הלכה אויף קהלת 1:4

The truth is that Scripture mentions the heavens and the earth because they form one globe, with the heavens like the circumference and the earth like the point at the center.¹³ Ibn Ezra is of the opinion that the “heavens” spoken of in Genesis refer to the lower sky, the atmosphere that is immediately above the earth. Genesis does not speak of the spheres of planets and stars that encompass the earth. See Ibn Ezra’s commentary to Genesis 1:1–2. Now the earth was covered with water from all sides, as it is written “they will not return to cover the earth” (Psalms 104:9), and the wind surrounds the waters.¹⁴ Thus the lower world consists of four spheres, each one encompassing those below it. Their order from innermost to outermost is: earth, water, air, and fire. The ancients believed that everything in the lower world, the world below the moon’s sphere, is composed of four elements – fire, air, water, and earth. This lower world is the subject of Creation in the book of Genesis. These are the four elements, namely, the heavens, earth, wind and water, for the heavens correspond to fire. Similarly we find “To make a weight for the wind and He counted the waters by measure” (Job 28:25), “For He gazes to the edges of the earth, under all the heavens He sees” (ibid. 28:24). Similarly, “Who measured the waters with his fist and counted the heavens with a span, and all the dust of the earth in a measure… who counted the wind of God” (Isaiah 40:12–13). Again, “Who ascended to the heavens and descended” (Proverbs 30:4), and the other three follow the word “heavens.”¹⁵ The verse reads: “Who ascended to the heavens and descended, who gathered wind in his fists, who bound the waters in a garment, who erected the ends of earth” (Proverbs 30:4). Here again, the four basic elements are enumerated. Also, “The sun shines” (Ecclesiastes 1:5) corresponds to the heavens, “and the earth remains forever” (ibid. 1:4), “round and round goes the wind” (ibid. 1:6), “all the rivers go to the sea” (ibid. 1:7). Since the circumference, which is the heavens, and the center, which is the earth, were created, so too all that is between them was created.

If a bird is found that is lacking the three signs of purity and there is none remaining to it besides the unique one — and that is that it is not a predator — it is always pure. As there is none among the impure birds that do not have one of all the signs of purity in their bodies but is not a predator except for the ossifrage and the osprey, which are like this. And they are not found in settlements — and since they are not found in settlements, we are not in doubt about them. And there are some of the commentators that said that they were not found with our Rabbis, may their memory be blessed, but they are found now. And I [say] about them, “Do not be greatly righteous.” (Ecclesiastes 7:16)’ As [the Rabbis] said that they are not found in settlements — meaning to say, that they are always distant from inhabited places — and since their nature is like this, “the world stands forever” (Ecclesiastes 1:4), and the law is the same at all times. If three signs of purity are found in its body — and they are an extra digit, a crop and a gizzard that peels — it is known that it is fit, and [that also] the fourth is [in it] (like this); meaning to say that it is not a predator. As there is no bird in the world with these three signs that is a predator. And [so] he does not need to check about it at all, but rather he may eat it immediately. But if three signs of purity are found in it and one of the three is that it is not a predator, one must certainly be in doubt about it; as most of the impure ones are like this, that they have three signs like these. And every man must ask about such a bird if he does not recognize all of (the impure) the enumerated ones in the Torah. It comes out, according to our words, that any bird that is in doubt for us whether it is impure or pure will be in one of two ways: that it have three signs of purity, and one of them is that it is not a predator, as we said, that it should be in doubt [of being] among the many species of the impure; or that it have two signs of impurity and one of them is that it is not a predator, that it should be in doubt of being a raven and its species. But all of the other ways do not bring a doubt, but rather we judge it as pure or impure immediately. Place your mind to the thing, as it is so, according to this general rule of ours. And we have written this general rule according to some of the commentators, as there are many explanations given in these matters of birds. And our Rabbis, may their memory be blessed, said (Chullin 64b) that all birds that are in doubt are eaten according to tradition — meaning to say that if the people of a place received [a tradition] and were accustomed to eat it [with no question] under the assumption that it is pure — that we should have no hesitation about it at all, and there is no need to check it. And the rest of its details are in the third chapter of Chullin. (See Tur, Yoreh Deah 82.)