HARE
[Heb., ʼar·neʹveth].
A gnawing animal of the Leporidae family, closely related to but larger than the rabbit. It differs from the latter in that its young are usually not born in an underground burrow, are active at birth, fully furred, and have open eyes. The hare is known by its divided lip, long ears, cocked tail, and its long hind limbs and feet, so useful for a speedy escape from its enemies. The fastest hares are said to attain a speed of as much as 70 km/hr (43 mph). The average length of the animals, of which there are numerous varieties, is about 0.6 m (2 ft). Their usual coloration is grayish or brownish.
The hare was prohibited as food under the Law given through Moses and is referred to as a chewer of the cud. (Le 11:4, 6; De 14:7) Hares and rabbits, of course, do not have a multichambered or multiparted stomach and do not regurgitate their food for rechewing, which characteristics are associated with the scientific classification of ruminants or cud chewers. Nevertheless, although the Hebrew term here used for chewing literally means “bringing up,” the modern scientific classification was not the basis for what the Israelites in Moses’ day understood ‘cud chewing’ to be. Hence, there is no foundation for judging the accuracy of the Bible statement by the restricted, relatively recent conception of what constitutes a cud-chewing animal, as done by many critics.
In the past, commentators with faith in the inspiration of the Bible record saw no error in the statement of the Law. Observed The Imperial Bible-Dictionary: “It is obvious that the hare does in repose chew over and over the food which it has some time taken; and this action has always been popularly considered a chewing of the cud. Even our poet Cowper, a careful noticer of natural phenomena, who has recorded his observations on the three hares which he had domesticated, affirms that they ‘chewed the cud all day till evening.’”—Edited by P. Fairbairn, London, 1874, Vol. I, p. 700.
Scientific observation of hares and rabbits in more recent years, however, indicates that even more than seeming cud chewing is involved. Writes François Bourlière (The Natural History of Mammals, 1964, p. 41): “The habit of ‘refection,’ or passing the food twice through the intestine instead of only once, seems to be a common phenomenon in the rabbits and hares. Domestic rabbits usually eat and swallow without chewing their night droppings, which form in the morning as much as half the total contents of the stomach. In the wild rabbit refection takes place twice daily, and the same habit is reported for the European hare. . . . It is believed that this habit provides the animals with large amounts of B vitamins produced by bacteria in the food within the large intestine.” On the same point, the work Mammals of the World (by E. P. Walker, 1964, Vol. II, p. 647) notes: “This may be similar to ‘chewing the cud’ in ruminant mammals.”—See CUD.