A Soulful Journey

  R. Chana b. Bizna said: Eliezer (Abraham’s servant) asked Shem  (Noah’s son), “What was it like for you [in the ark]?” He replied, “We  had so much trouble in the ark. The animals which usually feed by day  we fed by day, and those which normally feed at night we fed by night. But my father didn’t know what was the food of the chameleon. One day  he was sitting and cutting up a pomegranate, when a worm dropped out  of it, which [the chameleon] ate. From then on he mashed up bran for him, and when it became wormy, he ate it ... As for the phoenix, my  father discovered it lying in the hold of the ark. “Don’t you require  food?” he asked. “I saw that you were busy,” he replied, “so I said to  myself, I won’t trouble you.” “May it be [God’s] will that you should  never perish,” he exclaimed. Talmud Sanhedrin 108b trans. David Seidenberg