Commentary for Bava Batra 145:11

אמר רבה לדידי חזי לי הורמין בר לילית כי קא רהיט אקופיא דשורא דמחוזא ורהיט פרשא כי רכיב חיותא מתתאיה ולא יכיל ליה זמנא חדא הוה מסרגאן ליה תרתי כודנייתי וקיימן

between one wave and the other, and the height of the wave is [also] three hundred parasangs. 'Once,' [they related], 'we were on a voyage, and the wave lifted us up so high that we saw the resting place of the smallest star, and there was a flash as if one shot forty arrows of iron;<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Cf. Kohut, Aruch. s. v. [H]. Current editions read, 'And it was like one scattering forty measures of mustard seeds', or 'and it was of the size of a field needed for forty measures etc. ');">²⁶</span> and if it had lifted us up still higher. We would have been burned by its heat. And one wave called to the other: "My friend, have you left anything in the world that you did not wash away? I will go and destroy it." The other replied: "Go and see the power of the master [by whose command] I must not pass the sand'[of the shore even as much as] the breadth of a thread"; as it is written: <i>Fear ye not me? saith the Lord; will ye not tremble at my presence? who have placed the sand for the bound of the sea, an everlasting ordinance, which it cannot pass</i>.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Jer. V, 22. ');">²⁷</span> Rabbah<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Munich MS. and others read, Rabbah b. Bar Hana. ');">²⁸</span> said: I saw how <i>Hormin</i><span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Hamburg MS. and others read Hormiz (Ormuzd). Hormin is the name of a demon. Ormuzd, according to Zend Avesta, is the impersonation of the light or the good principle in nature. From the present context it appears that an evil demon is meant. ');">²⁹</span> the son of <i>Lilith</i><span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Lilith, a female night demon. ');">³⁰</span> was running on the parapet<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' [H] Rashb. reads [H], 'on the pinnacles'. ');">³¹</span> of the wall of Mahuza, and a rider, galloping below on horseback<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Lit., horse, [H] Current editions read [H] animal. ');">³²</span> could not overtake him. Once they saddled for him two mules which stood

Explore commentary for Bava Batra 145:11. In-depth commentary and analysis from classical Jewish sources.