[Avodah] Well, we are back to the achbor shechetsyo basar vechetsyo adama in the daf yomi

[Micha Berger]

On Mon, Oct 31, 2011 at 10:36:21AM -0400, hankman wrote:
: Well, we are back to the achbor shechetsyo basar vechetsyo adama in the
: daf yomi. I know this has been discussed in the past, but I guess it is
: time for a repeat. Does anybody have a peshat in this Mishna and gemara
: Chulin 126b (as well as the gemara in Sanhedrin 91a) that does not run
: afoul of modern scientific understanding? I think the previous discussions
: were pre Slifkin ban. Any new ideas post Slifkin ban? I do believe that
: we are MECHUYAV to look for a peshat that does not incorporate what is
: currently believed to be untrue scientifically into Toras Emes.

I fail to see the big question.

The natural philosophy of the day taught that sch an animal existed.
Chazal applied halakhah to that case. But they don't assert the case is
real, they take that for granted.

There is a parallel case within more recent history. The Chicago Zoo found
that the babirusa, a type of wild boar, has the same kind of stomach as
a cow or a sheep. So, there was a lot of discussion among rabbis of the
1970s and 1980s of the babirusa as a kosher pig. The Zohar's comment
that the pig is a "chazir" because it is asid lachazor to being kosher
adds to the power behind that train of thought.

By 1989, it was clear that it is not a ruminant. See
http://books.google.com/books?id=gcvvoN9T9mMC&lpg=PA76&ots=TlPVnkF-hG&dq=babirusa%20chew%20cud&pg=PA75#v=onepage&q=babirusa%20chew%20cud&f=false
or <http://bit.ly/vGvl6a> R' J David Bleich's 1989 sefer "Contemporary
Halachic Problems" (pp 75-77, all three pages available in that Google
Book copy I linked to).

Does this mean our gedolei haposeqim were wrong? Certainly not! They were
discussing the halakhah of a case that turned out to be hypothetical.
But what they were doing was the halachic analysis, not staking zoological
claims.

So, as I opened, I fail to see why there is any motivation to assert
differently when the gemara discusses an animal that people then
mistakenly thought existed. Why was the question even asked?

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 Time flies...
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