Flea

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FLEA

FLEA (Heb. ?????????, parosh). The flea symbolizes an insignificant, loathsome creature (i Sam. 24:15; 26:20). Nevertheless, the ancients did not refrain from calling themselves "parosh," and this was the name of a Judahite family that came with Ezra to Ere? Israel from Babylonia (Ezra 2:3), as well as of a Moabite prince (Neh. 10:15). The common flea, Pulex irritans, is a parasite living on human beings and other mammals. Another species is the Chenopsylla cheopsis, which attaches itself to rats. The flea is mentioned several times in talmudic literature where it is stated that contrary to several insects regardedas formed through spontaneous generation, its propagation is sexual (Shab. 107b). In modern times the flea has disappeared almost entirely from the inhabited regions of Israel.

bibliography:

F.S. Bodenheimer, Ha-?ai be-Ar?ot ha-Mikra, 2 (1956), 292ff.; Tristram, Nat Hist, 305.

[Jehuda Feliks]

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