Bar-Ilan University Parashat Hashavua Study Center Parashat Be-Shalah 5771/ January 15, 2011

Lectures on the weekly Torah reading by the faculty of Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel. A project of the Faculty of Jewish Studies, Paul and Helene Shulman Basic Jewish Studies Center, and the Office of the Campus Rabbi. Published on the Internet under the sponsorship of Bar-Ilan University's International Center for Jewish Identity. Prepared for Internet Publication by the Computer Center Staff at Bar-Ilan University. Inquiries and comments to: Dr. Isaac Gottlieb, Department of Bible, gottlii@mail.biu.ac.il

Zechariah Dori

Doctoral student in the Department of Jewish History

The first mention of quails [Heb. slav] in the Torah occurs in this week's reading: "By evening you shall eat flesh … In the evening quail appeared and covered the camp" (Ex. 16:12-13). The second time, in parashat Be-Ha`alotkha (Num. 11), it is mentioned in greater detail. In both instances it is mentioned in conjunction with manna, and in both cases the Israelites received the quail in the second month, i.e., Iyyar (see below).

Rabbenu Bahya (Bahya b. Asher, Spain,(1255- 1340 elaborated in his Torah commentary on the connection between manna and quail (commentary on Ex. 16:13):

The quail and manna began to appear on the first day after the Sabbath, and the quail continued for forty years, just like the manna. The Israelites ate manna for forty years, and likewise quail, also for forty years, the one in the morning and the other in the evening.

Both manna and quail were likened to rain from heaven. Regarding manna, Scripture says, "I will rain down bread for you from the sky" (Ex. 16:4), with a play on words in the Hebrew: lakhem lehem. Bread is made of kernels of grain, and manna is defined as "bread from the sky," but it could have another meaning, insofar as lekhem in Arabic means meat. In Psalms we read, "And rained manna upon them for food, giving them heavenly grain" (Ps. 78:24), and a few verses later, "He rained meat on them like dust, winged birds like the sands of the sea" (Ps. 78:27) once more juxtaposing (quail) meat and manna. Psalm 105 also mentions the quail and manna together: "They asked and He brought them quail, and satisfied them with food [Heb. lehem] from heaven" (Ps. 105:40).

On quail

The scientific name of the quail is Coturnix. The quail is a small bird, about 20cm. (8 inches) long, belonging to the pheasant family. Its body is plump, weighing between 100-150 grams (4-6 oz.) and has bluish plumage with darker mottling for camouflage. It has strong short legs, well suited to walking, and short wings, making flight difficult. Quails pass through Israel twice a year, in the fall on their migration from Central Europe to the southern seashore of Israel and the Sinai, a night-time flight of some ten hours, traversing 750 kilometers. They arrive at the shore exhausted and are easily caught in hunters' nets, because they fly very low as they reach shore – only about a meter and half above the ground.

In the spring the quails leave Africa and pass through Israel on their way back to Central Europe and Asia. When they arrive, the females lay about 10 eggs in a shallow hollow in the ground, and the chicks hatch from the eggs after about 18 days of incubation. They are able to see, walk, and obtain their own food. They remain close to the mother for about a month, reach sexual maturity in the summer of their first year, and migrate with the flock on its autumn flight towards Africa. Before the autumn and spring migrations quails store up fat which provides them fuel for their long journey. Their spring migration route takes them through southern Sinai and up the Jordan Rift Valley. A small number remain in Israel and nest here. The life-span of quails is about eight years.

The two references to quail

As we said, the first time quails are mentioned in Scripture is in this week's reading, when the Israelites were in the wilderness of Sin, "on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departure from the land of Egypt" (Ex. 16:1). The entire community grumbled, "If only we had died" (Ex. 16:3), and longed for the days "when we sat by the fleshpots, when we ate our fill of bread!" (loc. sit.). The Lord heard their complaints and promised, "By evening you shall eat flesh, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread" (Ex. 16:12). On this the gemara comments (Yoma 75a-b):

It is taught in the name of Rabbi Joshua ben Karha: the flesh, for which it was improper of them to ask, was given them improperly; the bread, for which it was proper of them to ask, was given properly. From this the Torah teaches that it is proper to eat meat only in the evening.

Elsewhere (Midrash ha-Gadol on Exodus 16:8, 11-12) we read:

Hence we learn that the Israelites were given meat (in the evening) with a scowling countenance, but manna with a smiling countenance… You asked for manna because a person cannot live without bread, and I gave it to you. You asked again, this time for flesh to fill your stomachs; I will give it to you so that you not think to say, "He has not the ability to provide us flesh," but I will give it to you so that in the end I exact the price from you: "and you shall know that I the Lord am your G-d" (Ex. 16:12) – I am the judge who exacts punishment."

Rashi comments as follows (on Ex. 16:8):

The second time quails are mentioned occurs a year later, in the same month but on the twentieth day, when the Israelites were in the wilderness of Paran. Then, too, there was a spring migration along a southerly route.

The narrative here goes into greater detail, telling of a dramatic and stormy event accompanied by weeping and incitement. Moses doubted his ability to provide meat for all the people, "six hundred thousand men; yet You say, 'I will give them enough meat to eat for a whole month.' Could enough flocks and herds be slaughtered to suffice them? Or could all the fish of the sea be gathered for them to suffice them?" (Num. 11:21-22). Moses also complained to the Lord about his personal fate, saying, "If you would deal thus with me, kill me rather" (Num. 11:15).

The gist of the complaint was as follows (Num. 11:4-5):

The riffraff … felt a gluttonous craving… wept and said, "If only we had meat to eat. We remember the fish that we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. Now our gullets are shriveled. There is nothing at all! Nothing but this manna to look to!"

The Lord reassured Moses, saying, "Is there a limit to the Lord's power?" (Num. 11:23), and sought to lighten the burden of the people on Moses. So, He instructed him to gather 70 elders and to transfer some of his prophetic spirit to them. Two of the elders, Eldad and Medad, prophesied in the camp, "but they had not gone out to the Tent" (Num. 11:26). What was their prophecy? According to the midrash (Midrash Aggadah, Buber ed.), they said, among other things, "Quail, appear; quail, appear." The midrash explains why the passage on these two prophets was incorporated into the story of the quail, for the narrative continues: "A wind from the Lord started up, swept [Heb. va-yagoz] quail from the sea and strewed them over the camp … some two cubits deep on the ground" (Num. 11:31).

The quail flew in quickly and spread in full force around the camp, a day's journey on all sides, and in their flight they knocked off heads [va-yagoz] – from the same root as gezizah or cutting off. "Some two cubits deep on the ground" could mean they flew at a height of about one meter, or that they covered the ground in a layer about a meter deep. Rashi explains, "two cubits – they flew at a person's chest height so that it would be no trouble to gather them" (loc. sit.) Another interpretation of va-yagoz salvim is given in Midrash ha-Gadol (31.31):

Va-yagoz salvim – this teaches us that they would come in off the sea like wads [Heb. gez] of wool and come smashing down on the camp; others say that more people were killed from the quails' landing than from eating them.

There is ostensibly a contradiction between the Lord's promise to provide the people meat to eat for an entire month and the description of the terrible punishment of the people while the meat was still between their teeth. This is resolved by a commentary in Yoma 75b, that the mediocre died on the spot, and the wicked languished for a month.

Such was the stroke dealt by the Lord, "a very severe plague,"¹ from Taberah to Kibroth-hatta'avah. Notwithstanding the Lord's fury at the people over the quails, overall it was to advantage. In the wake of this episode Moses established the custom of two regular meals for the Israelites: their fill of bread in the morning, and meat to eat in the evening. Secondly, he taught them the rules for slaughtering animals: "they spread them out [Heb. shatoah]" – "Shatoah – it is taught in the name of Rabbi Joshua b. Karha: do not read shatoah, rather shahut [slaughtered, exchanging the second and third letters of the root]; this teaches that along with the manna for the Israelites came something which required slaughtering" (Yoma 75b).

Quail – a rich feast

According to Rabbenu Bahya, the Israelites ate quail for forty years, since they hunted them twice a year and surely raised them in plentiful supply where they dwelled. As mentioned above, quails belong to the pheasant family and can be domesticated and bred in captivity, like other birds of its type. It is very likely that the Israelites raised quails on their way to the land and until they were settled there.

Miracles in general are comprised of two components: the natural and the divinely supernatural. The natural element with the quails was their migratory route, and the divine, that the flocks of quails descended on the Israelite camp in vast number and even accompanied them on their journey through the wilderness, changing to a more southerly route.