Halakhah su Deuteronomio 14:5

The earliest rabbinic reference to a giraffe occurs in R. Sa'adia Ga'on's commentary on Deuteronomy 14:5. Scripture declares, "These are the animals you may eat" and proceeds to enumerate a list of permitted species. Among those animals is the "zemer" which is rendered in standard English translations as "mountain-sheep." R. Sa'adia Ga'on, perhaps following the Septuagint, identifies the zemer as the animal known in Arabic as al-zerafah, i.e., the giraffe. That translation is accepted by R. David ibn Kimḥi (Redak) in his Sefer ha-Shorashim in the entry for the term "zemer," by R. Estori ha-Farḥi, Kaftor va-Feraḥ, chap. 58, and by R. Shimon ben Ẓemaḥ Duran (Rashbaz), Yavin Shemu'ah, Hilkhot Treifot, p. 5b.⁶See also R. Amiti Ben-David, Siḥat Ḥullin (Jerusalem, 5755), pp. 412f., and cf., R. David Zevi Feldman, Yalkut Kol Ḥai (5757), p. 639, note 10. Rashbaz further identifies al-zerafah as an animal with "a long neck… so that when [the giraffe] is within the wall it extends [its neck] outside of the wall."⁷Cf., however, Rabbi Y. M. Levinger and M. David, “Sheva ha-Ḥayyot ha-Tehorot,” Torah u-Madda, vol. 4, no. 2 (Elul 5735), p. 3 and p. 48. Those authors object to identification of the zemer as the giraffe on the grounds that the zemer is enumerated together with other ḥayyot (as distinct from behemot, as will later be explained) whereas the giraffe does not have the distinctive horns of a ḥayyah and hence is presumably a behemah. Rabbi Hamami adduces an impressive list of sources, albeit mostly obscure in nature, that either identify the giraffe as the zemer of Scripture or otherwise refer to the giraffe as a kosher animal. Indeed, the giraffe, since it has split hoofs and chews its cud, appears to be readily identified as a kosher animal.⁸Yehudah Felix, Ḥai ve-Ẓomeaḥ ba-Torah (Jerusalem, 5744), p. 93, reports that the giraffe, although it is a ruminant, is a three-stomached (rather than four-stomached) animal. This is also true of the mouse-deer which is presumably a kosher animal.

The halakhic issues have already been examined in detail in conjunction with this writer's earlier discussion of the kashrut status of the giraffe and need only be briefly summarized. Rema, Yoreh De'ah 82:3, rules that the talmudic criteria that once served to distinguish the twenty-four scripturally identified forbidden birds and all others that are kosher can no longer be relied upon and hence no bird may be eaten unless there exists a received tradition with regard to its identity as a kosher species. Shakh, Yoreh De'ah 80:2, as understood by Hokhmat Adam 36:1; Arukh ha-Shulḥan, Yoreh De'ah 80:10; Erekh ha-Shulḥan, Yoreh De'ah 11:4-5; and Hazon Ish, Iggerot Hazon Ish, I, no. 99,²⁴Reprinted in R. Isaac ha-Levi Herzog, Pesakim u-Ketavim, IV, Yoreh De‘ah, no. 21. Iggerot Hazon Ish, II, no. 73 and Iggerot Hazon Ish, III, no. 113,²⁵Reprinted in Pesakim u-Ketavim, IV, no. 22. maintains that, despite the fact that Scripture explicitly spells out the identifying criteria of kosher four-legged animals, these animals also may not be consumed in the absence of a tradition with regard to the kashrut of the species. Pri Megadim, Siftei Da'at 80:1, however, understands Shakh's comment as limited to the need for a tradition establishing that a particular species is a ḥayyah rather than a behemah.²⁶There is a similar ambiguity inherent in the comment of Ibn Ezra, Deuteronomy 14:5. Ibn Ezra notes that there are a total of seven species of kosher ḥayyot of which “the sheep and the deer are known; the five remaining species require a tradition.” In all likelihood, Ibn Ezra intends to indicate—as does Shakh—that a mesorah is necessary in order to establish the kashrut of the species as one of the remaining five kosher ḥayyot. Ibn Ezra’s words, however, might be construed as indicating only the requirement of a tradition to the effect that the animal in question is a ḥayyah rather than a behemah. The primary difference is that the ḥelev, i.e., the fatty portions of the hindquarters of a behemah, are forbidden while those of a ḥayyah are not. According to Pri Megadim, no tradition is necessary to establish the fundamental kashrut of an animal having split hoofs. Pri Megadim's understanding of Shakh is accepted, inter alia, by Kaf ha-Hayyim, Yoreh De'ah 80:5, Bet Yizḥak, Amudei Zahav 80:3, and, more recently, by R. Samuel Ha-Levi Woszner, Teshuvot Shevet ha-Levi, X, no. 114.²⁷R. Isaac ha-Levi Herzog clearly differed with Ḥazon Ish regarding this matter. Unfortunately, only a fragment of this responsum is extant and appears in Pesakim u-Ketavim, IV, Yoreh De‘ah, no. 20. The controversy, of course, is of no relevance to Sephardim who follow the views of Shulḥan Arukh and do not accept Rema's stringency even with regard to birds.

From the laws of the commandment is that every beast and animal that brings up the cud does not have teeth in its upper (rear) jaw. And every beast in the world that brings up the cud separates its hoof except for the camel. And all that separate its hoof brings up the cud except for the pig. And there are ten species of beasts and animals that are permitted: Three [domesticated] beasts that are well-known and they are the ox, the sheep and the goat; and seven species of [wild] animals that are explicit in Scripture - "The deer, the gazelle, etc." (Deuteronomy 14:5). And [just] like we need to know the signs of the fit (kosher) ones to differentiate them from the impure ones, likewise must we know which is a species of beast and which is a species of animal regarding the chelev (forbidden fat) - as the chelev of a beast is forbidden, but the chelev of an animal is permissible, as we we wrote above in the warning of chelev; and also as the blood of an animal requires covering, but not the blood of a beast. And the signs of the [wild] animal, as to how it is distinguished from a [domesticated] beast is not stated in the Torah. Rather, we learned from the heard tradition (Chullin 59b) that it is recognizable by its horns, as the horns of an animal are scaled, notched and circular: scaled like the horns of an ox; notched like the horns of a goat - such that the notch be absorbed in them (tight); and round like the horns of a gazelle. Therefore [with] any [being] that does not have these signs in its horns, a man must practice the prohibition of its chelev. And one who finds a [wild] animal without horns - such that he is not able to check its horns - if he recognizes it clearly by its shape, such as that which he is used to, it is permitted for him to trust his recognition. And it is not said that he has to check with the horns no matter what. And the rest of its details are in Chullin.