HARE

HARE (Heb. אַרְנֶבֶת, arnevet), according to the Pentateuch one of the prohibited animals (Lev. 11:6; Deut. 14:7). The Hebrew word is connected with the Akkadian annabu ("the jumper"). The Vulgate translates it from the Greek λαγώς ("a hare") as lepus. In spite of this the Septuagint gives the translation δασύπους, that is, "the hairy-legged." The Talmud explains that the wife of ptolemy Philadelphus, who according to tradition appointed 72 elders to translate the Pentateuch, was named Λαγώς and the translators made the change, apprehensive that the king might say: "The Jews have mocked at me and put my wife's name (as an unclean animal) in the Pentateuch" (Meg. 9b; TJ, Meg. 1:11, 71d). The description in the Pentateuch of the arnevet as a ruminant raises a difficulty since the hare is not one, and hence some cast doubt on this identification. The reference, however, is apparently to the movement of its jaws when it eats and perhaps also to its habit of regurgitating the food it eats in the early morning hours and of later chewing it again, as in rumination. In Israel there are three species of hare: in the coastal lowland, in the mountains, and in the Negev. It is extensively hunted, but its rapid propagation prevents its extermination. The halakhah mentions "the wool of hares" among those to which the law of sha'atnez ("the prohibition of wearing material   containing wool and linen") does not apply (Shab. 27a), the reference here being apparently to the rabbit – Dryctolagus cuniculus – which the Romans bred extensively and which may have been introduced into Ereẓ Israel in mishnaic times. Some mistakenly identify the shafan (AV "coney"; JPS "rock-badger"), coney, mentioned in the Pentateuch alongside the hare, with the rabbit, and this is its common usage in modern Hebrew. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. Feliks, Animal World of the Bible (1962), 41; M. Dor, Leksikon Zo'ologi (1965), 46f. (Jehuda Feliks)