B"H
Dear friends:
Tomorrow Chulin 59a
will be studied on Daf Yomi.
On that page the shafan is
mentioned, so we decided to post some news on this famous issue.
"The Enigma of the
Biblical Shafan" Torah and scientific research
suggesting a solution.
(The book includes appendices on the
Talmudic science-related statements about the fish's scales/fins and the
reproductive biology of lice).
After all the new information found
in the last years -which also includes new scientific information supporting
our conclusions B"H- the book now has more than 1000 bibliographical Torah
and scientific sources, more than 100 color illustrations and four indexes.
Now the 2nd expanded and completely
revised edition (388 pages) is almost ready for printing.
2. The following is the English abstract
of the book (also available on request in Hebrew):
The Torah included the shafan and the arnebet among the
four non-kosher animals with only one kosher sign.
Throughout the centuries, the usual translations of these terms were,
respectively, rabbit and hare.
Indeed, current science
shows that all the characteristics Jewish classic literature attributes to
these animals do occur in the rabbit[1] and the hare.[2]
This publication will
make the case that the Torah/Talmudic definition of “maaleh gerah”
includes a qualified form of cecotrophy practiced by the rabbit and hare.
The
following essay B”H refutes different options (like the hyrax, the
llama, the pika and the mouse-deer) suggested and published
by some as the identity of the shafan. And additionally, it answers in a
systematic approach, the published challenges to our conclusions regarding the
identity of the shafan.
After extensive research,
as presented in a comprehensive chapter (which analyzes the kangaroo and the
capybara among other animals), we did not find any additional “min”
(Torah-type creature) with only one kosher sign besides the four mentioned in
the Torah, and we can recognize with admiration, today as always, that only the
Master of the World could state this accurate information thousands of years
ago.
3. A summarized edition of
"The Enigma of the Biblical Shafan" in Hebrew (162
pages) is ready for printing.
4. Important modifications were
made in Nov. 2018 ed. regarding the main translation for the
Biblical Shafan as the rabbit in the Artscroll Gemara Schottenstein
English Edition Talmud Bavli on Chulin 59a and also in the Hebrew Edition.
5. Rab Amitai Ben David
shlit"a in his new 14th edition of the Sichat Chulin added
important information which supports the translation of the Shafan as
the rabbit. His new approach is widely explained in the approbation letter he
gave to our book.
6. One of the chapters of the
book explained six points of why the hyrax cannot be the Biblical Shafan. Lately
we obtained the original translation of shafan as rabbit
even in Ibn Janach and Rambam; therefore now
a two-page article summarizing eight points is available here.
Also available in Hebrew here.
7. The book "The Enigma of the
Biblical Shafan" merited approbation letters written
by many Gdole Yisrael, other Rabanim who are experts in these
subjects and a scientist who specialized in rabbit biology.
New letters were added throughout
the last years.
A document compiling all of them is
available here.
Dr.
Yitzchak Betech <isaacb@tovnet.com>
[1] For example, the common rabbit, taxonomically classified as Oryctolagus
spp. or the Pronolagus spp.
[2] For example, the cape hare taxonomically classified as Lepus capensis
or the brown hare (Lepus europaeus).
