In Judaism, the eight sheratzim (Hebrew שמונה שרצים), typically translated as the "eight creeping things", are animals described in , which have special laws in regard to ritual impurity and Shabbat.
Laws While alive, the eight sheratzim do not convey impurity. However, when one of them has died and is touched or shifted by a human being, it conveys impurity to that person. If he were a priest (Kohen) of Aaron's lineage who touched the animal's corpse, he is forbidden to eat of the hallowed things until he first immerses his body in a mikveh and has waited until the sun has set.Leviticus 22:4-7 During the time when the laws of ritual purity were performed by the Jewish nation, earthenware vessels into which one of the eight, dead creeping things had fallen, including within an earthenware oven, become unclean and unfit for sacred foods, and, therefore, would be broken and the food discarded ().
In other applications of Jewish law, a person who either catches or inflicts a wound upon one of the eight creeping things on the Sabbath day becomes culpable by that act, but is held unaccountable and exempt if he had inflicted a wound upon any of the other harmful vermin and creeping things., s.v. Shabbat 14:1
The defilement associated with a 'creeping thing' has naught to do [with other things], except with eight [creeping things]. The creeping things in the Torah and, [particularly], what applies to them after their deaths, refer specifically to the ḥoled, and ʿaḫbar, and ṣav, and ʾanaqah, and koaḥ, and leṭaʾah, and ḥomeṭ, and tinšamet, but as for the remaining detestable things and those things that crawl which have died, even if they were of those things on the ground, such as frogs, and snakes, and scorpions, or of similar things, or of those things found at sea, even that which is called by one of these names, such as ʿaḫbar of the sea, they remain clean from any suspected defilement.
Identification Hebrew Word Saadia Gaon(Judeo-Arabic) Rashi(Old French) Septuagint(Greek) (ha-ḥoled)אלכׄלדMole (Spalax ehrenbergi)Zohar Amar, Shmona Shratzim, Mekhon Moshe: Kiryat-Ono 2016, pp. 13, 66 musteleWeasel (Mustela spp.)Sefer Targum La'az (Translation of Foreign Words), Israel Gukovitzki, London 1992, p. 140. According to Amar, thought to be Mustela subpalmata or Mustela nivalis, species that were once endemic to Israel. γαλἡ(gale)WeaselZohar Amar, Shmona Shratzim, Mekhon Moshe: Kiryat-Ono 2016, p. 12 .In Greek, the word gale is a general term including the weasel, ferret, and the stoat.(ha-ʿaḫbar)אלפארMouse (Mus musculus)By saying, "after its kind," it would include rats (Rattus), voles (Microtus), hamsters, gerbils, jerboas, etc. xxx μυς(mys)Mouse(ha-ṣav)אלצׄבSpiny-tailed lizard (Uromastyx aegyptius) froitToad (Bufo spp.)As for "frogs" and "toads," according to Maimonides (Mishnah commentary, Introduction to Seder Taharot), both reptiles are generically called in Hebrew צפרדע, but in Arabic dhafadaʿ, and neither one of them can convey uncleanness by touching, even after death. See Maimonides, Mishnah Taharot 5:1, where it is proven that a dead frog is not the same as one of the dead creeping things. κροκόδειλος(krokódeilos)Big lizardKrokódeilos, not to be mistaken with the animal that is called by this name today, or crocodile. For in ancient Greek, any big lizard was called "krokódeilos."(ha-anaqah)אלורלMonitor lizard (Varanus spp.) heriçonHedgehog (Erinaceus concolor) μυγάλη(mygáli)Shrew (Crocidura spp.)(ha-koaḥ)אלחרדׄוןAgama lizard (Agama spp.) xxx χαμαιλέων(chamailéon)Chameleon(ha-leṭa’ah)אלעצׄאיהOr what is also spelt in Arabic: .Fringe-toed lizard (Acanthodactylus spp.)(Lacerta spp.) laiserdeLizard (Lacerta spp.) καλαβώτης(kalavótis)Newt(ha-ḥomeṭ)אלחרבאRabbi Yosef Qafih and Zohar Amar correct the Judeo-Arabic text to read "אלחרבא" (Arabic: ) = Chameleon lizard. Qafih explains in his commentary on the Responsa and Halachic Decisions of Rabbi Abraham ben David of Posquières, responsum # 91 (note 2), p. 149, that what the inquirer incorrectly mentioned under the Old French name of limace (slug), based on Rashi's translation of חמט in Leviticus 11:30, the original meaning of the word is none other that chameleon lizard.Chameleon lizard (Chamaeleo spp.) limaceSlug (Limax spp.) σαύρα(sávra)Lizard(ha-tinšameṯ)אלסמברץRabbi Saadia Gaon's reference here is to the lizard that is called in Arabic: .Gecko lizard (Hemidactylus turcicus) talpeMole (Talpa spp.) ασπάλαξ(aspálax)Mole
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