There Are No Cats in the Bible. Why?

At Passover seders, numerous Jewish families will be singing the Aramaic song Ḥad Gadya (“Only a Goat”), which includes the line, “Then came a cat and ate the goat that my father bought for two zuzim.” While the Hebrew Bible has numerous references to goats, it has none to cats—although the animal was certainly known to ancient Israelites. Joshua Schwartz examines the evidence:

Cats have been excavated in Jericho from as early as the pre-pottery Neolithic period (before 6000 BCE). At most, these ancient cats may have co-existed in some form with humans, although they were not yet domesticated.

To date, we have found no evidence that the Israelites kept cats in their houses. The scant archaeological evidence of cats in a domestic context from Bronze and Iron Age Israel shows no connection to the Israelites, and the Bible never mentions cats. This silence stands in contrast with the evidence from Egypt, where cats were dearly loved and often depicted in wall paintings and bronzes from the mid-second through late-first millennium BCE.

Schwartz then moves on to the Talmud:

The Persians who ruled talmudic Babylonia despised cats; they were considered khrafstra, noxious creatures, not much better than the vermin they destroyed. The talmudic traditions about cats suggest a slightly more mixed view of cats. The only talmudic tradition that directly praises cats is cited by the Palestinian sage Rabbi Yohanan (3rd century CE): “If the Torah had not been given, we could have learned modesty from the cat.”

Read more at theTorah.com

More about: Animals, Hebrew Bible, Seder, Talmud

 

For the Sake of Gaza, Defeat Hamas Soon

For some time, opponents of U.S support for Israel have been urging the White House to end the war in Gaza, or simply calling for a ceasefire. Douglas Feith and Lewis Libby consider what such a result would actually entail:

Ending the war immediately would allow Hamas to survive and retain military and governing power. Leaving it in the area containing the Sinai-Gaza smuggling routes would ensure that Hamas can rearm. This is why Hamas leaders now plead for a ceasefire. A ceasefire will provide some relief for Gazans today, but a prolonged ceasefire will preserve Hamas’s bloody oppression of Gaza and make future wars with Israel inevitable.

For most Gazans, even when there is no hot war, Hamas’s dictatorship is a nightmarish tyranny. Hamas rule features the torture and murder of regime opponents, official corruption, extremist indoctrination of children, and misery for the population in general. Hamas diverts foreign aid and other resources from proper uses; instead of improving life for the mass of the people, it uses the funds to fight against Palestinians and Israelis.

Moreover, a Hamas-affiliated website warned Gazans last month against cooperating with Israel in securing and delivering the truckloads of aid flowing into the Strip. It promised to deal with those who do with “an iron fist.” In other words, if Hamas remains in power, it will begin torturing, imprisoning, or murdering those it deems collaborators the moment the war ends. Thereafter, Hamas will begin planning its next attack on Israel:

Hamas’s goals are to overshadow the Palestinian Authority, win control of the West Bank, and establish Hamas leadership over the Palestinian revolution. Hamas’s ultimate aim is to spark a regional war to obliterate Israel and, as Hamas leaders steadfastly maintain, fulfill a Quranic vision of killing all Jews.

Hamas planned for corpses of Palestinian babies and mothers to serve as the mainspring of its October 7 war plan. Hamas calculated it could survive a war against a superior Israeli force and energize enemies of Israel around the world. The key to both aims was arranging for grievous Palestinian civilian losses. . . . That element of Hamas’s war plan is working impressively.

Read more at Commentary

More about: Gaza War 2023, Hamas, Joseph Biden