BEAR

BEAR (Heb. ????; dov). In ancient times the Syrian brown bear, Ursus arctos syriacus, had its habitat within the borders of Ere? Israel; it was found in the forests of Lebanon until World War i and is still occasionally reported in Lebanon and northern Syria. The bear is omnivorous, and when driven by hunger, it preys on large animals, including the ox or cow (cf. Isa. 11:7). In the Bible the bear is portrayed as an animal dangerous to man, like the lion. Especially emphasized is the danger of a (female) bear bereaved of its cubs (ii Sam. 17:8; Hos. 13:8). This was a frequent occurrence as the cubs were taken from the dam to be trained. The bear was common in the period of the Mishnah, which forbids their sale to Gentiles (Av. Zar. 16a). One of the miracles ascribed to R. *?anina b. Dosa was that after being attacked by bears, each of his goats came home with a bear on its horns (Ta'an. 25a). Because the second world kingdom of Daniel 7 was identified as the Persian one, the fact that it is represented by a bear (Dan. 7:5) is explained by the observation that the Persians "eat and drink like the bear, are fat like the bear, are hairy like the bear, and are restless like the bear" (Kid. 72a).

bibliography:

Lewysohn, Zool, 99; Tristram, Nat Hist, 40–49; F.S. Bodenheimer, Ha-?ai be-Ar?ot ha-Mikra, 2 (1956), index; J. Feliks, Animal World of the Bible (1962), 39. add. bibliography: Feliks, Ha-?ome'a?, 220.

[Jehuda Feliks]