[Avodah] buffalo

[Zev Sero via Avodah]

On 05/10/2016 04:17 PM, Ari Zivotofsky via Avodah wrote:
> they are likely referring to water buffalo, Bubalus bubalis, native to
> India.

Not "likely".   There's not even a hava amina otherwise.


> In contemporary Italian the word buffalo is still used to refer to water
> buffalo

Not just Italian but in pretty much every language, including English.

> This would lead one to
> suspect that Rabbi Yishaya Ha'achron, and hence also the Shulchan Aruch,
> were referring to water buffalo, and they had no doubt that it is a
> kosher behamah (domesticated animal)

Again, this is not a suspicion, it's a complete certainty, and I'm
astonished that it even occurs to anyone to question it.


-- 
Zev Sero               Meaningless combinations of words do not acquire
zev at sero.name          meaning merely by appending them to the two other
                        words `God can'.  Nonsense remains nonsense, even
                        when we talk it about God.   -- C S Lewis