Leviathan

"God created the great sea monsters - Taninim." Jastrow translates the word "Taninim" as a "sea monster, crocodile or large snake". Rashi comments: "According to legend this refers to the Leviathan and its mate. God created a male and female Leviathan, then killed the female and salted it for the righteous, for if the Leviathans were to procreate the world could not stand before them."Take the quiz:
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Leviathan
Leviathan: The dragon-snake lurking in the vast, dreadful depths of endless oceans to the west. He is associated with the unknown, with the hidden and feared truth - and he strikes fright into the heart of absolutely everyone. Gigantic and unstoppable beast, who fules the very fires of Hell. The one who cannot be harmed with any normal weapons, and who may forever stay hidden without the possibility of being found.
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"Leviathan, which God of all his works Created hugest that swim the ocean stream. . . ."There have been lengthy arguments as to whether the Biblical Leviathan is or is not simply a whale. On the one hand it would seem that, since the whale is several times mentioned by its own name in the Bible, it cannot be the same as the Leviathan, but on the other hand it is quite possible that "whale" and "Leviathan" were used interchangeably to describe a single little-known monster; certainly "adder" and "cockatrice" were so used. In any case it is agreed that the Leviathan is huge beyond any other creature. (Its only rival is the Behemoth, an oxlike animal some seven miles in length who daily grazes over a thousand miles of grass in paradise and will eventually be slain by the Jewish Messiah.) The Talmud, always attentive to detail, concludes that the Leviathan is of such a size that it requires a fish three miles long (in itself, no mean whale!) every day for its feed. The Jews, however, also had a legend that after Jehovah had created the universe and all its living creatures He realized that the Leviathan was so enormous, so powerful and equipped with such an appetite that its very existence jeopardized the rest of creation. The world was out of balance. Fortunately, there were as yet only two such monster whales (Leviathan)in being and He therefore destroyed one of the two, so that their race could not be continued. At the same time, lest no record should remain of His mammoth handiwork, He made the second whale immortal. Somewhat the same story is told of the Scandinavian Kraken. It is supposed that only two Kraken exist, and that these were created at the beginning of the world and are destined to live as long as the world itself endures