Reply To: Chulin 60 – Son of Camel Teeth

It seems to me that the Torah and Chazal often did not speak about specific and exact breeds of animals. They spoke in generalizations.
For example, we only birds for with we have a Mesora. The Turkey is American and therefore we can’t have Mesora for it because it was not “discovered” until about 500 years ago. So why do we eat it? One answer is that a turkey is Halachicly a big chicken, so no problem.

It seems to me that Chazal, even if they never saw a llama or alpaca, either heard of them through Mesora or through Ruach haKodesh. The use of the Lashon “Ben Gamal” can be ambiguous because the word “Ben” can have different meanings. So if Chazal use “Ben” as opposed to saying something like Zta’ir (young) it must signify something.