Rabbi Michael Dushinsky

​Was the ‘Slav’ (Num.11:31) a Species of Fish?

Published on :Hama`yan Tamuz 

Full article in Hebrew: Click Here

The “Slav” in parashat beha’alotcha which God brought flying in from the sea, and was gathered by the People of Israel, was not quail as generally accepted – but actually a type of fish!

Rav Michael Dushinsky heard this interpretation from his uncle, Rabbi Yerachmiel Ya’akov Duschinsky ZT”L (1916-1986), presiding Rabbi of South Africa’s rabbinical
court, who received his rabbinical ordination from Rav Akiva Sofer of the
“Yeshiva haRamah” of Pressburg. This interpretation emanates from Ma’or
Ha’aphelah (Nur al Çalaam [Enlightening the Darkness]), a Yemenite Midrashic
work, written in 1329 by Nethanel ben Isaiah. Rav Dushinsky bolsters this
interpretation with a number of weighty contentions, based on the Torah, the
Talmud, linguistic and historical considerations, etc. He demonstrates that this
interpretation solves many problems and we would be hard put to refute it.