Bava Basra - Daf 73

• Audio Timestamps

0:00 - The 3 Sugyos

2:30 - Review of 3 Sugyos

4:42 - Siman

6:54 - 4 Blatt Back Chazarah

14:54 - Pop Quiz (Last 7 blatt)

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• Rabbah bar bar Channah: Description of waves

The fifth Perek begins by listing which items are sold along with a ship. After the Mishnah is explained, and a Baraisa lists more items, the Gemara begins the famous Aggadata of wondrous stories, mostly told by Rabbah bar bar Channah. He related that seafarers told him there are three hundred פרסאות between waves, and each wave is three hundred פרסאות tall, and they were once were lifted so high by a wave that they could see a small star’s resting place and were nearly burned by its heat. They overheard one wave say to another: חבירתי שבקת מידי בעלמא דלא שטפתיה – “My friend, did you leave anything in the world that you did not flood, דניתי אנא ונאבדיה – so that I can come and destroy it?” The other responded: פוק חזי גבורתא דמריך – “Go see the power of your Master Hashem. מלא חוטא חלא ולא עברי – We cannot even pass a thread-breadth of sand on the seashore,” as the passuk says: האותי לא תיראו נאם ה' – Will you not fear Me? says Hashem, אם מפני לא תחילו – Will you not tremble before Me, אשר שמתי חול גבול לים – Who made sand the boundary of the sea, חוק עולם ולא יעברנהו – an everlasting statute never to be transgressed?

• Hormin, the שד, pouring wine while jumping between two mules

Rabbah bar bar Channah saw Hormin (a שד), the son of Lilis, running across the top of the walls of מחוזא. A cavalryman was riding an animal below, and the שד could not keep up with him (the Rashbam says this teaches Hashem’s kindness in protecting people from שדים, and that they are otherwise dangerous). Once, two mules saddled for Hormin, and were standing on two bridges, and he jumped back and forth from one mule to the other, while pouring wine back and forth between two cups of wine, ולא נטפא ניטופתא לארעא – and not a drop spilled to the ground. This, despite the weather being so stormy that "יעלו שמים ירדו תהומות" – [seafarers] rise heavenwards and descend to the depths. Eventually, the king (of the שדים) heard about Hormin’s activities, and they killed him. The Rashbam explains that he was killed for revealing secrets of שדים in public.

• The geese which were losing feathers and dripping fat

Rabbah bar bar Channah reported traveling in the desert and seeing geese whose feathers fell out because of their excessive fat, and streams of their oil were flowing from beneath them. He asked them: אית לן בגוייכו חלקא לעלמא דאתי – “Will we have a portion in [your meat] in Olam Haba?” One goose raised its wing, and another raised its thigh, indicating the portions which would be received in Olam Haba. When he came before Rebbe Elazar, he commented: עתידין ישראל ליתן עליהן את הדין – Yisroel will receive judgment because of them, because their sins delayed the coming of Moshiach, and prolonged the geese’s suffering.

Siman – Giant Ostrich Egg

The sailors in the ship shaped like a giant ostrich egg that was being tossed among giant waves that were talking to each other, were amazed when they saw a demon off in the desert jump between two mules while pouring wine, as geese above were losing their feathers and streams of oil were flowing from beneath them.