(April 19, 2013 at 5:24 pm)catfish Wrote: ...
Wouldn't rabbits fall under the swarming, hopping category too?
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Oy. If I were a rebbe I could maybe answer that.
The original question was stupid. Rabbits make the same "chewing" jaw movements as cattle. Are we supposed to assume there was a defined difference between the two before anyone studied animals? Were they supposed to have grabbed rabbits, forced open their mouths and established what they were chewing was not cud?
I can outline the entire problem and maybe express here what has to be known to distinguish between cud and rabbit and what has to be done to define the difference AFTER learning from cutting open rabbits and cows that there is a difference. And first you have to care that their is or might be a difference.
It is never permitted to project any modern view of anything in any manner upon people he do not have the same attitude.
Consider for example some of the out of the way people in Brazil and New Zealand. Would we impose knowing a difference upon them? Why would we assume the nearly as equally primitive Judeans would know more? Why would they think there was a diffenence when they had not the slightest concept of their being a difference?
