טבע

Animals are present from the very beginning of the Torah, as they are among God's first creations in the book of Genesis. Animals feature in a variety of contexts, such as biblical and talmudic stories, legal discussions about how to treat them, and poetic liturgical works that marvel at their wonders.

Birds feature in the Jewish textual tradition from the opening chapter of the Torah, which recounts how birds were created on the fifth day of creation. Noah uses birds to help determine whether it is safe to leave the ark, and other parts of the Torah discuss laws surrounding birds, like which ones are prohibited for consumption and the obligation to send away a mother bird before taking her young. Later Jewish texts expand on these concepts and other aspects of the nature and qualities of birds.

A wilderness.

Adam, the first human, is created from the "dust of the ground," and Abraham is promised that his descendant will be as numerous as "the dust of the earth." Dust and dirt also play roles in many other stories, rituals, and laws throughout biblical and rabbinic literature, like the commandment to cover blood of a slaughtered animal with earth and the role of dirt in the sotah ritual.

Rabbinic texts describe how the first humans discovered fire, and fire plays a role in many biblical stories, like that of the burning bush. Fire features both physically and metaphorically in Jewish sources; fire serves, for example, as a metaphor for Torah in some rabbinic texts.

In the Jewish textual tradition, frogs feature most notably in the plague of frogs wrought upon the Egyptians in the book of Exodus. Later sources describe how these frogs developed and multiplied, analyze the frogs' traits, and even derive laws based on the actions of the frogs. Frogs are also featured in various stories and teachings throughout midrashic and rabbinic literature.

Grapes are one of the seven special agricultural products of the land of Israel. They appear in several instances in the Torah, like when Noah plants a vineyard and gets drunk after emerging from the ark, or when spies bring back huge grapes from their expedition in the land of Israel. Later sources discuss legal questions relating to grapes, vineyards, and wine and analyze the qualities and significance of this fruit.

Jewish sources throughout the ages grapple with questions of science and the surrounding world, and how these questions intersect with Jewish texts, practices and values.

Sheratzim are small creatures that creep or crawl, described and listed in Leviticus 11:29-30. Their corpses convey impurity to people and vessels when encountered in specific ways.

A type of fruit.

The plague of wild animals is the fourth of ten plagues that God wrought upon the Egyptians when Pharoah refused to let the enslaved Israelites go. It is described in Exodus 8:16-28

In the Jewish textual tradition, the rainbow features most prominently in Genesis chapter 9, when God tells Noah that the rainbow is a symbol of God's covenant between God and all living things, demonstrating that God will never again destroy the world with a flood. Jewish liturgy includes a blessing to be said upon the sight of a rainbow, invoking a reminder of God's covenant. Generations of Jewish scholars have expounded upon the rainbow's significance, origins, and messages.