[Avodah] lions

[Eli Turkel via Avodah]

As lions appeared in this past weeks parsha and haftara (in Israel) there
was an article on lions in one of the shabbat newsletters

As noted lions appear frequently in Tanach as symbols of power. Aryeh and
other names for lions appear 11 times beginning with the blessing of Jacob
and the bracha of Moshe in addition to Bilaam. Shimshom fights lions as
does David while in Melachim a man of G-d is eaten by a lion.
The geamara iin chagiga states that the lion is king of the animals, the ox
is king of the domesticated beasts and the nesher (eagle?) is king of the
birds.

However real life is very different. The lion eats mainly carcasses that
dies naturally or was killed by another animal for more than 50% of their
food. They follow vultures to find the carcasses. The rest of the food is
captured by the lioness. In each territory there is a pack a pack of
lionesses accompanied by 1-2 males. The males stay with the pack until they
are chased away by the next generation. Young male cubs are also chased
away or killed,
OTOH the lion is the biggest of the cat family except for the Siberian
tiger which is not found in ancient Israel.

-- 
Eli Turkel
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