עברית
Unraveling the Mystery: What is the Animal Mentioned in the Torah?
We know the rabbit as a cute creature, but the Torah makes a distinction between the rabbit and another animal. What is this other animal that the Torah references?
(Photo: shutterstock)One of the most recognizable characters for children today is the rabbit. In children's illustrations and stories, there is always the adorable little rabbit.
But what kind of animal is actually described in the Torah when it prohibits eating the creature called a rabbit?
We are familiar with the rabbit as a very charming animal, but it is not the same as the 'shafan,' which the Torah mentions as a separate entity. So, who is the 'shafan' the Torah talks about?
According to one perspective, the term refers to the rock hyrax, which is not as cute as the rabbit from children's stories, yet still carries the name 'shafan.' This is likely what King Solomon meant when he wrote: "The hyraxes are a people not mighty—yet they make their homes in the rocks."
The issue here is that the rock hyrax apparently does not chew its cud, while the Torah refers to an animal that does. However, naturalist Azariah Alon argues that the rock hyrax does, indeed, chew its cud.
Nonetheless, according to researcher Zvi Weinberger, the 'shafan' mentioned in the Torah is an entirely different animal known as the "musk ox." This is a larger creature that might have once inhabited the land. Weinberger relies on an ancient description of an animal that existed in the area and has since become extinct: In the year 1870, traveler Rabbi Yaakov Ibn Sapir describes a creature he saw during his stay in the islands of Java in Southeast Asia, where he visited the home of the vice governor. In his diary, he wrote: "The vice governor also showed me in his garden many kinds of animals and birds not found in Europe, and one large creature, like a donkey, which chews cud but does not have split hooves, and also has short limbs compared to its legs. He told me that he believes it to be the rabbit mentioned in the Torah, and not as typically translated in Ashkenazi terms as 'die hasen,' since 'hasen' does not chew cud."
This rabbit doesn’t quite fit into children’s stories, but it’s possible that this was the one the Torah alluded to…
