[Avodah] The thing with feathers

Micha Berger micha at aishdas.org
Tue Jan 18 08:27:14 PST 2022


On Mon, Jan 17, 2022 at 04:45:37PM +0200, Saul Mashbaum via Avodah wrote:
>> It is of interest, although almost certainly of no halachic import, that in
>> modern Hebrew,  owf, counterintuitively, is the class of *all* birds (Aves),
>> and tzipor refers to birds that can fly. For example, in modern
>> Hebrew, an ostrich
>> is an owf, but not a tzipor.

To which I replied:
> So you're saying that feathered dinosaurs would be ofos.

Meaning that if we managed to hatch a feathered herbivore dinosaur,
where the toes all point forward, the egg has a big end and a little
end... you would consider it likely kosher?

Minus the mesorah. Although... What if you could prove said dinosaur is
the ancestor of known kosher birds? (Likely it would still be ancestor
of non-kosher ones, but the need for a mesorah is whiffy anyway.)

> And what is a mosquito, fly or bat?

RSM wrote me privaely that he believes a tzipor is only an owf that can
fly, not other flying creatures.

Devarim 14:18, within the list of the tziporim that one may not eat,
reads, "vehachasidah eha'anafah leminah; bedukhidas veha'ataleif".
"Ataleif" is generally translated "bat". (JPS, Metzudah, R Charles
Kahane's Torah Yesharah, Bernfeld in German has "Fledermaus", the French
Rabbinic bible 1899 has "chauve-souris", etc...)

Ibn Ezra says the Radaq describes it as a mouse with wings that flies
at night.

The Septuagint has "nukteris", which means noternal. Which fits the
bat, but many other things.

Birkat Asher questions the possibility that it's a "fleder luous"
because it's neither a tzippor nor does it have the four legs of a
"sheretz ha'of" (see Vayiqra 11:20). Recommends seeing Daas Miqra.

But when you look at Daas Miqra (assuming I found the same DM), we
can save RSM's translations.

The DM suggests that an atleif is a bat but not a tzippor or a sheretz
ha'of. Rather, it is tacked on at the end here not as part of the list
of tzipporim but as a non-kosher flying thing AFTER the tzipporim and
before sheretz ha'of.

Kind of like: And these are the treif flying things:
    = Of the tzipporim
	...
        - the chasidah
	- the anafah species
	- the dukhifas
    = The atleif
    = Any sheretz ha'of

I find it weird that aleif wouldn't be tacked on to the front of the
next pasuq, with sheretz ha'of. Rather than tacked on to the pasuq that
has the end of the list of tzipporim. Substance of derashah, perhaps.

And one more note about an atleif... According to a beraisa quoted on BQ
16s, a male tzavua after 7 years becomes an atleif. An atleif after 7
years become an arpad, 7 years to a kimosh, to a choach to a sheid.

According to Koren:
tzavua: hyena
atleif: insectivorous bat
arpad:  herbivorous bat
kimosh: thistle
choach: briar
sheid:  demon

The Maharsha says that it's a bad thing, and therefore descends down the
chain of existence from animal to tzippor to plant before ending up So
the Maharasha would use the word tzippor for an atleif or arpad. Whatever
he thought atleif and arpad are.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 You are where your thoughts are.
http://www.aishdas.org/asp           - Ramban, Igeres haQodesh, Ch. 5
Author: Widen Your Tent
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF


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