. Rabbah cut off the tzitzis of one, but could not move until returning it. The Rabbis criticized him sharply, since his purpose had been to resolve a machlokes about the number of threads and wound sections, and he could have counted them himself. He was shown Har Sinai, surrounded by scorpions which appeared like white donkeys. He heard a בל קול saying: אוי לי שנשבעתי – “Woe is to Me that I have sworn to exile Yisroel; ועכשיו שנשבעתי מי מפר לי – now that I have sworn, who will annul it for Me?” The Rabbis strongly criticized Rabbah for not annulling it himself, but he was afraid that Hashem referred to His shevuah not to flood the world. He was shown those swallowed up with Korach: he saw two cracks in the ground which were emitting smoke. The Arab inserted soaked wool on a spear into the cracks, and it was singed. He heard them calling: משה ותורתו אמת והן בדאין – Moshe and his Torah are true, and [we] are liars!”

• Precious stones at sea and the fight between the sea monster and raven

Rebbe Yochanan related that, while traveling at sea, he saw a chest with precious stones and pearls set in it, surrounded by fish called “karsha.” A diver went to get it, but a fish sought to injure him. The diver threw a bottle of vinegar at it, and it swam away. A בת קול went forth saying: מאי אית לכו בהדי קרטליתא דדביתהו דר"ח בן דוסא – What business do you have with the chest of Rebbe Chanina ben Dosa’ wife, in which techeiles will be kept for the צדיקים of the World to Come?” Rav Yehudah the Ethiopian related that, while traveling at sea, he saw a certain precious stone surrounded by a sea-monster. A diver went to get the stone, and the sea-monster wanted to swallow the ship. A raven came and chopped off the creature’s head, and the water became filled with blood. Another sea-monster came, took the stone, and hung it on the dead creature, and it came alive. After the sea-monster again attempted to swallow the ship, only to be killed by the bird, the diver took the stone and threw it into the ship. The stone was put onto salted birds in the ship, and they came alive and flew off with the stone.

• Creation of לויתן and בהמות, and what Hashem did to prevent their having offspring

Rav said: כל מה שברא הקדוש ברוך הוא בעולמו – Everything Hashem created in His world, זכר ונקבה בראם – He created them both male and female, including the לויתן, the (male) בריח – rod-like לויתן, and the (female) עקלתון – curved לויתן. However, if they would mate and bear offspring, מחריבין כל העולם כולו – they would destroy the entire world. Therefore, Hashem castrated the male (so it could not mate with any fish), and killed the female and salted it for the righteous to consume לעתיד לבא. The "בהמות בהררי אלף" – “behemos” of a thousand hills was also created male and female, but would also destroy the world if they would bear offspring. Therefore, Hashem castrated the male and cooled the female from desire. “Cooling” would have been ineffective for the female לויתן, because דגים פריצי – fish are unbridled. The female לויתן was killed, and the male castrated, and not the reverse, because the female salted meat is better. Alternatively, since the passuk says: "לויתן זה יצרת לשחק בו" – You created the Levyasan to sport with it, this would not be appropriate for the female לויתן. The female בהמות was not killed and salted, because salted animal meat is not good.

Siman – Witness (עד)

The witness standing under the knee of a giant in the desert, as smoke emerged from two cracks in the ground, was terrified when he saw a sea monster clashing with a raven regarding a precious stone at sea, which landed next to an enormous female fish that was killed and salted for tzaddikim to consume in the future.