Tzefarde'a: Frogs or Crocodiles?
Weighs the two classical identifications of the second plague of Egypt, tzefarde'a, as either frogs or crocodiles, tracing the crocodile reading through Ibn Ezra, the Midrash ha-Gadol, and Rabbenu Bahya, and the frog reading through etymology and later commentators, and concludes that the etymological and midrashic evidence favors frogs, though a few sources see the term as covering both amphibians and reptiles.
Slifkin surveys the long-running debate over whether the tzefarde’a of the second plague were frogs or crocodiles, drawing on Ibn Ezra, Rabbenu Bahya, and other commentators who favored the crocodile reading, against the etymological and midrashic evidence more commonly marshaled for frogs. He concludes that frogs remain the stronger identification, though notes commentators like the Netziv who read the term as covering both.
Rabbi Natan Slifkin teaches at Yeshivat Lev HaTorah and is pursuing a Ph.D. in Jewish history at Bar-Ilan University. He has written several books on Judaism and the natural world, including Sacred Monsters, The Camel, The Hare, and the Hyrax, and Man and Beast.
Cite this article
Natan Slifkin. "Tzefarde'a: Frogs or Crocodiles?." Jewish Bible Quarterly 38, no. 4 (October – December 2010): 251–254.
Natan Slifkin. "Tzefarde'a: Frogs or Crocodiles?." Jewish Bible Quarterly, vol. 38, no. 4, 2010, pp. 251–254.