Hare

The hare appears in the dietary law as one of the animals declared unclean for Israel. It is named only twice, both within the parallel lists of forbidden flesh in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, and the reasoning offered in each case turns on the standard test of cud and hoof.

Unclean Among the Cud-Chewers

Leviticus places the hare in the short list of creatures that meet only one half of the kosher criterion: "And the hare, because she chews the cud but doesn't part the hoof, she is unclean to you⁺" (Leviticus 11:6). The animal looks like a candidate by one mark and fails by the other, and the verdict follows the failure rather than the partial fit.

Echoed in Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy gathers the same exclusions into a single sentence, putting the hare alongside the camel and the coney as creatures that share this same defect: "Nevertheless these you⁺ will not eat of those that chew the cud, or of those that have the hoof cloven: the camel, and the hare, and the coney; because they chew the cud but part not the hoof, they are unclean to you⁺" (Deuteronomy 14:7). The grouping fixes the hare in the company of mid-sized animals whose feeding habits suggest cleanness but whose feet disqualify them.