DEER

The ayyal, identified with the deer (Cervus capreolus), is mentioned among the seven species of permitted game that chew the cud and are cloven-footed (Deut. 14:5). The word occurs several times in the Bible in the feminine form ayyalah.   The tribe of Naphtali was compared to a nimble deer ("a hind let loose") with branching horns ("he giveth imrei shafer," i.e., whose amirim ("antlers") are beautiful; Gen. 49:21). Since the hind has no horns, as pointed out by Rashi in his comment on the talmudic passage that "the hind's antlers branch out this way and that" (Yoma 29a), the reference here is to the hart, which in its first year has only one branch on its horns, growing two more later. Its height at the shoulder is about 30 in. (about 75 cms.). It is extremely beautiful and delicate (cf. Prov. 5:19). It survived in Erez Israel until World War I but, despite its agility, it fell prey to hunters eager for its tasty meat. At present there are to be seen in Israel herds of gazelle , which, although wrongly identified with ayyal/ayyalah, are in fact the biblical ẓevi, distinguished from the deer by its horns, which are hollow and do not branch out like those of the ayyal. Until the end of the 19th century the fallow deer (Cervus dama mesopotamica) was found in the Middle East. It is a larger deer, its height at the shoulder being about 35 in. (about 90 cms.), its horns broad, with five branches in those of an adult. Apparently this is the species called yahmur in the Bible. It is among the permitted game (Deut. 14:5) and was provided for Solomon's table (I Kings 5:3). In the Talmud it is identified with an important species of game akin to the deer (Bek. 7b), depicted frequently in ancient hunting scenes. In prehistoric times the European deer (Cervus elaphus), bones of which have been discovered in caves on Mount Carmel and in Lebanon, was also found in Ereẓ Israel. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: I. Aharoni, Torat ha-Hai, 1 (1923), 88–90; Lewysohn, Zool, 111–3; J. Feliks, Animal World of the Bible (1962), 10, 12. (Jehuda Feliks)