daf bit: Bava Batra 75

[cellio]

During the six days of creation God created Leviathan, the giant sea-monster. (Two of them, according to the rabbis, because everything was created male and female. This thread is then dropped.) Leviathan is such a foul creature that when it is hungry it emits a fiery breath that makes the waters boil, and the sea does not recover for 70 years. Rabbi Yochanan says that in the time to come God will make a banquet for the righteous from the flesh of Leviathan, and make tabernacles for the righteous from the skin of Leviathan, and what is left over He will spread upon the walls of Yerushalayim and its splendor will shine from one end of the world to the other. (75a)

(Today's daf is 76, but we're in the middle of a fairly technical discussion of purchases -- of ships, in case you're wondering how we got to Leviathan -- so I went back a bit.)

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/merle_/]

Two of them, according to the rabbis, because everything was created male and female. This thread is then dropped.

I have to wonder how they deal with algae and the like. Perhaps they simply do not count as "creatures", or are mere side effects of the creation of other things.

[cellio]

I suspect that the rabbis consider algae etc to be either plants or inconsequential side-effects. Fish, birds, land animals, and humans may be the only things this applies to. Though since the torah text itself only tells us "male and female he created them" for Adam (yes, I am reporting tenses correctly), there seems to be rabbinic inference going on. One could cite Noach (pairs of animals), except that wouldn't cover fish. Now I'm curious.

[http://users.livejournal.com/merle_/]

I'm guessing they are considered side-effects or background items as well. Trees don't really come in two genders either, and they're much larger. But it would make for an interesting discussion!