Is a Peacock Really a Peacock? A Halachic Exploration

When we hear the word peacock, we automatically picture a stunning fan of colors, a show of extravagance, that bird jumping up on a fence spreading its colorful wings like... a peacock.

It's unlikely we think of grilled peacock wings or smoked peacock breast, yet evidently, there was a time they did. The Talmud tells us about Levi Bar Sisi, an associate of Rabbi Judah the Prince, living in one of the Galilean settlements. One day, he visited Yosef the Hunter's house. This house surely had many fascinating birds, but Yosef chose the most interesting of all: he served his distinguished guest a peacock head — — — in milk! And you should know, according to Rabbi Yosei the Galilean, there's no prohibition of meat in milk except for animal meat, but poultry meat is permitted. There were Galilean settlements that followed his opinion.

Well, Levi Bar Sisi was a student of Rabbi, the Mishna compiler, who ruled that poultry in milk is also completely forbidden, so he missed out on the delicacy of peacock in milk... But there's more to it. Professor Zohar Amar, who researches the identification of animals in the Bible and Talmud, mentions that there were places where peacock was indeed consumed, and its meat was considered very tasty. We don't recommend trying this at home, but it sure sounds intriguing.

There's no doubting the peacock's identification in the Talmud. Rashi writes there "peacock – po'on, which calls out"... Po'on is the French name for our charming peacock, which indeed makes a rather unpleasant call, seemingly unbefitting of the gentlemanly persona it tries to project through its tail. And if anyone still doubts, in the words of our sages on the leper's section, we find the answer: "Which is the greenish among greens? (regarding a blemish) Sumchus says, like the wings of a peacock."

But why isn't the peacock mentioned in the Torah? Here's the surprise. According to most commentaries and researchers, the description in the prophets, when Solomon sent to import "tukeyim" from distant lands, actually refers to peacocks. In the East, a peacock is called tokai, and different versions of this term appear across Eastern languages. Even the name "peacock," which is more recent, is a distortion of that word. The peacock originated in India. The Romans brought it to the region after King Solomon, of course, who brought just a few as ornamental treasures for his palace.

However, there were sages who doubted the identification of "our" peacock with the Talmudic peacock. Rabbi Chaim Benvenisti, a Turkish scholar from about four hundred years ago, writes: "I was asked about a bird called po'on in foreign languages, which is the same bird, known for its splendid feathers, and it has a kind of two or three rose-like tufts on its crest, and its entire body is exceedingly beautiful except for its legs, which are black like a crow's. Is it a kosher or non-kosher bird... custom shows there aren't many birds called pavonis in Constantinople, and nobody eats it, and wise and renowned people testified that in Salonika they consider it non-kosher..." According to him, there are several types of peacocks, and it's impossible to know exactly which type was considered permissible in the Tannaitic days. Another reason not to try this at home...