Re: Ask about Judaism
Posted: Wed Apr 05, 2017 10:45 am
Not everything in the Talmud is dry as dust legal discussions though - sometimes a legal topic might remind someone of a story:
PS Bava Batra is another Talmudic tractate, 'Iyyov' is Job. And the Rashbam is one of the major commentators on the Talmud.
As for the tales themselves - you'll have to look them up, but sailors are pretty notorious for telling some pretty big 'fish stories'!
If I saw that with my own eyes, I STILL wouldn't believe it! I don't think Rav Pappa (Rav is another form of 'Rabbi') believed it either - since he didn't see it with his own eyes, after all.Ha-mokher et ha-sefina, the fifth perek of Massekhet Bava Batra deals with selling moveable objects. Its opening Mishna continues the questions dealt with in the fourth perek, specifically what is included in the sale of a large object – a ship – that includes many smaller objects within it.
This discussion leads the Gemara to relate a series of stories of ships and sailors, many of them fantastic tales that are difficult to accept literally. The Rashbam’s approach to these stories is that they are told in order to emphasize the magnitude of God’s creations in the world by means of the rewards offered to the righteous as well as explanations of difficult biblical passages, particularly from the book of Iyyov. Other commentaries feel a need for more specific explanations of the stories, since they include exaggeration beyond reality. The general approach taken by these commentaries is that the stories refer to historical events in the Jewish people’s past.
As an example, the Gemara tells of an incident related by Rabba bar bar Ḥana, who says that he saw a giant frog that was swallowed by a serpent, which was then eaten by a raven. The raven sat on a tree, which successfully supported the raven’s weight. Rabba bar bar Ḥana concludes by commenting on the strength of the tree that could hold up such a bird, and Rav Pappa bar Shmuel says that had he not seen this with his own eyes, he would not have believed it.
PS Bava Batra is another Talmudic tractate, 'Iyyov' is Job. And the Rashbam is one of the major commentators on the Talmud.
As for the tales themselves - you'll have to look them up, but sailors are pretty notorious for telling some pretty big 'fish stories'!