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

[cellio]

"Rab Judah said in the name of Rab: All that the Holy One, blessed be He, created in his world he created male and female. Likewise, Leviathan the slant serpent and Leviathan the tortuous serpent he created male and female; and had they mated with one another they would have destroyed the whole world [unattrib. note: with the multitudes of their progeny]. What [then] did the Holy One, blessed be He, do? He castrated the male and killed the female preserving it in salt for the righteous in the world to come; for it is written: And he will slay the dragon that is in the sea." (Bava Batra 74b)