Daf Ditty: Pesachim 48:

Detail of grasshopper on table

in Rachel Ruysch's painting Flowers in a Vase,
c. 1685. National Gallery, London

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Rami bar Ḥama said: This dispute between Rav Ḥisda and Rabba with regard to the principle:
Since, etc., is a matter of dispute between Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua in the mishna.
As, Rabbi Eliezer, who says that ḥalla should be separated only after the bread has been baked,
holds that we say the principle: Since, etc. Since any portion of the dough could potentially be
eaten if another part of the dough is designated as ḥalla, therefore, one is permitted to bake bread
without separating ḥalla from it ab initio. And Rabbi Yehoshua holds: We do not say the
principle: Since, etc.

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And the Rabbis say: Three women may be engaged in preparing dough as one, in the following
manner: One kneads her dough as another one arranges her own dough so it takes the form of
matza, while another one bakes her dough.

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Rabbi Akiva says: Not all women, not all wood, and not all ovens are the same, and therefore
no set rules should be established.

Rather, this is the principle: If the dough begins to rise, she should spread cold water in which
she immersed her hands, onto the dough, in order to stop the leavening process.

GEMARA: The Sages taught in a baraita: When the woman who kneads first completes her
kneading, she arranges her dough and another woman kneads in her place. When the first
woman finishes arranging her dough, she bakes and another woman arranges her dough in her
place, and the third woman kneads her dough.

When the first woman finishes baking, she kneads the dough for her next batch, and another
woman bakes in her place, and the third woman arranges her dough, and they continue in
turn.

As long as they are engaged in handling the dough, it will not become leavened.

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It was taught in the mishna that Rabbi Akiva says that not all women, not all wood, and not all
ovens are the same. It was taught in a baraita that Rabbi Akiva said: I deliberated this matter
before Rabban Gamliel, asking: May our master teach us if your statement, cited in the mishna,
was said with regard to diligent women or women who are not diligent?

Was it said with regard to an oven fueled with moist wood or dry wood? Was it said with regard
to a hot oven or a cold oven?

Rabban Gamliel himself said to me: You have only what the Sages taught, which is that this is
the principle: If the dough begins to rise such that there is a concern that it may become leavened,
she should spread cold water onto the dough to prevent it from becoming leavened.

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MISHNA: Dough at the beginning of the leavening process [siur], must be burned, but one who
eats it is exempt from the punishment of karet because the dough had not become fully leavened.
Dough that has reached the stage of cracking must be burned, and one who eats it intentionally
is liable to receive karet, as he has intentionally eaten leavened bread during Passover.

What is considered siur? Dough that has been leavened to the point that it has cracks that look
like the antennae of locusts. The stage of cracking occurs later in the leavening process, when
the cracks intermingle. This is the statement of Rabbi Yehuda. And the Rabbis say: One who
intentionally eats either this or that, dough with cracks like locust antennae or with cracks that
have become intermingled, is liable to receive karet, as once dough begins to crack it has certainly
become leavened. And what is siur? It is any dough whose surface has becomes pale like the
face of a person whose hair stands on end due to fear.

RASHI

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GEMARA: The Sages taught: What is siur? It is any dough whose surface has become pale
like the face of a person whose hair stands on end due to fear. Cracking is considered to have
occurred when cracks like the antennae of locusts appear. This is the statement of Rabbi Meir.
And the Rabbis say: What is siur? It is when the dough forms cracks like the antennae of
locusts, and cracking is when the cracks intermingle. And one who intentionally eats either
this or that is liable to receive karet.

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The Gemara asks: But didn’t we learn in the mishna that siur must be burned but that one who
eats it is exempt from karet; this is the statement of Rabbi Yehuda. The opinion attributed to
the Rabbis in the baraita appears to be the same as that which is attributed to Rabbi Yehuda in the
mishna, but according to Rabbi Yehuda, one who eats siur is exempt from karet. The Gemara
answers: Say that the baraita should be understood in the following manner: According to the
opinion of Rabbi Meir, whose opinion was mentioned previously, one who intentionally eats
either this or that is liable to receive karet, whereas according to the Rabbis he is exempt.

Rava said: What is the reason for the opinion of Rabbi Meir? It is that there is no crack above
that does not have several cracks below. Therefore, even if only one small crack appears on the
surface, it is a sign that the inside of the dough is filled with cracks and has become leavened.

Rav Avrohom Adler writes:1

1
http://dafnotes.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Pesachim_48.pdf

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There is a dispute regarding the procedure that women must adopt when baking matzos on
Pesach.

Rabban Gamliel maintains that three women can knead their dough at one time and bake them in
one oven one after the other. The women began kneading the dough at the same time, so the doughs
are all ready to be baked simultaneously. The oven can only bake one dough at a time, so when
the first dough is being baked, the other two doughs are not going to be kneaded. The last dough
that is placed in the oven will have been left out the time it takes to bake the first two doughs.
Rabban Gamliel allows this to be done because he is not concerned that the dough will leaven in
such a short time period. The Chachamim, however, maintain that three women involved with the
dough at the same time must do as follows: when one woman kneads the dough, the second shapes
the dough and the third woman bakes her dough. The Chachamim are concerned that if they all
start kneading the dough simultaneously, then one women’s dough might leaven while she is
waiting to place her dough in the oven. By having one woman knead her dough and then start
shaping it, the second woman will then begin to knead her dough, and when the first woman is
ready to bake her dough and the second woman finished kneading her dough, the third woman
starts kneading the dough. In this manner the dough is constantly being handed until it is baked
and it will not become chametz. Rabbi Akiva agrees with the Chachamim that each dough must
be handled constantly because not all women, not all wood and not all ovens are similar, so one
cannot be certain that the dough will not leaven before an oven is available to bake the dough. The
general rule is that if the dough rises, the woman should make her hands wet with cold water and
smear water on the dough. The coldness of the water will prevent the dough from leavening.

Siur must be burned but one who eats siur is not liable kares or lashes.

Siur is dough that has not completely leavened. The Halacha is that siur must be burned but one
who eats siur is not liable kares and will not receive lashes. Siur is a case of chametz nuksheh,
defective chametz, and is not biblically prohibited. Since it cannot be eaten, it must be burned.
After the stage of siur, there is a stage when the dough leavens and develops cracks or furrows,
and this dough must be burned, because furrowed dough is full-fledged chametz.

There is a dispute as to what is considered siur.

Rabbi Yehudah maintains that dough that has developed cracks like the antenna of locusts, which
is a crack here and a crack here, is considered to be siur. When the dough has cracks interwoven
one with the other, this is considered furrowed dough. The Chachamim maintain, however, that
whether the cracks begin to develop like the antennas of locusts or whether the cracks are
interwoven, one who eats such dough is liable kares. The Chachamim maintain that siur that one
is not liable for eating is a dough that its surface pales like a person’s face when his hair stands on
end out of fear. This stage occurs in eth dough before any cracks develop. Rabbi Yehudah will
maintain that dough that has paled is still deemed to be matzah, and one does not have to remove
it from his possession and he can even derive benefit from it.

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Rabbi Meir maintains that every individual crack above the surface of the dough has many
individual cracks below the surface.

A Baraisa states that rabbi Meir maintains that siur is any dough whose surface has paled like a
person’s face when his hair stands on end out of fear. Furrowed dough is when cracks develop in
the dough like the antennae of locusts. The Chachamim maintain that siur is when the dough
develops cracks like the antennae of locusts, and furrowed dough is when the cracks are interwoven
one with the other. According to Rabbi Meir, in either case, one who eats the dough is liable kares.

The reason Rabbi Meir considered dough that has cracks like locusts’ antenna the same as
furrowed dough is because there is no dough that has individual cracks on its surface that will not
have many additional cracks below the surface of the dough, so even locusts’ antennae above the
surface of the dough is a sign that the dough is furrowed beneath the surface.

When Dough Becomes Hametz

Steinzaltz (OBM) writes:2

As we learned earlier (daf 46), the custom today is to make sure that the entire process of
baking matza takes less than 18 minutes from beginning to end. Nevertheless, in the time of
the Mishna, dough was considered hametz when it showed certain signs of leavening.

The first Mishna on our daf teaches about the approved baking process. Rabban Gamliel rules that
three women can prepare and bake simultaneously using one oven. The hakhamim say that all
three must be involved in different baking activities in order to ensure that the dough does not
become hametz – one kneads, one shapes and one bakes. Rabbi Akiva objects to the application of
objective standards, arguing that we need to anticipate that the women will work at different speeds
and that the fuel and ovens will be at different temperatures.

Some understand Rabban Gamliel’s ruling as stating that there is enough time to bake three rounds
of matza before leavening takes place. Others argue that this would only be the case if the women
are continuously kneading the dough throughout the baking process. The Rambam rules that in
such a case, as long as the kneading continues, the dough will never become hametz, and Rabban
Gamliel was giving an example, but, in fact, even more than three women could be involved in the
baking simultaneously.

The second Mishna on our daf focuses on when dough is thought to have become hametz.

Dough at the beginning of the leavening process [siur], must be burned, but one who eats it is
exempt from the punishment of karet because the dough had not become fully leavened. Dough

2
https://steinsaltz.org/daf/pesahim48/

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that has reached the stage of cracking must be burned, and one who eats it intentionally is liable
to receive karet, as he has intentionally eaten leavened bread during Passover.

According to Rabbi Yehuda, siur – the beginning of the leavening process, which is indicated by
the dough turning a pale color and developing cracks – is not yet considered hametz, although it
must be destroyed. Siduk – cracks appearing in the dough that intersect one another – is considered
to have become hametz. Hakhamim rule that once any cracks appear, the dough has
become hametz, and eating it on Pesaḥ would make one liable for karet.

The Mishna describes the cracks under discussion as ki-karnei hagavim – like the antennae of
locusts. The comparison between the cracks on the dough and the antennae appears to refer to both
the shape of the antennae and their size – about 12-15 millimeters.

Reena Slovin writes:3

In Talmudic times, matzah was prepared by hand and baking ovens were often shared.
A mishnah on today’s daf raises a concern: If three women are baking matzah in a single oven
simultaneously, what precautions must be taken in order to ensure that the dough does not rise
while waiting its turn in the oven?

Rabban Gamliel says: Three women may knead as one and bake in one oven, one after the other.

As Rashi explains, Rabban Gamliel doesn’t seem too worried, ruling that it is permitted for the
three women to each prepare their batches of dough at the same time and then wait their turn to
use the oven. In fact, the Ritva (a 13th century Spanish commentator) suggests that Rabban
Gamliel thinks the three women should knead and form their dough at the same time, even though
this means waiting a while for the oven to become available.

But the sages are worried about the idle dough beginning to leaven and offer an alternative
suggestion for the best way for three women to share one oven:

And the rabbis say: Three women engaged in dough as one: One kneads, one arranges, one bakes.

At first glance, the sages’ suggestion sounds like the assembly line method, with one woman
assigned exclusively to each task. Rashi explains, however, that it is instead the classroom learning
stations model. Each woman works with her own dough in a specified sequence: while one kneads,
another forms and the third bakes. Then, each advances to the next step, much like singing a three-
part round.

The Gemara brings us a beraita that describes this more explicitly:

3
Myjewishlearning.com

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The sages taught: (When the woman who first completes) kneads, she arranges and another kneads
in her place. (When the first woman finishes) arranging, she bakes and another arranges in her
place, and the third kneads. (When the first woman finishes) baking, she kneads and another bakes
in her place, and the third arranges, and they continue in turn. As long as they (continuously) are
engaged (in handling) the dough, it will not become leavened.

I am visualizing three workstations with each woman whirls from one station to the next. I like to
imagine them in a circle, doing an ancient version of an Israeli dance (Rashi, too, says they were
engaged in a machol, a dance). I bet they also sang in harmony as they worked.

While this all seems logical and even idyllic, Rabbi Akiva, a Tanna known for his strong emotional
intelligence, reminds us that there are actually quite a few variables to consider:

Rabbi Akiva says: Not all women, not all wood, and not all ovens are the same, this is the principle:
(if the dough begins to) rise, she (should spread) cold (water to stop the leavening process).

People work at different speeds, dough rises at different rates, and ovens do not all heat up to the
same temperature. Any single rule or procedure cannot be one-size-fits-all when the variables in
the equation are unpredictable. Rather, Rabbi Akiva reasons, it is best to bear in mind the salient
principle: the dough should not rise before it is baked. Each woman must keep watch over the
dough she is holding in her hand and if she senses that it is beginning to rise she should spread the
cold water onto it to stop the leavening process. Instead of giving people a procedure, however

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beautiful and harmonious, that will not always work, Rabbi Akiva educates them about the
foundational principle and how to uphold it.

DEFINITION OF CHAMETZ

Rav Daniel Brovsky writes:4

THE TORAH PROHIBITS TWO FORMS OF LEAVEN, CHAMETZ AND SE’OR,

BOTH OF WHICH ARE CREATED BY MIXING FLOUR AND
WATER. CHIMUTZ (LEAVENING) OCCURS WHEN A MIXTURE OF FLOUR AND
WATER IS LEFT ALONE AND THE FERMENTATION PROCESS BEGINS. WHILE A
MIXTURE OF FLOUR AND WATER ALONE WILL FERMENT AND BECOME CHAMETZ,
YEAST IS OFTEN ADDED TO A MIXTURE IN ORDER TO HASTEN AND INCREASE THE
FERMENTATION. SE’OR, A YEAST OR SOURDOUGH MIXTURE, IS CHAMETZ THAT IS
LEFT TO BECOME SOUR AND INEDIBLE. IT CONTAINS A CONCENTRATED MIXTURE
OF YEAST AND BACTERIA THAT CAN BE USED TO LEAVEN BREAD. IN SHORT,
WHILE CHAMETZ IS INTENDED TO BE EATEN, SE’OR IS USED FOR THE
PREPARATION OF LEAVENED PRODUCTS.

THE GEMARA (PESACHIM 35A) TEACHES THAT JUST AS ONE CAN ONLY
FULFILL THE MITZVA OF EATING MATZA WITH MATZA MADE WITH ONE OF THE
FIVE GRAINS, (WHEAT, SPELT, BARLEY, OATS, OR RYE), ONLY THESE GRAINS,
WHEN MIXED WITH WATER, CAN BECOME CHAMETZ.

THESE ARE THE INGREDIENTS WITH WHICH A MAN DISCHARGES HIS

OBLIGATION ON PASSOVER: WHEAT, BARLEY, SPELT, RYE, AND
OATS. ONLY THESE [ARE FIT], BUT NOT RICE OR MILLET.
FROM WHERE DO WE KNOW THIS? REISH LAKISH SAID, AND THUS
THE SCHOOL OF R. YISHMAEL TAUGHT, AND THUS THE SCHOOL OF R.
ELIEZER BEN YAAKOV TAUGHT: SCRIPTURE SAYS, “YOU SHALL EAT
NO CHAMETZ (LEAVENED BREAD) WITH IT; SEVEN DAYS SHALL YOU
EAT MATZOT (UNLEAVENED BREAD) THEREWITH.” [WITH REGARD TO]
INGREDIENTS WHICH COME TO THE STATE OF LEAVEN, A MAN
DISCHARGES HIS OBLIGATION WITH UNLEAVENED BREAD [MADE]
THEREOF; THUS, THOSE MATERIALS WHICH DO NOT COME TO THE STATE
OF LEAVEN BUT TO THE STATE OF DECAY ARE EXCLUDED.

WHEN THESE FIVE GRAINS COME INTO CONTACT WITH WATER, THEY MAY
POTENTIALLY BECOME CHAMETZ, EVEN WITHOUT THE AID OF A LEAVENING
AGENT SUCH AS YEAST. OTHER SUBSTANCES, EVEN THOSE THAT CAN BE USED

4
https://www.etzion.org.il/en/laws-pesach-defining-chametz-1

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TO CREATE DOUGH AND BREAD, SUCH AS RICE, BEANS, LENTILS AND OTHER
LEGUMES, CANNOT BECOME CHAMETZ.

TWO PASSAGES IN THE THIRD CHAPTER OF PESACHIM DISCUSS THE

DEFINITION OF “CHIMUTZ” (LEAVENING). ONE PASSAGE (PESACHIM 48B)
PRESENTS THE PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHAMETZ.
THE MISHNA DESCRIBES THE LEAVENING PROCESS AS FOLLOWS: FIRST, THE
DOUGH BECOMES PALE, SIMILAR TO THE APPEARANCE OF A MAN WHOSE HAIR
STANDS ON END OUT OF FRIGHT. NEXT, CRACKS BEGIN TO DEVELOP ON THE
DOUGH’S SURFACE, DESCRIBED BY THE MISHNA AS “KARNEI CHAGAVIM”
(LOCUSTS’ ANTENNAE). THE CRACKS THEN BEGIN TO INCREASE AND MERGE
INTO EACH OTHER.

CHAZAL DEBATE AT WHICH POINT THE DOUGH IS CONSIDERED TO

BE SEI’OR, DOUGH THAT HAS NOT FULLY LEAVENED (NOT TO BE CONFUSED
WITH SE’OR, SOURDOUGH). ALTHOUGH ONE MAY NOT EAT SUCH A MIXTURE, IT
IS NOT CONSIDERED CHAMETZ. THERE IS FURTHER DISCUSSION REGARDING
WHEN THE DOUGH ACTUALLY BECOMES CHAMETZ, DESCRIBED BY
THE MISHNA AS “SIDDUK” (DOUGH THAT DISPLAYS CRACKS INDICATING THAT IT
HAS BECOME CHAMETZ).

SEI’OR MUST BE BURNT, BUT HE WHO EATS IT IS NOT

CULPABLE. SIDDUK MUST BE BURNT, AND HE WHO EATS IT [ON PESACH] IS
LIABLE TO KARET.

WHAT IS SEI'OR? [WHEN THERE ARE LINES ON THE SURFACE] LIKE

LOCUSTS’ ANTENNAE. SIDDUK IS WHEN THE CRACKS HAVE
INTERMINGLED WITH EACH OTHER: THIS IS THE VIEW OF R. YEHUDA. BUT
THE SAGES MAINTAIN: REGARDING BOTH, ONE WHO EATS [THE MIXTURE]
INCURS KARET. AND WHAT IS SEI'OR? WHEN ITS SURFACE HAS TURNED
WHITE, LIKE [THE FACE OF] A MAN WHOSE HAIR IS STANDING ON END
[FROM FRIGHT].

R. YEHUDA MAINTAINS THAT AT THE FIRST STAGE, WHEN THE DOUGH

BECOMES PALE, THE DOUGH IS PERMITTED MI-DEORAITA, AND IS CONSIDERED TO
BE MATZA. WHEN DOUGH REACHES THE SECOND STAGE, IT IS
CALLED SEI’OR AND MUST BE DESTROYED, ALTHOUGH ONE WHO EATS IT DOES
NOT INCUR KARET. ONLY WHEN THE DOUGH DEVELOPS CRACKS THAT HAVE
SPREAD AND INTERMINGLED IS THE MIXTURE CONSIDERED TO BE CHAMETZ.

THE SAGES DISAGREE. THEY IDENTIFY THE FIRST STAGE, WHEN THE
DOUGH IS PALE, AS SEI’OR, WHICH THEY CLAIM IS BIBLICALLY PROHIBITED,
ALTHOUGH ONE DOES NOT INCUR KARET FOR EATING IT. THE SECOND AND
THIRD STAGES ARE CONSIDERED TO BE FULL CHAMETZ, PUNISHABLE
BY KARET. THE GEMARA (IBID. AND 43A) ATTRIBUTES THIS POSITION TO R. MEIR.

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 THE RISHONIM AND THE SHULCHAN ARUKH (451:2) RULE IN ACCORDANCE
WITH THE SAGES (AND R. MEIR) REGARDING THE DEFINITION OF CHIMUTZ. IT IS
FORBIDDEN AND PUNISHABLE BY KARET TO EAT THE MIXTURE ONCE IT HAS
DEVELOPED CRACKS LIKE A “LOCUST’S ANTENNAE.” THE SEVERITY OF THE
PROHIBITION OF EATING SEI’OR WILL BE DISCUSSED BELOW.

THE RAMBAM (HILKHOT CHAMETZ U-MATZA 5:13) WRITES THAT IF THE

DOUGH ROSE ENOUGH THAT IF ONE WERE TO HIT THE DOUGH IT WOULD
PRODUCE A SOUND (THE SOUND PRODUCED WHEN DOUGH FILLED WITH AIR IS
STRUCK), IT IS CONSIDERED CHAMETZ EVEN IF IT HAS NOT YET FORMED CRACKS.
FURTHERMORE, THE ME’IRI (PESACHIM 45A) NOTES THAT IF THE DOUGH RISES
COMPLETELY, EVEN IF THERE ARE NO VISIBLE CRACKS IN THE DOUGH, IT IS STILL
CONSIDERED CHAMETZ.

Diagram of three forms of grasshopper antennae: filiform or threadlike,

ensiform or sword-shaped, and clavate or club shaped

Our present Mishnah is concerned with the actual process of baking the matzah on Pesaḥ (or before
Pesaḥ for use on Pesaḥ)5.

In mishnaic times the baking of matzah was the task of women - just as was the task of baking
bread at other times - and it was done in the home. Because of the special care that needs to be
taken in baking matzah it seems that several women (presumably either neighbors of members of
the extended family) were wont to club together to bake matzah. The major issue in the baking of
matzah is severely limiting the time that elapses between the moment the flour comes into contact
with the water and when the mixture is placed in the oven. We have mentioned on several
occasions that this time limit is accepted as being 18 minutes (see Daf Ditty Pesachim 46)

The water that will be mixed with the flour must have been drawn on the previous day and left to
stand overnight. This curious requirement is stated explicitly in the Gemara [Pesaḥim 42a], but for

5
http://www.bmv.org.il/shiurim/pesachim/pes03.html

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the sake of clarity I will quote the requirement as stated in the Shulhan Arukh [Oraĥ Ĥayyim
455:1]:

[The dough] may only be kneaded in water drawn the previous day - be it water drawn from wells
or springs or rivers... The kneading may not begin before the night has completely passed.

On this statement, in his famous commentary, Mishnah Berurah, Rabbi Israel Me'ir Kogan [died
1933] writes as follows:

The water drawn the previous day must be left overnight in a container. The reason for this was
explained by Rashi [in his commentary on the prime source in the Gemara]: In Nisan [the month
of spring] the wells are hot because at that period of the year the sun is low in the heavens, close
to Earth, and thus warms the [water in the] springs. Other authorities explain that at night the sun
goes beneath the sky and warms the springs. That is why the sages forbade using such water as
soon as it was drawn...

Indeed, one rabbi asked Rabbi Tzvi Pesaĥ Frank [died 1960] whether he could use water drawn
immediately from the tap since by experiment he found that the tap water was colder than the water
drawn the previous evening. The response that he got was to forget his experimenting, since the
sages obviously knew better than we do! [Har Zvi, Oraĥ Ĥayyim 64.]

Our mishnah is concerned with the halakhic status of dough which has already started to leaven
but is not yet fully leavened or was not yet fully leavened when it was baked (and the leavening
process was stopped by the heat of the baking).

Tanna Kamma says that 'bread' baked from partly leavened dough must be burned - eliminated
like ordinary leaven foodstuffs - but if someone eats it inadvertently (thinking it was matzah) they
are not subject to the punishment of excision which is the Torah's punishment for any consumption
of leaven during Pesaĥ [Exodus 12:15 and 19]. However, if the baked 'bread' has a crust which has
cracks in it - a sure sign that it has leavened - not only must it be eliminated but anyone who eats
it must have realized that they were eating ĥametz and are therefore punishable by excision.

In our mishnah there is a difference of opinion concerning the visual signs of partly leavened bread.
Rabbi Yehudah ben-Ilai says that when Tanna Kamma refers to partly leavened bread he means
that when it comes out of the oven it has a crust with small cracks in it - cracks that look like the
antennae of grasshoppers: two small cracks only in a kind of V-shape. But, continues Rabbi
Yehudah, when Tanna Kamma refers to bread that is cracked he refers to bread whose crust is
covered with many cracks and marks where the leavening process has caused the bread to rise and
crack its surface.

The rest of the sages disagree with Rabbi Yehudah. They say that either of the phenomena
described by Rabbi Yehudah are sure signs that the bread is leavened, and anyone who eats it
deserves excision. So, according to the rest of the sages, what does Tanna Kamma means when he
refers to partly leavened dough? They say that such a loaf or cake of bread would have its surface
turned very white - like the face of someone from which all the blood has drained because of

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extreme fear. (Is this not a very strange but graphic description? I wonder what it really refers to -
what would such bread look like.)

American grasshopper (Schistocerca americana)

Grasshoppers are a group of insects belonging to the suborder Caelifera. They are among what is
probably the most ancient living group of chewing herbivorous insects, dating back to the early
Triassic around 250 million years ago.
Grasshoppers are typically ground-dwelling insects with powerful hind legs which allow them to
escape from threats by leaping vigorously. As hemimetabolous insects, they do not
undergo complete metamorphosis; they hatch from an egg into a nymph or "hopper" which
undergoes five moults, becoming more similar to the adult insect at each developmental stage. At
high population densities and under certain environmental conditions, some grasshopper species
can change color and behavior and form swarms. Under these circumstances, they are known
as locusts.

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Symbolism

Sir Thomas Gresham's gilded grasshopper symbol,

Lombard Street, London, 1563
Grasshoppers are sometimes used as symbols. During the Greek Archaic Era, the grasshopper was
the symbol of the polis of Athens, possibly because they were among the most common insects on
the dry plains of Attica. Native Athenians for a while wore golden grasshopper brooches to

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 symbolize that they were of pure Athenian lineage with no foreign ancestors. Another symbolic
use of the grasshopper is Sir Thomas Gresham's gilded grasshopper in Lombard Street, London,
dating from 1563; the building was for a while the headquarters of the Guardian Royal Exchange,
but the company declined to use the symbol for fear of confusion with the locust.
When grasshoppers appear in dreams, these have been interpreted as symbols of "Freedom,
independence, spiritual enlightenment, inability to settle down or commit to decision". Locusts are
taken literally to mean devastation of crops in the case of farmers; figuratively as "wicked men
and women" for non-farmers; and "Extravagance, misfortune, & ephemeral happiness" by
"gypsies".

Two-striped grasshopper

Scientific name: Melanoplus bivitattus

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Average length: 1 - 10 cm

Life expectancy: around four months

Grasshoppers are well known for their songs, which are made in different ways by different
subfamilies. Some make sounds by rubbing pegs on their hind legs together, some clatter their
wings together in flight, some rub their wings together and others do not make any noise at all.

There are 18,000 kinds of grasshoppers in the world. All species of grasshoppers share the common
characteristic of being a long, slender insect and is known for its strong mandibles, or jaws, which
are adapted for chewing. The grasshopper has two pairs of wings. The front pair is rigid, while the
hind pair is larger, membranous and often brightly coloured. These wings help some species fly
well, yet others fly poorly or not at all. It also has three pairs of legs, all of which are used for
walking. The back pair is more muscular and used for jumping or initiating flight.

There are two main groups of grasshoppers: long-horned and short-horned, determined by the
length of antennae. The two-striped grasshopper, a short-horned grasshopper, is recognized by the
stripes on its back, the colours varying due to location and maturity.

The grasshopper has no ears. Instead it uses organs called tympana to hear, circular membranes
found in the abdomen of the insect where the hind legs attach to the body. It also has five eyes.
The two large eyes are on either side of the grasshopper's head, each with thousands of single
lenses, allowing it to see in all directions. The three smaller eyes—one at the base of each antenna
and one between the two antennae—are single eyes and it is unknown what their purpose is.

Habitats/Behaviors
Grasshoppers are well known for their songs, which is made in different ways by different
subfamilies. Some make sounds by rubbing pegs on their hind legs together, some clatter their
wings together in flight, some rub their wings together and others do not make any noise at all.

Also renowned for its jumping ability, the grasshopper has strong hind legs to allow it to jump 20
times the length of its body.

The grasshopper is an herbivore. Some species eat only certain types of plants while others eat any
type of plants it can find. It has been known to destroy entire crops of cotton, clover, alfalfa and
other grains, whereas the two-striped grasshopper eats plants that are toxic to cattle.

Other than humans, flies are the primary threat to the grasshopper, but it is also eaten by birds,
reptiles, skunks, rodents, coyotes, beetles and spiders.

23
Locusts vs Grasshoppers

Robert Roy Britt writes:6

Green grasshoppers and brown locusts are close cousins, both in the grasshopper family. But while
grasshoppers hop like mad and can be abundant and pesky, locusts can fly. More significant,
locusts have the unusual ability to be total loners or to enter what scientists euphemistically call "a
gregarious state" — this is the flying and swarming stage, the stuff of Biblical proportions.

Desert locusts affect 20 percent of the world's land surface, scientists say. Vast swarms containing
billions of bugs periodically devastated parts of the United States back when the West was being
settled. They continue to be a big problem in parts of Africa and China. Last November, swarms
nearly 4 miles long (6 km) plagued Australia.

6
https://www.livescience.com/7782-grasshoppers-locusts-swarm.html

24
What makes them so gregarious?

An increase in the chemical serotonin (which boosts moods in humans) in certain parts of a locust's
nervous system initiates the swarming behavior, according to a study published earlier this year in
the journal Science. (2016)
It's nature's way of giving wing to a starved creature.

Desert locusts live in barren regions that see rain only rarely. They eke out an existence alone when
times are tough. When the rains come, they breed like crazy. Then things dry up, and hordes of
locusts are forced to gather around dwindling patches of vegetation.

"The gregarious phase is a strategy born of desperation and driven by hunger, and swarming is a
response to find pastures new," said study team member Steve Rogers of Cambridge University.

Rogers and his colleagues found that in the lab, solitary locusts could be made gregarious within
2 hours simply by tickling their hind legs to simulate the jostling they experience in the wild.
Serotonin levels spiked three-fold.

Once on the move, the epic swarms are all but inevitable. Here's how that works:

Scientists discovered a few years back that at low densities, the insects were unorganized and went
their separate ways. But when the group's density increased, the bugs fell into an orderly line and
began to follow the same direction.

Such "collective motion," which spells doom for a crop, is common also among ants, birds and
fish.

The grasshoppers now invading Utah are born in cycles that run 7 to 10 years, scientists say, and
the outbreak is nothing unusual for the natural world. What's really new is that there are more
suburbanites to complain about them now.

Neurophysiology
Dieu My T. Nguyen, Mark Roper, Stanislav Mircic, Robert M.
Olberg and Gregory J. Gage write:7

Avoiding capture from a fast-approaching predator is an important survival skill shared by many
animals. Investigating the neural circuits that give rise to this escape behavior can provide a
tractable demonstration of systems-level neuroscience research for undergraduate laboratories. In
this paper, we describe three related hands-on exercises using the grasshopper and affordable
technology to bring neurophysiology, neuroethology, and neural computation to life and enhance
student understanding and interest.

7
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5480846/

25
We simplified a looming stimuli procedure using the Backyard Brains SpikerBox bioamplifier, an
open-source and low-cost electrophysiology rig, to extracellularly record activity of the
descending contralateral movement detector (DCMD) neuron from the grasshopper’s neck.

The DCMD activity underlies the grasshopper’s motor responses to looming monocular visual
cues and can easily be recorded and analyzed on an open-source iOS oscilloscope app, Spike
Recorder. Visual stimuli are presented to the grasshopper by this same mobile application allowing
for synchronized recording of stimuli and neural activity.

An in-app spike-sorting algorithm is described that allows a quick way for students to record, sort,
and analyze their data at the bench.

Neuroanatomy of the grasshopper’s motion detector neurons. The grasshopper optic lobes
(lamina, medulla and lobula) lie in the central brain beneath each of the compound eyes and
processes visual information. The lobula giant motion detectors (LGMDs) receive visual
signals from the lobula and pass these inputs to the descending contralateral motion
detectors (DCMDs). The LGMDs respond to motion of an object seen moving across the
insect eye as well as to the looming effect, where an object increases in size as it approaches
the eye. The DCMD activates motor neurons in the thoracic ganglia. These primary motion
detector neurons underpin the animal’s detector and motor response to a looming object,
forming the see-and-jump escape mechanism.

The DCMD underlies the grasshopper’s motor responses to looming monocular visual cues
perceived by their eyes and provides an excellent systems-level view of a decoding problem being
computed by the grasshopper brain in an escape response. It is also easy to extracellularly record

26
from this neuron by placing electrodes around a nerve cord, due to the relatively large spikes (large
amplitude and high bursting firing rate) produced from the DCMD axons (Simmons and Young,
1999). In this paper, we present a tractable electrophysiology procedure using an Apple iPad and
a low-cost, open-source electrophysiology kit called the SpikerBox (Marzullo and Gage, 2012)
from Backyard Brains (BYB, backyardbrains.com) that extracellularly records and analyzes the
firing rate of the grasshopper DCMD neuron. The SpikerBox provides connections to electrodes
for recording electrophysiological responses from an invertebrate preparation, and includes a
bioamplifier that connects to a smartphone, tablet, or computer. We also describe our software
package, Spike Recorder, which is currently available for iOS systems and generates visual
looming stimuli while simultaneously recording neural activity. We provide analysis tools within
the app, as well as separate MATLAB code, to perform spike-sorting of the DCMD unit and to
analyze the neuronal activity.

When Grasshoppers Go Biblical: Serotonin Causes Locusts to Swarm

Katherine Harmon writes:8

What makes harmless little green grasshoppers turn into brown, crop-chomping clouds
of swarming locusts? Serotonin, according to a study published this week in Science. Researchers
from universities in the UK and Australia found that that neurotransmitter (a chemical compound
that sends impulses between nerve cells and affects everything from sleep to aggression in
humans) spurs a cascade of Dr. Jekyll-to-Mr. Hyde–like changes in at least one species of
grasshopper — the desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria). This species is infamous for wreaking
havoc from Africa to Asia.

Knowing what causes this swift metamorphosis may help governments and farmers develop
methods to control future locust outbreaks with chemicals that would suppress the offending
serotonin.

It took just two to three hours for timid grasshoppers in a lab to morph into gregarious locusts after
they were injected with serotonin. Conversely, if they were given serotonin blockers, they stayed
solitary even in swarm-inducing conditions.

"These little guys changed from a shy creature that actively avoided making contact with other
grasshoppers [into a creature] actively seeking out other insects and joining a gang," says study
co-author Malcolm Burrows, a zoology professor at Cambridge University in England. And we're
not just talking about a gaggle of grasshoppers: Just last year, a swath of locusts more than three
and a half miles (six kilometers) long tore through Australia, devastating crops in its path.

"They eat everything in sight," says Sean Mullen, an assistant professor of evolutionary genetics
at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa., about swarming locusts.

8
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/when-grasshoppers-go-bibl/

27
When these insects go into swarm mode, they don't just get super social, they also completely
change physically, becoming stronger, darker and much more mobile, says study co-author
Swidbert Ott, a research fellow at Cambridge. In fact, he says, the before-and-after bugs look so
different that, until the 1920s, they were assumed to be two unique species.

In the wild, swarms usually appear after a rainy period followed by a time of drought. After rains,
populations of grasshoppers explode, Burrows says, because there is food aplenty. But when the
land becomes parched and grass scarce, the populations get pushed into smaller and smaller areas,
becoming more packed as desirable pasture diminishes, he says. At a certain point of density, the
swarm-inducing serotonin gets triggered and the locusts set off en masse to find greener pastures.
After that, few things — other than an end to the food supply or an ocean — can stop them.

Burrows says that locusts can switch out of swarm mode, though it takes days rather than hours.
He notes, however, that the about-face rarely happens in the wild, because the offspring of locusts
that breed while swarming are born swarmers.

Today, locust invasions are controlled with pesticides that also wipe out other insects, note
Burrows and Ott. This new research, however, paves the way for development of a chemical that
would specifically inhibit serotonin production in the solitary grasshoppers, says Hojun Song, a
postdoctoral researcher at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.

But remember, as Kung Fu's Master Po advised his young charge in the 1986 movie, "Do not go
in fear, Grasshopper." Of the approximately 8,000 species of grasshoppers, only about 10 of them
are likely to morph into swarming locusts, Burrows says. But, Song adds, more research should be
conducted to determine whether other types of locusts also get hopped-up on serotonin.
10 Sec.

28
 The Neck of a Grasshopper9

In Avodah Zarah 51 there is a dispute about how far the prohibition against idol worship
extends:

‫עבודה זרה נא‬, ‫א‬

‫שחט לה חגב ר' יהודה מחייב וחכמים פוטרים‬

If one slaughtered a locust for an idol, Rabbi Yehuda deems him liable, and the Rabbis deem
him exempt from punishment.

According to Rabbi Yehudah the neck of the grasshopper is similar to the neck of an animal;
since slaughtering an animal for idol worship is prohibited, so, by analogy, is slaughtering a
grasshopper.

‫ושאני חגב הואיל וצוארו דומה לצואר בהמה‬...

The neck of the grasshopper resembles the neck of an animal...

9
http://www.talmudology.com/jeremybrownmdgmailcom/2018/3/5/avodah-zarah-51a-the-neck-of-a-grasshopper-zjsa5

29
WHAT IS A NECK?

The neck is the bit that connects an animal's head to its body. Grasshoppers have a head and they
have a body, so perforce, they have a neck. Here is what a typical (female) grasshopper looks
like:

Diagram of a female grasshopper. From Pfadt, R. The Field Guide to Common Wester
Grasshoppers. Wyoming Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin #912, 1994. p1.

As you can see, the pronotum sits where the neck should be. It is the bony upper plate of the
first section of the thorax, and when viewed from the side, appears saddle shaped. Other insects
with a pronotum include ladybugs (or ladybirds, as they are quaintly called in Britain and
elsewhere), termites, beetles and fleas. The pronotum covers the cervix, the neck proper, which
is "a membranous area that allows considerable freedom of movement for protraction and
retraction of the insect's head." Like all insects, grasshoppers possess an exoskeleton. Beneath
this hard outer shell, lay all the soft squishy bits like the gut and heart, or at least what passes for
a heart in an insect.

RABBI YEHUDAH'S ANATOMY LESSON

Rabbi Yehudah declared that the neck of the grasshopper resembled the neck of an animal, by
which he meant an animal that was offered as a sacrifice in the Temple. Rashi changes the
language just a little, and in so doing suggests the resemblance is even closer. The grasshopper's
neck does not just resemble (‫ )דומה‬an animal's. Rather, they are the same:

‫דיש לה צואר כבהמה ולהכי מחייב רבי יהודה דכעין שחיטת פנים הוא‬

The grasshopper has a neck like an animal, which is why Rabbi Yehudah finds that [a person
who slaughters a grasshopper like he would an animal] is liable...

Here is the explanation found in the Koren English Talmud:

30
Most insects possess a head located very close to the body, i.e., the thorax, and therefore lack a
visible neck. Nevertheless, some types of grasshopper possess an uncommonly visible pronotum
protecting the front of the thorax. This feature has the appearance of a neck, and so even though
a grasshopper cannot be truly slaughtered, it can appear to be slaughtered much like animals
with necks.

But animal necks and grasshopper necks are nothing like each other.

The grasshopper neck:

1. Is covered with a protective shell (the pronotum)

2. Does not possess an endoskeleton.
3. Is really the cervix which lies hidden beneath the pronotum.

The animal neck:

1. Is covered with skin or feathers, not a hard protective shell.

2. Has an endoskeleton made of seven cervical vertebrae.
3. Is clearly visible and is not hidden.

It is not clear in what way Rabbi Yehudah equated the neck of a grasshopper with the neck of an
animal that was sacrificed in Jerusalem, but his teaching is echoed in Jewish law. According to
Maimonides, such an act is forbidden if it is done as a part of a religious ceremony:

‫ הלכות עבודה‬,‫ד׳ משנה תורה‬:‫זרה וחוקות הגויים ג׳‬

•‫ָשַׁחט ָלהּ ָחָגב ָפּטוּר ֶאָלּא ִאם ֵכּן ָה ְיָתה ֲﬠבוָֹדָתהּ ְבָּכ‬

And the Shulchan Aruch rules that a grasshopper slaughtered in front of an idol, regardless of
whether this was part of a religious ceremony or not, is forbidden to be used by a Jew.

‫שולחן ערוך ירוה דעה ס׳קלט‬, ‫ד‬

‫ אפלו אין דרך לעבדה בחגב כלל‬,‫ נאסר‬,‫שחט לפניה חגב‬

As a result, it's probably best not to sacrifice a grasshopper to an idol, even if you can't see its
neck.

31
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein writes:10

The eighth of ten plagues which G-d brought upon the Egyptians in the lead-up to the Exodus was the
Plague of Arbeh — locust. Locust is the word for a Borg-like collective of grasshoppers that swarm about
and destroy produce. These flying grasshoppers devastated the Land of Egypt by devouring its remaining
crops. About this plague the Torah testifies, “Before it there was never a locust-swarm like it, and after it
there will never be so.” (Exodus 10:14) Nonetheless, a similar story appears elsewhere in the Bible and
that opens up our discussion about the grasshopper-related synonyms in the Hebrew language.

The prophet Yoel foretells a calamitous famine and grasshopper infestation. He actually uses four different words
to describe the invading grasshoppers in his time: first, the gazam will come and eat from the produce, then
the arbeh will come and eat what the gazam left over, then the yelek will arrive and eat what the arbeh allowed
to remain, and finally the chasil will come and eat what the yelek passed over. (Yoel 1:4) Nonetheless, Yoel
prophesizes that if the Jewish People will subsequently repent their sins and pray to G-d: “I (G-d) will distance
the tzfoni from you.” (Yoel 2:20) Rashi and Radak explain that tzfoni is also a term that refers to grasshoppers,
because those pests usually migrate from north (tzafon) of the Holy Land.

With this background information in mind we can now discuss the different terms used in the Bible for
grasshoppers. So far, we have encountered five different words for grasshoppers: arbeh, gazam, yelek,
chasil, and tzfoni. When the Torah discusses the types of insects that are considered ritually clean and therefore
fit for consumption, the Torah lists four species of grasshoppers which fall into that
category: arbeh, sal’am, chargol, and chagav. (Leviticus 11:22) This adds another three words for grasshoppers
to our list. Moreover, in Psalms’ retelling of the Ten Plagues, it mentions the word chanamal, which Rashi (to
Ps. 78:47) explains refers to grasshoppers (although other commentaries explain that it refers to a type of hail).
If you haven’t been keeping track, we have now a total of nine different words that are used as references to
grasshoppers.

It seems that these different words for grasshoppers are not just synonyms but are actually names of different
types of grasshoppers. We don’t know for sure, but they are probably different forms of grasshoppers, crickets,
katydids (also known as bush crickets), and other orthoptera. The word arbeh cannot only be used to denote a
certain type of grasshopper, but it is also an umbrella term that includes all types of grasshoppers. Similarly,
Rabbi Menachem Meiri (1249-1315) in Beit HaBechirah, and Rabbi Shmuel ben Meshullam of Gerona (circa.
1335) in Ohel Mo’ed write that the word chagav cannot only denote a specific type of grasshopper but is also a
general term for all kosher grasshoppers. (For more about this, see Rav Chaim Kanievsky’s Karnei
Chagavim §2).

Midrash HaGadol (to Ex. 10:14) records that seven of nine types of grasshoppers comprised the Plague
of Arbeh in Egypt: arbeh, sal’am, chargol, chagav, gazam, yelek, and chasil. Rabbi Menachem Tzioni (a 14th
century German Kabbalist) adds that chanamal was also one of the species of grasshoppers in Egypt, making
the total number eight. He explains that each of these eight types of grasshoppers included one hundred different
sub-species, so there were really eight-hundred different types of locust which swarmed over Egypt. (Midrash

10
https://ohr.edu/7696

32
Sechel Tov records the same tradition, but instead of chanamal, it mentions tzlatzel (see below).) This mirrors
the Talmud’s assertion (Chullin 63b) that there are eight-hundred types of chagav!

Radak gives us some insight into the meanings of the Hebrew words for grasshoppers mentioned by Yoel. He
writes that gazam are called so because they cut (gozez) the grain. Arbeh bear that name because of their
multitudes (related to the word harbeh, “a lot”). The name yelek is related to the word melakek (“lick”) and
focuses on this grasshoppers’ habit of licking and chewing grass. The prophet Nachum described yelek as a type
of grasshopper that “spreads out and then flies away.” (Nachum 3:15) Based on this description, Malbim explains
the yelek as a type of grasshopper that is originally born as a sort of worm, but then enters a cocoon from which
it emerges as winged grasshopper. (After consulting with Ohr Somayach’s resident zoologist, Rabbi Richard
Jacobs, I have been unable to confirm the existence of such a grasshopper.) The word chasil is given to another
type of locust because those grasshoppers were said to "finish off" the remaining produce in Yoel’s time. (The
word chasal means to “finish” or “conclude”, like we say at the end of the Passover Seder, “Chasal siddur
Pesach…” or at the end of a Tractate).

The Targum to Yoel gives us the Aramaic words for the four species of grasshoppers mentioned by
Yoel. Gazam is translated as zachala (which literally means “crawling thing”, see Deut. 32:24 where it means
snake), arbeh is govai, yelek is parcha (“flying thing”), and chasil is shmota. The Talmud (Chullin 65a) also
offers Aramaic translations, specifically of the four types

of kosher grasshoppers: arbeh is govai, sal’am is rishon, chargol is nipol, and chagav is gadyan. (See also
Radak to Amos 7:1.)

I forgot to tell you about another possible word for grasshopper: Rashi (to Deut. 28:42 and Bava Kama 116b)
writes that tzlatzel is also another type of grasshopper. Rabbeinu Bachaya (to Deut. 28:42) and in the
commentary to Chronicles printed under Rashi’s name (I Chron. 13:8) explain that the word tzlatzel is related
to mitzaltayim (“cymbals”) in reference to the clamorous noises associated with this type of grasshopper. Pirush
HaRokeach adds that grasshoppers are related to the word tzel (“shade”) because when these invading pests
swarm across the sky they cast a shadow over the earth below them.11

11
Nonetheless, other commentators disagree with Rashi and explain tzlatzel differently: Rav Saadia Gaon writes that they are
butterflies; Gersonides, that they are worms; and Nachmanides, that tzlatzel refer to the clamoring sound of enemy armies.

33