"Once the locusts came, the Egyptians rejoiced and said 'Let us gather them and fill our barrels with them.' Ha Kadosh Baruch Hu said 'Wicked people, with the plague that I have brought against you, are you going to rejoice?!' Immediately God brought upon them a western wind...and none were left. What does it mean that none were left? Even those that were pickled with salt and sitting in their pots and barrels were blown away...."
Talmud Bavli Tractate Chullin 59a :
"Any kind of grasshopper that has four walking legs, four wings, two jumping legs and whose wings cover the greater part of its body is kosher."
The four types of locusts stated in the Torah are known according to Yemenite tradition to be the following:
The red locust (Hebrew: ארבה, Arbeh),
The yellow locust (Hebrew: סלעם, Sal'am ),
The spotted gray locust (Herbew: חרגול, Chargol Aramaic )
The white locust (Hebrew: חגב, Chagav)
And Yanaton Ha Ish Ha Mikveh ate locusts and wild honey (Mattathias 3:4).
Orthoptera is the order of species for locusts. This order is divided into two large groups : Cursoria and Saltatoria .
The first includes only those families of Orthoptera which have legs formed for creeping, and which were considered unclean by the Jewish law.
Under the second are comprised those whose two posterior legs, by their peculiar structure, enable them to move on the ground by leaps and not creep.
The 4 species above are Kosher if you're, for example, a Yeminite Jew, who has been taught how to recognize the 4 allowed types of locusts. I won't go into halacha.
From March to October 1915, a plague of locusts stripped areas in and around what is now Israel of almost all vegetation.
The locusts in north Africa and the Levant that swarm and eat crops are Schistocerca gregaria. They start off being green in color and turn brown when they swarm. Science has discovered that an increase in brain serotonin levels triggers the color and the behavioral change. (Don't feed the locusts Prozac).
This locust of the plague is NOT one the four species that are considered kosher. So they were not a plague bad for the Egyptian's crops, but good for the Hebrew's tummies. While there are Midrashim of how Hebrews benefited or were not harmed by various plagues, there is no Midrash about the Hebrews, collecting these locusts to eat.
But back to the Midrash above, we get a hint of how Hebrews may have prepared their kosher locusts for eating, if they followed the Egyptian recipe .
On a more spiritual and eco-Judaic note, just as we can use Matzah to teach us to be egoless, flat, and humble, and not be puffed-up with Chumetz, we can use the locusts ,especially with earth day coming up, to remind ourselves and others, to stop being a swarm on this earth, gobbling and consuming every thing in sight.
shalom uvracha:
arthur
Rabbi Arthur Segal www.jewishspiritualrenewal.org
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal www.jewishrenewal.info
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Spirituality
Eco Judaism
Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA
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