Study Bava Batra folio 74B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
i.e., a diver [bar amoraei] went into the water to bring up this chest, and the fish became angry and sought to sever his thigh, but the diver threw upon it a flask of vinegar and they descended and swam away. A bat kol emerged and said to us: What right do you have to touch the crate of the wife of
Rav Yehuda from India relates: Once we were traveling in a ship and we saw a certain precious stone that was encircled by a snake. A diver descended to bring it up, and the snake came and sought to swallow the ship. A raven came and cut off its head, and the water turned into blood due to the enorm
§ Apropos the stories of large sea creatures, the Talmud discusses the large sea creatures mentioned in the Bible. A baraita states: There was an incident involving R' Eliezer and R' Yehoshua, who were traveling on a ship, and R' Eliezer was sleeping and R' Yehoshua was awake. R' Yehoshua trembled,
Rav Ashi said: Huna bar Natan said to me: Once we were traveling in the desert, and we had a thigh of meat with us. We cut open the thigh and tore off the sciatic nerve and the forbidden fat and put it on the grass. By the time that we brought wood, the thigh had repaired itself, and we roasted it.
The verse states: “And God created the great sea monsters” (Genesis 1:21). Here, in Babylonia, they interpreted this as a reference to the sea oryx. R' Yoḥanan says: This is leviathan the slant serpent, and leviathan the tortuous serpent, as it is stated: “In that day YHWH with His sore and great a