HARE
(Heb.: “arnebeth”, Ar.: “ernebah”; the LXX translates this term as hare).
Prohibited as impure by Levitical legislation, “because it chews the cud, but has no hoof” (Lev. 11:6; Deut. 14:7). In many reference works it has been maintained that this statement is not true, since it does not have a ruminant stomach.
It has often been argued that “the sacred author adapts here to the popular conceptions of his time.”
However, subsequent research has shown that, although the hare certainly does not have a four-compartment stomach, it does nevertheless chew its cud.
There is a process of regurgitation of that part of the food that the stomach cannot digest in one phase; thus, the hare actually re-chews previously swallowed food. (Schulze, “The Ruminating Hare,” Bible-Science Newsletter, VIII, Jan. 1970, p. 6).
In Palestine, the common hare (“Lepus siriacus”) is about 5 cm. shorter in length than the European hare (“L. europeus”) and has somewhat shorter ears; It infests wooded and cultivated places.
The southern Judean and Jordan Valley hare (Gray’s L. “jueae”) has very long ears and light fawn fur.