Bar yokni
The bar yokni (Hebrew: בר יוכני or בר יכני, lit. 'son of the nest') is a giant bird mentioned several times in the Talmud.
Description
An source from the early third century, while recounting a series of extraordinary phenomena, claims that the bird was so large that one of its eggs dropped from a height flooded sixty cities and destroyed three hundred cedar trees.[1][2] In two other passages, the egg and the bird are cited as examples of huge size.[3][4]
An assertion suggesting that this bird would be reserved as a source of sustenance for the righteous during Messianic times appears in the writings of Elijah Levita.[5]
Identification
The Talmud identifies the bar yokni with the ostrich, mentioned in the Book of Job.[6] It describes how this bird, after laying its egg, flies with it at a great height to its nest, where it puts it gently down.[7] Other scholars connect the bar yokni with the ziz and the vâraghna, the swiftest bird mentioned in the Zend Avesta.[8][9]
References
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Jastrow, Marcus; Ginzberg, Louis (1902). "Bar Yokni". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. p. 512.
- ^ Talmud, b. Bekhorot 57b:5
- ^ Van den Broek, Roel B. (1972). The Myth of the Phoenix According to Classical and Early Christian Traditions. Études préliminaires aux religions orientales dans l'Empire romain. Vol. 24. Leiden: E. J. Brill. p. 265. doi:10.1163/9789004296268. ISBN 978-90-04-29626-8.
- ^ Talmud, b. Yoma 80a:4
- ^ Talmud, b. Sukkah 5b
- ^ Levita, Elia. "יוכנה". Tishbi.
- ^ Job 39:13
- ^ Rashi on Bekhorot 57b; Rashi and Tosafor on Menachot 66b; compare Sifra, Wayiḳra, Nedabah, 14:13; ed. Weiss, 12b.
- ^ Ginzberg, Louis (1925). The Legends of the Jews. Vol. 5. Jewish Publication Society. p. 139. ISBN 978-1-59605-792-0.
- ^ McNamara, Martin (1988). "The Bird Hiruath of the 'Ever-New Tongue' and Hirodius of Gloss on PS. 103:17 in Vatican Codex Pal. Lat. 68". Ériu. 39: 93. JSTOR 30024133.