Image from the Ambrosiana Bible (1238)
Psalms (“Tehillim”), the first book of the section in the Hebrew Bible called Writings, is an anthology of 150 poems attributed to King David and to others.
יָ֭דַעְתִּי כׇּל־ע֣וֹף הָרִ֑ים וְזִ֥יז שָׂ֝דַ֗י עִמָּדִֽי׃
I know every bird of the mountains, and the
ziz sadai is subject to Me.
(יד) יְכַרְסְמֶ֣נָּֽה חֲזִ֣יר מִיָּ֑עַר וְזִ֖יז שָׂדַ֣י יִרְעֶֽנָּה׃
(14) Wild boars gnaw at it, and ziz sadai feeds on it.
Bamidbar Rabbah is a 12th-century midrash (explanation) on the Book of Numbers.
תָּנֵי בְּשֵׁם רַבִּי מֵאִיר (איוב יב, ז): וְאוּלָם שְׁאַל נָא בְהֵמוֹת וְתֹרֶךָּ וְעוֹף הַשָּׁמַיִם וְיַגֶּד לָךְ. שְׁאַל נָא בְהֵמוֹת, זוֹ בְּהֵמָה. וְעוֹף הַשָּׁמַיִם, זוֹ זִיז שָׂדַי, (איוב מ, ח): אוֹ שִׂיחַ לָאָרֶץ וְתֹרֶךָֹּ, זֶה גַּן עֵדֶן, (איוב מ, ח): וִיסַפְּרוּ לְךָ דְּגֵי הַיָּם, זֶה לִוְיָתָן, (איוב מ, ט): מִי לֹא יָדַע בְּכָל אֵלֶּה כִּי יַד ה' עָשְׂתָה זֹאת.
It was taught in the name of R. Meir (from Job 12:7), “’But ask the beasts, and they will teach you; the birds of the sky, they will tell you’: ’But ask the beasts,’ this is the behemoth; ‘the birds of the sky,’ this is the ziz sadai of the Omnipresent (a giant bird). [(Job 12:8) ‘Or speak to the earth, it will teach you; the fish of the sea, they will inform you’:] ‘Or speak to the earth,’ this is the Garden of Eden; ‘The fish of the sea,’ that is the leviathan. (Job 12:9) ‘Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this?’”
Legends of the Jews is an original synthesis of a vast amount of midrashim [explanations] from rabbinic literature and other ancient sources compiled by Rabbi Louis Ginzberg in the early 20th century.
As leviathan is the king of fishes, so the ziz is appointed to rule over the birds. His name comes from the variety of tastes his flesh has; it tastes like this, zeh, and like that, zeh. The ziz is as monstrous of size as leviathan himself. His ankles rest on the earth, and his head reaches to the very sky.
The Talmud is the textual record of generations of rabbinic debate about law, philosophy, and biblical interpretation, compiled between the 3rd and 8th centuries and structured as commentary on the Mishnah. Tractate Bava Batra ("The Last Gate") is part of the Talmud and discusses relations between neighbors, presumptions of ownership and deeds, and laws of sales and inheritance.
(5) Nor is this world inhabited by man the first of things earthly created by God. He made several worlds before ours, but He destroyed them all, because He was pleased with none until He created ours. But even this last world would have had no permanence, if God had executed His original plan of ruling it according to the principle of strict justice. It was only when He saw that justice by itself would undermine the world that He associated mercy with justice, and made them to rule jointly. Thus, from the beginning of all things prevailed Divine goodness, without which nothing could have continued to exist. If not for it, the myriads of evil spirits had soon put an end to the generations of men. But the goodness of God has ordained, that... in Tishri, at the time of the autumnal equinox, the great bird ziz flaps his wings and utters his cry, so that the birds of prey, the eagles and the vultures, blench, and they fear to swoop down upon the others and annihilate them in their greed...
Midrash Tanchuma is a midrash (explanation) on the five books of the Torah, structured as sermons on the opening verses of each paragraph in the Torah. Named for the talmudic sage Rabbi Tanchuma, it was composed in Babylon, Italy, and Israel c.500 - c.800 CE. "Midrash Tanchuma Buber" refers to a version of Midrash Tanchuma published by Solomon Buber in 1885, based primarily on a manuscript that he discovered.
אמר הקב"ה בעולם זה אכלתם את המן בזכות אבותיכם, אבל לעולם הבא אני מאכיל אתכם בהמות זיז ולויתן, אתם אוכלים בזכות עצמיכם, שנאמר יכרו עליו הברים יחצוהו בין כנענים (איוב מ ל).
The Holy One said: In this world you have eaten manna through the merit of your ancestors; but in the world to come I will feed you cattle, <i.e.,> Ziz and Leviathan. You will eat through your own merit. Thus it is stated (in Job 40:30): SHALL TRADE ASSOCIATES MAKE A BANQUET OF HIM? SHALL THEY DIVIDE HIM UP AMONG MERCHANTS?
Tractate Bekhorot (“Firstborns”) is part of the Talmud and discusses the categories of firstborns.
Once an egg of the ziz fell to the ground and broke. The fluid from it flooded sixty cities, and the shock crushed three hundred cedars. Fortunately such accidents do not occur frequently. As a rule the bird lets her eggs slide gently into her nest. This one mishap was due to the fact that the egg was rotten, and the bird cast it away carelessly. The ziz has another name, Renanin, because he is the celestial singer. On account of his relation to the heavenly regions he is also called Sekwi, the seer, and, besides, he is called "son of the nest," because his fledgling birds break away from the shell without being hatched by the mother bird; they spring directly from the nest, as it were. Like leviathan, so ziz is a delicacy to be served to the pious at the end of time, to compensate them for the privations which abstaining from the unclean fowls imposed upon them.
Have You Ever Zeen a Ziz? by Linda Elovitz Marshall (2020)
... When the Ziz is flying by, giant wings block out the sky.
So because she hides the light, the Ziz mostly flies by night...
She stops wind and driving rains to help farmers grow their grains.
When she stands upon the land with her heels dug into sand,
her head rests upon a cloud, and she Zings out loud... LOUD... LOUD! ...
The Mishnah is the first major work of rabbinic literature, consisting of teachings transmitted over hundreds of years and compiled around 200 CE. Pirkei Avot (literally “Chapters of the Fathers,” also known as “Ethics of our Fathers”) consists of short statement of advice, ethics and wisdom.
(ו) עֲשָׂרָה דְבָרִים נִבְרְאוּ בְּעֶרֶב שַׁבָּת בֵּין הַשְּׁמָשׁוֹת, וְאֵלּוּ הֵן, פִּי הָאָרֶץ, וּפִי הַבְּאֵר, וּפִי הָאָתוֹן, וְהַקֶּשֶׁת, וְהַמָּן, וְהַמַּטֶּה, וְהַשָּׁמִיר, וְהַכְּתָב, וְהַמִּכְתָּב, וְהַלּוּחוֹת. וְיֵשׁ אוֹמְרִים, אַף הַמַּזִּיקִין, וּקְבוּרָתוֹ שֶׁל משֶׁה, וְאֵילוֹ שֶׁל אַבְרָהָם אָבִינוּ. וְיֵשׁ אוֹמְרִים, אַף צְבָת בִּצְבָת עֲשׂוּיָה:
(6) Ten things were created on the eve of the Sabbath at twilight, and these are they: [1] the mouth of the earth, [2] the mouth of the well, [3] the mouth of the donkey, [4] the rainbow, [5] the manna, [6] the staff [of Moses], [7] the shamir, [8] the letters, [9] the writing, [10] and the tablets. And some say: also the demons, the grave of Moses, and the ram of Abraham, our father. And some say: and also tongs, made with tongs.
R' Ovadiah ben Abraham of Bartenura wrote his commentary of the Mishnah in 16th-century Italy.
(ח) וְהַשָּׁמִיר. כְּמִין תּוֹלַעַת, בְּרִיָּתוֹ כִּשְׂעֹרָה, כְּשֶׁהָיוּ מַרְאִים אוֹתוֹ עַל הָאֲבָנִים הָרְשׁוּמוֹת בַּדְּיוֹ, הֵן נִבְקָעוֹת מֵאֲלֵיהֶן. וּבוֹ פִּתְּחוּ אַבְנֵי הָאֵפוֹד וְהַחֹשֶׁן, דִּכְתִיב בְּהוּ בְּמִלֻאוֹתָם:
(8) and the shamir: It is like a type of worm, the [size of a grain of] barley in its entirety. When they would [place] it on the stones that were marked with ink [to demark what they wanted cut, the stones] would become indented on their own. And with it did they engrave the stones of the vest (ephod) and the breastplate, as it is written about them, "in their fullness."
Rabbeinu Yonah Gerondi wrote his commentary on Pirkei Avot in 13th-century Berlin.
(ז) והשמיר. כמין תולע ארוך היה. ובו בנה המלך שלמה את המקדש שהיה משימו על האבן ונבקעת (גיטין דף ס"ח) ומקבות והגרזן כל כלי ברזל לא נשמע בבית בהבנתו (מלכים א' ו' ז'):
(7) and the shamir: It was a type of long worm. And King Shlomo built the Temple with it, as he would place it on the stone and it would split (Gittin 68a). "And no hammer or ax or any iron tool was heard in the House while it was being built" (I Kings 6:7).