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<DIV>Re: Book review: The Torah encyclopedia of the animal kingdom - Rabbi Natan
Slifkin</DIV>
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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial>From: Ben Rothke via Areivim <<A
title=mailto:areivim@lists.aishdas.org
href="mailto:areivim@lists.aishdas.org">areivim@lists.aishdas.org</A>><BR><BR><BR>>>
"The Torah encyclopedia of the animal kingdom" is the latest book by
Rabbi<BR>Natan Slifkin. I found it to be a fascinating work. My
review is here:<BR><A
title=http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/book-review-the-torah-encyclopedia-of-the-animal-kingdom
href="http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/book-review-the-torah-encyclopedia-of-the-animal-kingdom"
rel=noreferrer
target=_blank>http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/book-review-the-torah-encyclopedia-of-the-animal-kingdom</A><BR><BR><BR><<A
title=http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/book-review-the-torah-encyclopedia-of-the-animal-kingdom
href="http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/book-review-the-torah-encyclopedia-of-the-animal-kingdom"
rel=noreferrer
target=_blank>http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/book-review-the-torah-encyclopedia-of-the-animal-kingdom</A>><BR><BR>Let
me know what you think. <<</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV>--Ben Rothke</DIV>
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size=2 face=Arial></FONT></DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent"
color=#000000 size=2 face=Arial></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial>>>>>>
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<DIV>I think the book is magnificent. I've seen the first volume and read
a good chunk of it (the projected second volume is not out yet). It
is a fascinating work based on tremendous research, and also
aesthetically beautiful. The first volume is about wild animals mentioned
in the Torah. The projected second volume I believe is about domestic
and kosher animals.</DIV>
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<DIV>The book definitively answers, at least to my satisfaction, a question I've
wondered about for a long time: What is a re'em? </DIV>
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<DIV>According to wiki, Re'em is mentioned nine times in the Hebrew Bible (Job
39:9-10, Deuteronomy 33:17, Numbers 23:22 and 24:8; Psalms 22:21, 29:6 and
92:10; and Isaiah 34:7).</FONT></DIV></DIV>
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face=Arial> </DIV>
<DIV>In Moshe's brachos to the shevatim he says Yoseph has "the horns of a
re'em" (Dev. 33:17). Bil'am says when Hashem took the Jews out of
Egypt He had "like the strength of a re'em" (Bamidbar
23:22).</DIV>
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<DIV>R' Slifkin demonstrates that it is an aurochs, a huge and
powerful horned animal, a wild ox, nearly the size of an elephant,
that lived in Europe, Asia and North Africa. It went extinct only about
400 years ago. The last recorded aurochs died in Poland in 1627.</DIV>
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<DIV>BTW a description and drawing of the aurochs can be seen on pages 17 -
18 of a lovely 28-page monograph that is particularly appropriate for this
season. See *Exotic Shofars: Halachic Considerations* by R' Natan Slifkin.
</DIV>
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<DIV><A
href="http://zootorah.com/assets/media/essays/ExoticShofars.pdf">http://zootorah.com/assets/media/essays/ExoticShofars.pdf</A><BR></DIV></FONT>
<DIV><BR><FONT lang=0 color=#0000ff size=2 face=Arial FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
PTSIZE="10"><B><BR>--Toby Katz<BR>t613k@aol.com</FONT><FONT lang=0 color=#ffffff
size=2 face=Arial FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10"><BR>..</FONT><FONT lang=0
color=#0000ff size=2 face=Arial FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
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