Goose

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GOOSE

The barburim avusim (av, jps "fatted fowl") included among the daily provision for Solomon's table (i Kings 5:3) have been identified with the goose, the word barbur being explained as derived from bar ("pure," "white"), and avus ("fattened"). Some, however, identify barburim ("swans" in modern Heb.) with hens (bm 86b) or with a variety of fowl that came from Barbaria, that is North Africa (Eccl. R. 2:7). The breeding of geese in Ere? Israel is extremely old, a picture of them being fattened having been preserved on a ninth-century b.c.e. ivory tablet found in excavations at Megiddo. In ancient Egypt geese were extensively bred and fattened. The Mishnah mentions goose breeding (Shab. 24:3; ?ul. 12: 1), and a distinction was made between the wild and the domesticated goose (tj, bk 5: 10, 5a: tb, bk 55a). According to folklore, "if a man sees a goose in a dream, he may hope for wisdom" (Ber. 57a).

bibliography:

F.S. Bodenheimer, Animal and Man in Bible Lands (1960), index, s.v.Anser; J. Feliks, Kilei Zeta'im ve-Harkavah (1967), 133–4.

[Jehuda Feliks]

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