Category Archives: Flora and fauna

Spotlight on Nature: The Camel, The Hare and the Hyrax.

By | | , , , , , ,
Leave a comment

This little animal is happily perched on one of the scariest cliffs in Israel. (Hyrax in Rosh Haniqra)

This Post is a cunning combination of this weeks Torah Portion (Re’eh) and the Monthly Spotlight on Nature.

‘But this you can’t eat… the Camel, the Hare and the Hyrax’.(Deuteronomy  / Devarim 14:7)

Not a Badger or a Rabbit

A little note (or rant) on my translation and what animals you can actually expect to see in Israel. The King James translation of the Bible renders this the ‘Camel, the hare and the coney’. This is patently ridiculous as ‘Coney’ means a rabbit.

Exciting Nature Fact of the Day: THERE ARE NO WILD RABBITS IN ISRAEL.

The Bible was written for a people intended to live in the land of Israel. The fauna spoken of in the Bible are all animals indigenous to Israel. As there are no naturally occuring wild Rabbits in Israel. Some translations such as the ‘New American’ translate the second animal, in hebrew ‘Arnevet’, as rabbit too. This is equally wrong even though in modern Hebrew a similar word ‘Arnav’ means rabbit and ‘Arnevet’ means lady rabbit.

Exciting Nature Fact of the Day number 2:

THERE ARE NO BADGERS EITHER.

All the translations that call ‘Shaphan’ (the last animal) a badger are clearly mistaken, there are no badgers in Israel at all.

Common Israeli anmals

The first animal mentioned ‘Gamal’ in hebrew is easy to translate and spot, there are, suprisingly enough, quite a lot of camels in this part of the world.

The second animal; ‘Arnevet’, well I have n’t yet seen a hare in Israel, but apparently there are quite a number.

(Oh yes, incidentally the difference between a Rabbit and a Hare is that Hares are non gregarious, they do n’t live in communities and they are larger than Rabbits.)

The third one, ‘Shaphan’, is a hyrax, the little fuzzy beast depicted above. They can be seen all over the place, in the desert in Ein Gedi, in the Galilee and up on the Coast at Rosh Haniqra. Psalm 104 describes them as hiding in rocks, and its pretty much a rule in Israel, anywhere there’s rocks, there’s bound to be a hyrax or two poking around.

(This Word of Torah is dedicted to the Health of Zlata bat Sima)

Torah Portion Ekev: A Land of Light

By | | , , ,
Leave a comment
Olive Trees, Haas Promenade

Olive Trees, Haas Promenade by YossiTourGuide

Olive trees on the Haas Promenade

“A Land of Wheat, of Barley, Grapes, Figs and Pomegranates, a land of  Olive Oil and honey” (Deuteronomy / Devarim  – 8:8)

This weeks portion of the Torah discusses some of the blessed qualities of the land of Israel.

There is a slight textual difficulty in that it only mentions one product of a fruit; Olives. It does not say a land of ‘Wheat Bread’ or ‘Grape wine’ or ‘Pomegranate slushies’.

What Are Olive Trees Good For ?

So one answer given by Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (10th Century Torah commentator) is to tell us that the Olive trees were used for oil. But is n’t this a bit obvious; we can get 2 things from an olive tree:

1 Olives

2 Olive Oil.

Surely we could say that about all these fruits.

Ah! but all these other fruits have multiple uses: you can have beer or bread, pomegranites, pomegranite slushies or grenadine etc. With olives thats pretty much all you get; olives and oil. Ever heard of Olive wine ? Normally (unless we’re constipated) we do n’t drink Olive Oil. All these other products are edible as well.

Its all Part of the Process

Three of the fruits have a process associated with them. Both wheat and grapes can be fermented to make bread, beer or wine, by extension all of the fruits except for Olives can be fermented but that’s fairly uncommon, people mosly ferment wheat and grapes.

Olives have a special process associated with them. Firstly they are squashed normally releasing a tiny little bit of oil. This first squeezing releases the best oil or ‘Virgin Oil’. Then the pips and skins are gather again, put in baskets and squeezed once more. Since antiquity Olives have undergone this intricate process of squeezing.

This is for collecting the virgin Oil from the first crush, the upper stone is called a memel, the lower stone is called a 'yam.

This is a re -constructed ' beam and weight' press from Tel Hatzor, the baskets of olive bits are squashed by the Kora 'beam'' to collect the lower stage of Olive Oil.

Olives: Not just for Salad Dressing – a symbol of Light

 

Olive oil was the main source of lighting in the Ancient Near East, the purpose of the process mentioned above was light. The product of Olives – oil gets a special mention because of its high value.  My teacher, Rabbi Yitzchak Hirshfeld said that Olives are a symbol of the Jewish people that they are crushed through the travails of history and continue to produce the Light of Truth, the light of the Torah.

 

 

(These words of Torah are dedicated to the speedy recovery of Zlata bat Sima, please include her in your prayers and in the memory of the seven precious souls who were killed today in Southern Israel)

Spotlight on Nature: Coypu the Fuzzy Invader

By | | , , , , ,
Leave a comment

httpv://youtu.be/o2Ajqoqs-es

This is the South American Coypu, what is it doing in the Hula valley in Northern Israel?

So the story goes…

A number of years ago an enterprising Israeli farmer wanted to start a fur farming business. The problem is that mink and ermine do n’t do too well in the hot winters in the middle east. So he found this charming South American rodent that produces wonderfully thick fur every winter.

There was but one snag…

Israeli winters are not cold enough for these little fellas. So what did he do … he released them into the wild.

Big Mistake!

These fellas eat up the roots of plants and do a great job at messing up the local attempts to re – invigorate the wetlands by eating through irrigation pipes and messing up canals.

I think they are very cute and look forward to the day when we will be able to live side by side with these fuzzy invaders.

Torah Portion: Pinchas (Phineas)

By | | , , , ,
Leave a comment

Elijah went a days walk in the desert and sat under a Rotem Bush (1 Kings 19:4)

This weeks Haftarah (reading of the Prophets that accompanies the Torah Reading) is
from the part of the Book of Kings. It describes how the Prophet Elijah was being persecuted by the Evil King
Ahab and his wife Jezebel. So he ran to the wilderness and sat in despair under a Rotem Bush (pictured above).

So the Question might be:
Why sit under specifically a Rotem bush?

So here’s where the hiking comes in. When I go on a hike the picture above is normally the last thing that I expect to see. What I normally see is a spindly little bush with no leaves.In fact the Rotem bush is well known for having no leaves andcarrying out photosynthesis through its branches.

The meaning of this is that Elijah felt depressed and abandoned and so he sat under a Bush with No Leaves.

Leaves are a symbol of Chesed, lovingkindess.

In the next scene God catches on and sends him an angel who brings him food.

The Rotem Bush is a metaphor for a lack of lovingkindess and God responds with kindness.

Torah Portion: Balak

By | | , , , , ,
1 Comment

“And he looked out onto the Yeshimon (wilderness)”

(Bamidbar / Numbers 21:20)

This weeks portion discusses Balaam’s unsuccessful cursing of the Children of Israel at the behest of King Balak. There is a scene where he is looking out onto the wilderness or ‘Yeshimon’ in hebrew.

The Bible mentions 4 types of arid terrain which are many times confused under the same heading ‘desert’, these are:

Midbar

Negev

Arava

Yeshimon

A Midbar, IS NOT a real desert. In hebrew, words have root letters the root letters connected to other words with the same root letters.. The family of root letters ‘d’ ‘b’ ‘r’ are to do with grazing or raising flocks. In a few places; in the book of Micah and Isaiah, the word ‘Dover’is used, meaning to graze cattle. Midbar is an a arid terrain which cannot sustain crops but can sustain flocks for part of the year. The picture above is Wadi Kelt in Midbar Yehuda; the Judean (for want of a better word) desert.

Negev means both South and desert its root letters are associated with being dry, Naguv means dried up. Negev is true desert, the area south of Beer Sheva is all desert.

Arava, means East and also is to do with mixing things. An Eruv is a mixture of things. The Arava area is a valley in the south of the Country which has a subterranean water supply. It is also a ‘mixture’ in terms of being the place where the red mountains of Moab (modern day Jordan) meet the land of Israel.

Yeshimon is just a waste. Its root letters ‘sh’ and ‘m’ appear in the word ‘shamam’ meaning waste. In fact it is used in the first usage of the phrase ‘howling waste’ in Deuteronomy 32:10. In our portion in represents what Balak and Balam wished to find; a wasted nation devoid of hope and purpose, instead they found a great nation and were forced to bless them.

Torah Portion: Korach

By | | , , , , ,
Leave a comment

 

‘And behold, the staff of Aaron or the House of Levi had sprouted and blossomed and there were almonds.’ (Numbers / Bamidbar 17:24)

In this week’s portion we have the story of the rebellion of Korach where Korach’s leadership was called into question. The Eternal set a ‘competition’ between all the tribes to proves Aaron’s right to the Priesthood. They were all to take staffs and write their names on them and place them in front of the ‘Tent of Meeting’, all the staffs remained the same except for Aaron’s which sprouted almond blossoms.

The significance of almond blossoms is understood by Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (an 11th century Torah scholar) as being a sign of promptness, he says that ‘ with one who objects to the priesthood, his calamities shall be prompt to come’.

The image of the  almond is synonymous with judgement. I carry out the following experiment;

I found a wild almond tree that had produced fruit, it was easy to find as the almond tree is indigenous to Israel and a common site to see when walking in the forests and hills of Israel. I tried to open the fruit, but the nut was so tough it took a good whack with a rock. The effort was not that worth it, you got a tiny fruit, yet the taste was really bizarre. I’m used to the kind of almond that you get in the supermarket, the taste was really strong, really bitter and kind of sweet at the same time.

The message that I take from this is that the almond is a symbol of divine judgement, what is called in Hebrew, Din. Din is strong and powerful, like the taste of the almond and strength of its shell. Yet it is meant for the betterment of humanity, symbolized by the flowers of the almond and its sweetness.