Most any historical documents collector can try, but never fully succeed, to explain to non-collectors the electrifying charge one can experience when handling a true paper treasure: “Abraham Lincoln actually held this paper in his hands!” “Can you believe that these are the actual words written by Albert Einstein?”
But there is a whole other transcendental level of delight, enchantment, and reverence that applies to collectors of Judaica documents.
For example, I can never forget the sublime feeling I had when I actually merited to own and hold a letter fully handwritten by the Chofetz Chaim, or when I first added a correspondence by Rav Chaim Brisker to my assemblage of great rabbanim and gaonim. These are far more than important historical artifacts; they are true devarim she-b’kedushah (holy items) that must be treasured and respected as such.
With that in mind, and to mark the final days of Pesach, I thought I’d share some of my rabbinical letters on the subject of Passover. However, I must first note that presenting the very brief biographical summaries that follow proved particularly daunting and is in no way intended to provide any compressive presentation of the holy lives and great deeds of these Torah giants.
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Rav Isaac Halevi Herzog (1888-1959) received semicha from the Ridbaz and his doctorate in literature from the University of London. After serving as the rav of Belfast, as chief rabbi of the Irish Free State, and founding the Mizrachi Federation of Great Britain and Ireland, he succeeded Rav Kook as chief rabbi of Eretz Yisrael (1937). He enacted takkanot in matters of personal status and effected significant advances by reconciling the necessities of modern living with halachic demands, but he was perhaps most renowned for his belief in the importance of every Jew, regardless of level of observance, and for his loving outreach to the non-religious elements and kibbutzim, which proved highly controversial in some haredi circles.
In the 28 Adar 1942 correspondence on his Chief Rabbi letterhead reproduced on this page (exhibit 1), Rav Herzog writes:
We are honored to ask you to warn all the owners of the dairies in your place to extinguish all the shefanim and unleavened bread from their homes and properties from the 14th of Nissan and onward. Otherwise, do not give them a Certificate of Kashrut on their milk.
We already provided this notification to the management of the “Tenuva” company.
And we hereby bless you with a kosher and happy Passover.
Though “shefanim” is usually translated as “rabbits,” contemporary scholars agree that this cannot be correct because of the most basic principle of biblical zoology: geographical distribution. That is, all the animals mentioned in the Tanach were familiar to the Jewish people because they either lived in Eretz Yisrael or were brought there (including, for example, monkeys and peacocks which, although not native to the land, were brought in as gifts for King Solomon).
Rabbits, which lived only in southern Africa and Spain, have never lived in Eretz Yisrael and there is no evidence that they were ever imported there. On the other hand, hyraxes – which, interestingly, are called “shafan” in local Arab dialects – may be found in Eretz Yisrael but not in Europe. See Regarding the Identity of the Shafan, by Rabbi Natan Slifkin – the famous “zoo rabbi.”
The word “shefanim” appears only twice in Tanach, Proverbs 30:26 and Psalm 104 – the beautiful Barchi Nafshi, in which King David describes the wonders of all creation from the perspective of Jew living in Eretz Yisrael. At 104:18, he writes: “The high hills are for the ibex, the rocks are a refuge for the shefanim.” In this context, as Rabbi Slifkin argues, King David cannot be describing the rabbits of southern Africa, which, as noted, were not native to Eretz Yisrael. Further, Samuel I 24:2 describes how King David spent time in Ein Gedi among the ibex, and it defies credulity to believe that in Psalms he would neglect to describe the hyrax, which hides in the rocks in the very same area, in favor of the rabbit that lives in South Africa. In fact, both the ibex and hyrax may be seen even today in the mountains of Ein Gedi.
