Persian Dev and Dov

In yesterday’s daf (Kiddushin 72a) we see Rav Yosef describe the Persians as bear-like.

״וַאֲרוּ חֵיוָה אׇחֳרִי תִנְיָנָה דָּמְיָה לְדֹב״. תָּנֵי רַב יוֹסֵף: אֵלּוּ פָּרְסִיִּים, שֶׁאוֹכְלִין וְשׁוֹתִין כְּדוֹב, וּמְסוּרְבָּלִין כְּדוֹב, וּמְגַדְּלִין שֵׂעָר כְּדוֹב, וְאֵין לָהֶם מְנוּחָה כְּדוֹב. רַבִּי אַמֵּי כִּי הֲוָה חָזֵי פָּרְסָא דְּרָכֵיב, אָמַר: הַיְינוּ דּוּבָּא נָיְידָא.

The first part of that verse stated: “And behold a second beast, similar to a bear” (Daniel 7:5). Rav Yosef taught: These are Persians, who eat and drink copious amounts like a bear, and are corpulent like a bear, and grow hair like a bear, and have no rest like a bear, which is constantly on the move from one place to another. When Rabbi Ami saw a Persian riding, he would say: This is a bear on the move.

I mentioned in the daf yomi chabura that Rabbi Dr. Yaakov Elman had a whole explanation about this, which he mentioned in class, and wrote about in an article.

Rabbi Dr. Natan Slifkin also mentioned this in an old post:

As an example, the Gemara in Megillah has some seemingly extremely strange comments about Persians and bears. However, as Rabbi Dr. Elman explained to me, and as I confirmed with my co-passenger on the pachyderm, once you realize that dov is Hebrew for “bear,” and dêv is the Zoroastrian name for a certain demon, then the passage makes sense. (For further discussion, see the section “Angels and Demons” in the chapter on the bear in The Torah Encyclopedia of the Animal Kingdom.)

I downloaded Dr. Elman’s article from Academia.edu, and it had an interesting option, to let him know what sparked my interest in downloading his paper.

I’m reminded of Yevamot 97a, of Rabbi Yochanan citing the Tannaitic Sage from several scholastic generations past, Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai:

דְּאָמַר רַבִּי יוֹחָנָן מִשּׁוּם רַבִּי שִׁמְעוֹן בֶּן יוֹחַי: כׇּל תַּלְמִיד חָכָם שֶׁאוֹמְרִים דְּבַר שְׁמוּעָה מִפִּיו בָּעוֹלָם הַזֶּה, שִׂפְתוֹתָיו דּוֹבְבוֹת בַּקֶּבֶר. אָמַר רַבִּי יִצְחָק בֶּן זְעֵירָא, וְאִיתֵּימָא שִׁמְעוֹן נְזִירָא: מַאי קְרָאָה — ״וְחִכֵּךְ כְּיֵין הַטּוֹב הוֹלֵךְ לְדוֹדִי לְמֵישָׁרִים דּוֹבֵב שִׂפְתֵי יְשֵׁנִים״.

As Rabbi Yoḥanan said in the name of Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai: With regard to any Torah scholar in whose name a matter of halakha is said in this world, his lips mouth the words in the grave, as though he is talking

So he knows that I am sharing his Torah today, just as I did in yesterday’s post, about Rav Yehuda fighting with Rav Nachman.

Anyway, here is what Dr. Elman wrote in his article, Some Aspects of Interreligious Polemic in the Babylonian Talmud:

The Persians are represented by a bear in Daniel 7, and Rab Yosef explains the symbolism as representing their bear-like characteristics. However, all three are problematic: Zoroastrianism enjoins abstemiousness, though of course that does not mean that all Iranians were. Still, why are they characterized as hairy and restless? Though intergroup stereotypes need not be realistic, they should have some grounding in reality.

The key is linguistic: The entire statement is based on a play on words: dov (bear in Hebrew) and dēv (demon in Middle Persian and later borrowed into the Aramaic of the magic bowls). Moreover, in order to understand the force of the pun, one must understand—as Rab Yosef clearly did—the role of demons in Zoroastrian theology. The demons are the armies of the Evil Spirit, Ahriman, and Zoroastrianism is defined in its essence as an anti-demon religion, and, moreover, the very identity of a Zoroastrian is bound up with opposing demons; as part of the fravarane, the Zoroastrian confession of faith, which accompanies prayer worship, has it:

I forswear the company of the wicked Daevas . . . and the followers of Daevas, of demons and the followers of demons. . . .

The Daevas are the old Iranian gods of war and strife, and the demons constitute the armies of Ahriman, the evil spirit, who have disheveled hair, as a Middle Persian apocalyptic text has it: The White Huns and Turks, enemies of the Sasanians, are “demons with disheveled hair,” dēwan wizard wars.38 Again, in Zoroastrian anti-Jewish polemic, Judaism was founded by a demon, Dahāg;39 Rab Yosef is merely turning the tables and proclaiming that the Zoroastrians are themselves demons, and, as such, have disheveled hair and, as Chagigah 16a has it, are always flitting about, “flying from one end of the earth to the other.”

The other two, however, regarding hair and restlessness, are difficult to explain unless one is familiar with Middle Persian for the one and rabbinic literature for the other. The reference to hair requires a knowledge of Middle Persian literature, as Rab Yosef evidently had, as he had of Zoroastrian theology and practice. First, it should be noted that “growing one’s hair like bears” does not refer to hairiness, but to disheveled hair, a characteristic of demons, as we see from the stick-figure depictions of demons on the magic bowls. Moreover, most Sasanian coins have profiles of monarchs on them, and the monarch’s hair is neatly gathered at the nape in a neat globe, since Zoroastrians believed that hair that was not treated properly, when detached from the body, can be used as weapons by the demons, who are the armies of the Evil Spirit. Thus, chapter 17 of the Pahlavi Videvdad, the Avestan book dealing the pollution and purification, opens with a warning by Ohrmazd to Zoroaster that “those who arrange their hair . . ., cut their hair and cut their nails. . . . Then by that act contrary to the religion [do not dispose of the hair or nail clippings properly, YE] . . . the demons will come together in the earth.”40 The rest of the chapter is devoted to detailed instructions on disposing of hair- and nail-cuttings so to avoid aiding the forces of evil.