[Avodah] 8 legged camel

[Micha Berger]

RSZN wrote to Areivim:
: http://parsha.blogspot.com/2010/07/rav-yaakov-emdens-eight-legged-camel.html
: the [mythical?] origin  of r yakov emden's pshat....

RYE points ot Kelaim 8:5, which Y-mi daf yomi covered recently enough
(8:4 as the Vilna edition divides the mishnayos, 39b) for me to have
remembered. I do not understand how to explain this mishnah if you
translate "ramachim" as dromadary (the two-humped camel).

The previous mishnah was about kalayei beheimah following the mother,
in terms of horses and donkeys. Then we have this mishnah opens with
"Haperutiyos asuros" -- mules where you don't know of either of them
whether their mother or father was the horse or the donkey, can't
be mated.

And now, what appears to be a contrast paired to the previous issur
"veharamakh mutar".

So, the rishonim all assume the ramakh is either a breed of equine
that looks mulish or a similar hybrid. As for Megillas Esther 8:10,
the word Persian word "rammakha" and the Syriac "ramka" is the Tarpan
(a/k/a "Eurasian Wild Horse"). A picture on wikipedia shows something
pony sized. (They went extinct in 1909.)

But in any case, it would break the flow to assume we're now taking
about a kind of camel.

Although, the list would end here either way, the next animal under
discussion is "adnei hasadeh" (orangutans?).

-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Zion will be redeemed through justice,
micha at aishdas.org        and her returnees, through righteousness.
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