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

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

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)