Late last night I came in to the museum to check on things. I went to
look over the exhibit of the Shemonah Sheratzim - the small creatures
listed in the Bible as transmitting ritual impurity when dead, with
which there are various views as to their identities, and we maintain
live exhibits of each of the possibilities. Much to my dismay, I saw
that one of the enclosures was open and its occupant had escaped!
The
absentee exhibit was a blind mole-rat, a truly extraordinary creature
lacking eyes, which
we had named Daredevil. I started looking around the museum, using the
technique of thinking like the escaped animal, and of where it would
want to go. As Isaiah 2:19-21 makes clear, mole-rats like to hide in
confined places. So I started pulling things away from the wall, to see
if Daredevil would be hiding behind them. And it wasn't that long until I
found him!
Foolishly being
unprepared, I didn't have anything to grab him with. It would not be a
good idea to pick him up, seeing as he possesses immensely powerful
teeth designed for chiselling through hard earth. There was a large
plastic food-scooper next to me, so I quickly placed it on top of him.
Unsurprisingly, he simply pushed it up and started to emerge from under
it. I pushed the scooper back down, grabbed a nearby container of food,
and put it on top of the scooper, to weigh it down while I went to find
some way of getting him back to his enclosure. Hearing a noise behind
me, I turned to see that Daredevil, possessing a strength that I did not
him to possess, had arched his back and knocked off the food container.
Again I put the scoop over him, and held it down while I looked around
frantically for something within arm's reach. I need something flat to
slide under the scoop, so that I could pick it up and securely transport
him. The only thing nearby was a slim sefer, a book of Torah
scholarship, that I had left lying around. It was the perfect size,
shape and firmness to slide under the scoop. But it would be
sacrilegious to use a sefer to capture a sheretz! How could I use a holy
book to catch the epitome of ritual impurity?!
Then I realized what the sefer was.
"Shemonah Sheratzim - A Study of the Identities of the Eight Creeping Creatures," by Zohar Amar!
It
would be an honor for that work, for it to be used not only for the
research and development of the contents of the exhibit, but even for
the physical re-acquisition of one of the creatures themselves!
I suppose that now we need to determine if this story is likely and you're telling the truth or if you just made it up to see who is gullible.
ReplyDeleteMelt some lead, it will show you that I'm telling the truth!
Deletegreat story - perhaps you should offer 'a night at the biblical museum' sleep ins...
ReplyDeletebut er 'he possesses immensely powerful teeth designed for chiselling through hard earth' - doesn't evolution exclude design?
No, it explains how the laws of nature can produce design with processes that have no notion of intention.
DeleteExplains *away* is more ike it.
DeleteI loved this!
ReplyDeleteDon't moles use their feet to dig with, not their teeth?
ReplyDeleteYou are confusing moles with mole-rats.
DeleteOn the topic of biting, I was taught that loshon horah is like the bite of a snake, since the snake derives no benefit from the biting, the same with loshon horah the teller receives no benefit. Question, doesn't the snake benefit by poisoning its prey with it's bite enabling it to eat it?
ReplyDeleteNot all snakes have poison.
DeleteNon-venomous snakes don't bite at all - they just use their teeth to hold onto their prey.
DeleteIt's talking about when snakes bite people. The snake doesn't eat the person.
DeleteIt's talking about a נחש, not a snake.
DeleteCool! Don't naked mole rats do badly with light? Do you have Daredevil in a darkened enclosure? Or does the light actually not bother them because they don't have eyes...
ReplyDeleteI didn't expect the Rav to be a Marvel fan!
ReplyDeleteYep, according to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toARdZKs-IE they dig with their paws.
ReplyDeleteYou are confusing moles with mole-rats.
DeleteHmmm,
ReplyDeleteThe subterranean mole rat has vestigial eyes, which although useless for vision, has limited utility to distinguish light from dark.
It appears an evolutionary mechanism is at work here.
Rav Slifkin, are you sure you want to display an animal to your Chareidi patrons that evidences treif evolution?
No need to worry. Just change "evolution" to "HKBH designed it specifically (to fit its environment and function)" and you're golden!
DeleteNote: this is not even intended to be condescending.
Sounds more like devolution than evolution, and I don't think that many chareidi people would have a problem with that. Losing eyes is not the same as changing species.
DeleteAs the Platonic idea is 'holier' than its manifestation, a sefer about Shratzim is holier than them, such that you could run by what you did with a Rav.
ReplyDeleteBest, chaim
I agree with Chaim. Very shvacher heter!
ReplyDeleteAt first I thought RS intended NAKED mole rat, but avoided the adjective because of modesty. So now I see the Israeli mole rats are modest, having fur. ACJA
ReplyDeleteNo one seems to be concerned that this animal doesn't like being captive one bit.
ReplyDelete