Sacred Monsters

In Sacred Monsters Rabbi Natan Slifkin examines some unusual creatures that are to be found in Tanakh, Midrash and the Talmud. In some cases, such as the behmoth, he simply identifies the real animal described by the text (he demonstrates that the behemoth is the hippopotamus). In other cases, he shows that an animal has wrongly been identified as mythological, when it is in fact mundane. For example, while medieval authorities speak of the Talmud describing mermaids, Rabbi Slifkin demonstrates that the original Talmudic text refers instead to dolphins.

Other problems are harder to resolve. Tales of giants in the Torah are shown by Rabbi Slifkin not to be literally true. He carefully demonstrates that a Talmudic passage describing the giant Og is in fact a complex allegory. Likewise accounts of Moshe being ten cubits tall are shown to be referring to his spiritual stature, not his real height. Indeed, Rabbi Slifkin uses scientific research to show why such giants would be physically impossible.

Finally, Rabbi Slifkin analyses such Talmudic myths as mice bred from the dirt and lice formed by spontaneous generation. In what I found to be one of the most interesting passages of the book, Rabbi Slifkin examines the arguments for and against revising halakha in the light of new scientific knowledge, arguing that the halakhic process may well operate on its own terms independently of scientific reasoning.

Rabbi Slifkin's work has been controversial. Literalists have taken exception to his allegorical readings of the Talmud and to his assertion that the Talmudic sages could err regarding the science of their day. Nevertheless, his arguments are carefully sourced, and he can draw on such luminaries as Rambam and Rabbi S. R. Hirsch to support his claims. Indeed, this is a meticulously researched work, both regarding scientific and religious sources, with a lengthy bibliography and plenty of footnotes for those wishing to do their own research. But this is also an extremely readable book, despite its erudition. It could easily become dull, of interest to only a few academics, but it never does. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in accurate understandings of terms in Tanakh and the Talmud, and especially to anyone troubled by apparently scientifically inaccurate material found therein.