Mouse-deer do chew cud (they has four stomachs), but have not two, but four hoofed toes.
Are they kosher?
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Interesting question, +1. I would assume not, but I can't prove it.– MTLDec 11, 2014 at 19:31
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Can you find a picture of the feet? I can't really tell what it's like from your description.– Double AA ♦Dec 11, 2014 at 19:46
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3zootorah.com/RationalistJudaism/HyraxSample.pdf - see page 10– Gershon GoldDec 11, 2014 at 19:48
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@GershonGold I didn't find much of interest there, however, footnote 28: Rabbi Yaakov Yechezkel HaLevi (...) proposes that the arneves is the greater mouse deer. A similar suggestion is proposed by Tzvi Weinberger, “Identifying the Biblical Arneveth with the Musk-Deer and the Shafan with the Mouse-Deer: A Hypothesis” (...) The author rejects the mouse-deer as shafan, because it was remote, and does not live on rocks. but could it not be the arneves?– AdámDec 11, 2014 at 20:38
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@DoubleAA I have searched for years, but this is the best I have found.– AdámDec 11, 2014 at 20:51
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3 Answers
According to Bikkores HaTalmud (Vienna, 1863, pp. 387-9), by Rabbi Yaakov Yechezkel HaLevi (cited by R Natan Slifkin here, page 10, and footnote 28), the "java mouse deer" is the shafan, which is classified as a non-kosher animal (Devarim 14:7). The same source posits that the "greater mouse deer" may be the arneves, which is also forbidden in the same verse.
However, R Slifkin finds this opinion to be problematic for a number of reasons, see op cit., ibid; see also the other articles cited by R Slifkin in that footnote there (28).
Thank you @GershonGold for posting this link ;-)
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1I realize that the OP didn't like this answer when it was submitted as a comment; however, the fact remains that according to Bikkores HaTalmud, you have an answer to the question, no matter how problematic it may be.– MTLDec 11, 2014 at 21:58
According to the various kashrus books that I have seen, Rav Hirsch, Rabbi Art Scroll, and others, a "split hoof" is a single covering of the bottom of the foot split completely in half (from front to back). Thus, the fact that the picture of the mouse deer shows four toes and not a single completely split hoof would mean that it is not kosher.
answered Dec 13, 2014 at 23:56
R. E. Melamed in this article takes it as a given that chevrotains (mouse deer) are kosher.
R. N. Slifkin in this blogpost also assumes as much.
