Deut. 14:18 And the stork, and the heron after its kind and the dukifat and the bat. (You shal not eat from verse 12: These are they of which you shall not eat....)
Yaron Seri, a professor at Bar Ilan, identifies the Dukifat as the Upapa epos. Instead of just laughing at the name of it this year, above is a picture. I always think that searching these things out and seeing what they look like brings the Torah more to life.
Professor Seri says that the bird has a bad odor and that Moslems also are forbidden to eat it. He writes that the Karaites misidentified this bird, according to the tradition and that Saadia seemed to have taken them to task for it. If you would like to read more about the Dukifat (and let's be honest, who doesn't?) you can go to: http://www.biu.ac.il/JH/Parasha/eng/reeh/ser.html
1 comment:
This post is the #1 hit on google for "dukifat"! Mazel tov!
Unfortunately dukifat is not a legal scrabble word, but it would be a good one.
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