Happy Jumping Elephant Day!
Can you acquire an elephant by making it jump?
It’s so exciting - Daf Yomi is reaching the Case of The Jumping Elephant! The Gemara refers to a view which states that one performs an act of acquisition on animals by lifting them up. The Gemara asks, but then how do you buy an elephant? And it cryptically answers, “with a bundle of vines.” What does this mean? Tosafos explains it to mean that you have them hanging in the air and make the elephant jump to get them. But can elephants jump?
You can download my original essay on this topic at this link. Even better would be to read its publication in The Torah Encyclopedia of the Animal Kingdom, which is best purchased on the museum website.
Y'know, it's funny. There were people who went crazy with me for saying that one of the Tosafists never saw an elephant. On the other hand, Rabbi Moshe Meiselman says that all of the Rishonim were repeatedly wrong in their basic understanding of several topics in the Gemara! I am waiting for Rav Elya Ber Wachtfogel to be consistent and to condemn Rabbi Meiselman, too.
Meanwhile, I am still receiving objections to this topic. Somebody once wrote to me arguing that Tosafos could be understood as referring to an elephant jumping in the water, or on a trampoline! I kid you not!
Dinosaur bones are so scary to a creationist but if there is really strong background first, it's just a strong question. With weak background it becomes a pircha. So first we must build the strong background. See just how much chazal really knew. How amazingly kadosh and genius they were. Years down the line, I think most people know about these questions and may not even have perfect answers but they are the ones with the answers. They are the ones way closer to the truth. Not those who walk around espousing that the gemara and rishonim keep getting things wrong
How can you state with certainty that someone living long ago where elephants did not live never saw an elephant?
How do you know that a circus never came to town, or that the individual never travelled to a distant place or that he never saw an accurate sketch or painting of the animal?
Using words like "probably" and likely" help with honesty and also not coming across as a pompous know-it-all.