Bereshit Rabbah 73:11 states:
The man became exceedingly prosperous, and he had
many flocks, and maidservants and slaves, and camels and donkeys” (Genesis
30:43).
“The man became…prosperous” … Rabbi Abba bar Kahana said: Our patriarch Jacob
had one million twenty-seven thousand two hundred flocks. Rabbi Levi said: Six
hundred thousand dogs. The Rabbis said: One million two hundred thousand. They
do not disagree. The one who said six hundred thousand, there was one dog for
each and every flock. The one who said: One million two hundred thousand, there
were two dogs for each and every flock.
Sefaria online Bereshit Rabbah 73:11 with
Connections
The above calculations refer to Jacob’s final
7 years in Haran when he was allowed -- by agreement with Laban -- to raise
herds for himself. Previously all his labours where to pay for his two
marriages to Leah and Rachel (Gen, 29:18-20 and 30).
The numbers by Rabbi Abba bar Kahana: that
Jacob after 7 years owned 1,027,200 flocks, and that he had 600,000 dogs
according to Rabbi Levi or double that according to the “rabbis” -- if one dog
or two were used to handle a flock, are totally impossible and ludicrous.
Q: How
many sheep or goats are there in a flock?
Not just one or two animals but most likely at least 10 if not far more.
At 10 sheep or goats per flock, that would be
10 x 1,027,200 = 10,272,000 animals!
As for the dogs, the math
does not work. 1,027,200 flocks /600,000
dogs = 1.712 flocks per dog. Not a one
dog per flock ratio!
Even with the “rabbi’s” calculation of 2 dogs
per flock, this still means each pair of dogs still worked 1,712 flocks.
Put differently, for the dog to flock ratio to
be 1:1, it would need to be 1,027,200 dogs. And if 2 dogs per flock, a ratio of
2:1, Jacob would have needed 2,154,400 dogs.
It would also mean that Jacob, starting with
whatever small herds he had on day one, would add to his herds an additional,
on average, over 146,742 new herds each year for each year of these
7 years!
Such wild numbers also ignore sheep and goat
reproduction and grazing needs.
Reproductive biology. [i]
·
Sheep and goats give birth once a year
in the late spring when food becomes plentiful.
·
First time births are one lamb or kid, but later on sheep and
goats can have up to 3 lambs/kids at a time.
·
Ewes and does become sexually mature and can
reproduce within the first year after birth.
·
Females have a life expectancy of 10 to 12
years.
·
They are most productive re breeding offspring
between the ages of 3 to 6 years old.
Now, it is true that reproduction of more than one lamb or kid per
year becomes exponential, but rapid birthing to the
mufti-millions required by Bereshit Rabbah 73: 11 is not viable in just 7
years. And not all lambs and goats are female.
In fact, male lambs and kids are prominent in Torah
law sacrifices: specifically, two in their first years every single day of
the year as the “Olah Tamid” (Exod. 29: 38-39 and Numbers 28:3-9), the sin
offering (Lev. 9:3) and also at the Passover seder meal (Exod. 12: 5 -9).
Grazing
Sheep and goats need
lots of grazing space.
One adult sheep
requires per year 0.19 acres or 750
sq metres of land full of grass.[ii] Or, put differently,
one acre of
grassland (0.4
hectares) is
needed to feed just 5 to
6 grown sheep.[iii] And similarly for goats.[iv]
A flock of
10 sheep
or goats – mixture of adults and lambs/kids--
would require at the very minimum 1.5
acres of grass per year.
And Bereshit Rabbah’s 1,
027,200 flocks – even if each herd were a
tiny 10 sheep or goats --would
require
1,540,8090 acres of grassland!
If 20 per flock, 3,081,600
acres of grassland!
Now, the location of ancient Haran, where Laban lived, is disputed. But
it would have been in modern Turkey or adjoining Iraq.[v]
The entire country of modern Turkey is
783.65km[vi]
or 193,645.12 acre.[vii] And 25% of Turkey is high mountain ranges.[viii]
A net of 145,233.75acres of usable land.
The entire country of Iraq today is
just 437.07 Km2[ix] or 108,002.35
acres. And 30% of Iraq is
mountains.[x] A net of 75,601.65 acres of
usable land.
So, even at tiny flocks of 10 heads each, Jacobs
herds – based on the Bereshit Rabbah figures – would have overrun the entire country of
modern Tukey or Iraq.
Jacobs 10 sheep/goat
flocks would have horded all their
respective land: grassland and agricultural,
crop growing lands -- and towns and cities.
A total, ludicrous
impossibility.
As for sheep dogs, the Bereshit Rabbah figures are
equally, if not more so ludicrous.
Sheep dogs
Dogs were domesticated
in the earliest of times throughout the Middle East. Numerous Ancient Egyptian wall
murals (linked to their gods) and statues of dogs have survived. And so too with the
ancient Mesopotamians who created numerous wall
reliefs of gods with dogs wearing collars on leases, and free-standing
dog statues. [xi]
Aside from being popular pets and hunting dogs,
dogs were trained and to be guard dogs: to
protect homes from thieves and
the flocks in their pens from wild animal predators
and to herd sheep as they roamed the
grassland pastures.[xii]
The earliest Sumerian reference to sheep
dogs is in the ancient poetic narrative, Dumuzid’s
Dream,
lines 95-97: [xiii]
95-97.
“If I reveal your whereabouts to them, may your dog devour me! The
black dog, your shepherd dog, the noble dog, your lordly dog, may your dog
devour me!”
In the (Hebrew)
Bible, only once, in
Job. 30:1, are
sheep dogs mentioned:
Job 30 / Hebrew -
English Bible / Mechon-Mamre
Now training a dog to herd sheep is a complex and
time-consuming process. Dogs must be pups between 6 months and one 1 year old[xiv]
and their human trainer must have the required specialized
knowledge and skills to
succeed. [xv]
As a result, a trained sheepdog
is extremely valuable and expensive.
And sheep dogs are usually
needed to help control large flocks as
they move around grazing areas, with
one trained dog able herd up to 100 sheep
according to modern testing.[xvi]
Put simply, having
sheepdogs would
only be needed
and cost effective
for large herds: not
tiny 10 sheep groups or even 20 sheep clusters. And needing
two trained dogs per
flock would mean herds of enormous size.
So, the idea that Jacob
would have 600,000 or 1,200,000 trained dogs is most bizarre
and truly absurd.
CONCLUSION
Bereshit Rabbah 73:11 gives no evidence or sources for the flock claim
nor sheepdog figures.
No reference to some sacred Bible verse and no (magical)
gematria number link.
For the bible Bible in
Gen. 30;:43 to
make a general statement that Jacob became very successful and prosperous: with
many flocks and camels and donkeys is one thing, but to believe that his number
of sheep and goats were in the multi-millions in just 7 years is just fanciful,
unrealistic speculation.
And even more so the wild sheepdog numbers.
[i] See re
sheep Sheep Reproduction Facts -
Rate & System Of Producing and How
Many Babies Do Sheep Have? (Per Year and Lifetime!), How Long
Do Sheep Live and What Affects Sheep Lifespan and goats Goat Reproduction | How
Goats Breed & Make Baby Goats
[ii] Calculated based on
20 sheep needing 3.6 acres from How
Much Space Do You Need To Raise Sheep? – Family Farm Livestock
[iii] Calculation based on How
Much Space Do You Need To Raise Sheep? – Family Farm Livestock
ix Iraq -
Wikipedia and conversion Convert
Acre to Square Meter
[xi]
See Dogs
& Their Collars in Ancient Mesopotamia - World History Encyclopedia, BC Museum:
SHEPHERD'S DOG IN ANTIQUITY and ancient
mesopotamian sheepdog - Search Images
