Author Topic: Wings of Nesharim (Eagles?) Shmot/Exodus 19:4  (Read 1823 times)

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Offline edu

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Wings of Nesharim (Eagles?) Shmot/Exodus 19:4
« on: January 19, 2014, 02:13:59 AM »
This is Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan's translation of Shmot/Exodus 19:4
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You saw what I did in Egypt, carrying you on eagles' wings and bringing you to me.
In his commentary to Vayikra/Leviticus 11:13 he mentions that some views hold this is the griffin vulture (Gyps fulvus).
Rabbi Slifkin brings the following story to shed some light on the Biblical passage.
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Another report concerning the golden eagle comes from Arthur Cleveland Bent, one of America's greatest ornithologists, on the authority of Dr. L. Miller:

"The mother started from the nest in the crags and, roughly hand-ling the youngster, she allowed him to drop, I should say, about ninety feet; then she would swoop down under him, wings spread, and he would alight on her back. She would soar to the top of the range with him and repeat the process. Once perhaps she waited fifteen minutes between flights. I should say the farthest she let him fall was a hundred and fifty feet. My father and I watched him, spellbound, for over an hour." (A. C. Bent, Bulletin of the Smithsonian Institution CLXVII [1937], 302)
If this behavior is found in the eagle, is this clear proof that Nesher of the Bible is an Eagle and not a griffin vulture?
Rabbi Slifkin gives 3 answers. His first 2 are possible, while his 3rd one is ideologically unacceptable, so I will only quote the first two.
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True, these reports concern eagles, whereas evidence shows the nesher to be the griffon vulture rather than the eagle. However, it is possible that such behavior likewise occurs with griffon vultures, or that nesher is a generic term encompassing both eagles and griffon vultures.
Finally, while Rabbi Slifkin is convinced that included in the definition of nesher or when stated in plural nesharim, are griffon vultures, I need to research the issue more before stating my own opinion.