THE HALACHIC
CORNER OCTOBER 2025
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תש ר י תשפ״ ו
BY: RABBI MOSHE BILLER
W
hat does a grasshopper taste like? You may not care to know the answer. However, even if you don’t, the Torah instructs us to try to learn how to distinguish between the species which are permissible and those which are not.1 The Torah assigns particular significance to discussion of “Arbeh” which is translated as locust, specifically, the Makkah in Egypt and the plague that occurred in the days of the Prophet Yoel.2 The Mahara”l explains that whereas other Makkos were extraordinary and mainly outside of the realm of nature, Arbeh is a natural phenomenon which is not uncommon. People relate to natural phenomena and are fearful of them.3 This is demonstrated in Shlomo Hamelech’s tefilla during the Chanukas Beis Hamikdash that we be saved from all troubles including famine and Arbeh.4 Fascinatingly, the Gr”a in Mishlei learns a lesson from the behaviour of Arbeh. While Arbeh have no leader, their power of achdus and ability to act in unison is all powerful and, when unleashed, can destroy everything in their way. Similarly, when the power of achdus is absent from the Jewish people, we lose power and suffer consequences.5 The Torah identifies four types of kosher grasshoppers by name, Arbeh, Sal’am, Chargol and Chogov. The Gemara in Chullin (65a) adds an additional four kosher species to the list; Tzipores Kramim, Yochana Yerushalmis,
COR - KASHRUTH COUNCIL OF CANADA
Ertzuvia, Harzabnis. However, from a total of eight hundred species of grasshoppers, a mere one percent – eight out of eight hundred, is kosher. This presents a challenge in identifying the kosher grasshopper.6 The only siman kashrus that is mentioned in the Torah is that their knees bend higher than their legs, enabling them to jump around the land.7 Rashi adds more simanim that are provided by Chaza”l, namely that they have four legs plus four wings and that those wings cover most of their body.8 Ultimately, Rashi describes that some have elongated heads while others have no tails and that to be kosher, we must be able to identify it as Chogov. Since we are not experts in which species of grasshoppers are called Chogov, they should all be avoided.9 From the eight listed kosher species, it seems that the present-day discussion about a tradition of kosher grasshoppers is limited to the original species called Arbeh. Indeed, the mesorah comes exclusively from the Jews of Yemen and North Africa who have identified three kosher species as the desert locust (schistocerca gregaria), European locust (locusta migratoria) and Moroccan locust (dociostaurus marocanus); with the most common being the desert locust. The last Chief Rabbi of Yemen, Rabbi Amram Qorah, writes in his sefer called Sa’aras Tayman (page 99) that there was a tradition in Yemen to eat the grasshopper called girad and that it is undoubtedly kosher. Rabbi Yosef Kapach in his sefer called Halichos
Tayman (page 218) confirms this species as kosher while explaining that this is from the only species that travels in swarms. In Sefer Meleches Hakodesh, Parshas Shemini, the author identifies the kosher species as Amrid which he says is the species that is found in locust plagues. On the other hand, Rabbi Chaim ibn Attar, the Ohr Hachaim Hakadosh, also lived in Morocco over three hundred years ago where grasshoppers were common and he issued a ban on their consumption. In his sefer on Shulchan Aruch called Pri Toar, the Ohr Hachaim Hakadosh brings the opinion of Rashi that the jumping legs of a kosher grasshopper are actually a separate set of legs which are located high up on its body, near its neck. He uses this to refute the claim that the desert locust is kosher since its jumping legs are not located next to its neck. In fact, no known locust appears the way that Rashi describes. In the common grasshoppers and locusts, including those that many in his community were accustomed to eating, the jumping legs were below the four walking legs, toward the rear of the insect. Based on this, as well as other reasons, he concludes that the local custom of eating these species of locusts was in error and people should refrain from eating any grasshoppers due to the difficulty in identifying the kosher species among the vast number of non-kosher species.10 This stringent approach is supported by the words of the Shulchan Aruch who says no