Caul

Caul. A sort of ornamental head-dress, Isa 3:18, with a net for its base. The name is derived from the caul, the membranous bag which encloses the heart -- the pericardium. -- Editor.

(יוֹתֶרֶת, yothe´reth, properly a redundant part, i.e. flap, Exo 29:13; Exo 29:22; Levit. in, 4, 10, 15; 4:9; 7:4; 8:16, 25; 9:10, 19) is, according to the Septuagint and Vulgate, the great lobe of the liver; the margin of our version says, "It seemeth by anatomy and the Hebrew doctors to be the midriff." The word might be rendered the lobe over the liver, although it makes a part of the liver itself, and this appears to be more applicable than the net over the liver, termed the lesser omentum. SEE LIVER. In Hos 13:8, the Hebrews word rendered "caul" of the heart is סְגוֹר (segor´, literally enclosed), and means the pericardium, or parts about the heart.

The term translated "cauls" in Isa 3:18 (שְׁבַיסַים, shebisim´, literally nettings, Sept. ἐμπλόκια) was perhaps a cap of network worn by females. The caps of network in the accompanying wood-cut are from a relief in the British Museum, representing singers and harpists welcoming Sennacherib on his return from conquest. Fig. 1 has the hair curiously arranged. but perhaps not in a caul. There is also in the British Museum a real cap of network for the hair, from Thebes, the meshes of which are very fine. SEE HEADDRESS.

As to the true meaning in this passage, the versions give but little assistance. The Sept. renders ἐμπλόκια "plaited work," to which κοσύμβους, "fringes," appears to have been added originally as a gloss, and afterwards to have crept into the text. Aquila has τελαμῶνας, "belts." The Targum merely adopts the Hebrew word without translating it, and the Syriac and Arabic vaguely render it "their ornaments." It occurs but once, and its root is not elsewhere found in Hebrew. The Rabbinical commentators connect it with שַׁבֵּוֹ, shibbets´, rendered "embroider" in Exo 28:39, but properly "to woIk in squares, make checker-work." So Kimchi (Lex. s.v.) explains shebisim as "the name of garments wrought in checker-work." Rashi says they are "a kind of network to adorn the head." Abarbanel is more full; he describes them as "head-dresses made of silk or gold thread, with which the women bound their heads about, and they were of checker-work." The word occurs again in the Mishna (Kelim, 28:10), but nothing can possibly be inferred from the passage itself, and the explanations of the commentators do not throw much light upon it. It there appears to be used as part of a network worn as a head-dress by women. Bartenora says it was "a figure which they made upon the network for ornament, standing in front of it, and going round from one ear to the other." Schroeder (De Vest. Mul. cap. 2) conjectured that they were medallions worn on the necklace, and identified them with the Arab shomaiseh, the diminutive of shams, the sun, which is applied to denote the sun-shaped ornaments worn by Arab women about their necks. But to this Gesenius very properly objects (Jesa. 1:209), as well as to the explanation of Jahn (Archäol. 1, 2:2 139), who renders the word "gauze veils" (Smith, s.v.). Others understand golden ornaments appended to braids of the hair behind (see Kitto’s Daily Illustration in loc.). The hair of Oriental women is usually divided into a number of braids or tresses, which fall down upon the back, and to each of which is added three silken threads, each charged with small ornaments in gold, and terminating in small coins of the same metal (see Kitto, Pict. Bible in loc.; Lane, Mod. Eg. 1:59, 60; 2:409, 410). SEE ORNAMENT.

Caul. Lev 3:4; Lev 3:10; Lev 5:4; Lev 5:9. A lobe of the liver. In Hos 13:8, the membrane inclosing the heart. In Isa 3:18, network for the hair.

The diaphragm or midriff, which stretches above the liver all across the thorax. Exo 29:13; Exo 29:22; Lev 3:4; Lev 3:10; Lev 3:15; Lev 4:9; Lev 7:4; Lev 8:16; Lev 8:25; Lev 9:10; Lev 9:19. In Hos 13:8 it is the pericardium, that which encloses the heart.

By: Emil G. Hirsch, Gerson B. Levi, Marcus Jastrow, S. Mendelsohn

—Biblical Data:

Nowadays applied to the membrane surrounding the human fetus; used also in other senses. In the Bible:

1. A rendering of the Hebrew , the second on the list of toilet articles worn by the women of Jerusalem (Isa. iii. 18). Schröder emends this to "shemisim," which he compares to the Arabic "shumaisah" (little sun). It would then mean an article of jewelry, perhaps a pendant. It is quite possible to take it to designate nets used as adornments for the hair. The Septuagint gives it this sense; and the Targum reproduces the word, which by Mishnaic usage is confirmed as a net for the hair (see Levy, "Neuhebr. Wörterb." iv. s.v.).

2. Used in an anatomical sense of the enclosure of the heart, perhaps of the pericardium (Hosea xiii. 8).

3. Most frequently, however, it is used to translate "yoteret," a word occurring frequently in the priestly regulations and in connection with the liver. It is best taken to mean the fatty mass surrounding the liver. This was always included (Ex. xxix. 13, 22; Lev. iii. 4, 10, 15; iv. 9; vii. 4; viii. 16, 25; ix. 10, 19) in the burnt offering.

E. G. H. G. B. L.—In Rabbinical Literature:

According to the A. V., it was the caul, with some other parts of the sacrifice, that was burned on the altar. For we read: "And thou shalt take all the fat that covereth the inwards, and the caul that is above the liver, and the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, and burn them upon the altar" (Ex. xxix. 13; compare references below). The Hebrew term here rendered "caul" is "yoteret" (), always occurring in connection with "kabed" ( = "liver"); this "yoteret" is variously translated by earlier and later scholars. Thus, the Septuagint renders it "the lobe of the liver"; and so do Josephus ("Ant." iii. 9, § 2), Gesenius ("Dict." s.v.), Kohut ("Aruch Completum," iii. 476, s.v. ), Jastrow ("Dict." p. 572), and the Karaites (see Aaron b. Elijah, "Gan 'Eden," Sheḥiṭah, xxi.). This rendition does not seem to correspond with the phraseology of the original. Of the eleven Biblical passages containing the term "yoteret," seven are mandatory (Ex. xxix. 13, 22; Lev. iii. 4, 10, 15; iv. 9; vii. 4), and the remaining four (Lev. viii. 16, 25; ix. 10 [where the preposition , "from," is used], 19) are narrative. In six of the former (the only exception being Ex. xxix. 22), yoteret is described as being situated ("over the liver"), which can not be said of a lobe or of any part of the liver itself. Were the preposition ("above," "over," "upon") absent in the mandatory clauses as it is in the narratives, it might be assumed that "yoteret" is in the construct state, and the phrase would really mean "the pendant (" = 'redundant,' 'hanging over'; i.e., 'lobe ') of the liver." But the presence of the preposition in the six mandatory clauses precludes this construction, and consequently also this rendition.

That the narrative clauses do not embody the preposition does not prove the contrary. The narrator simply relied on the exact designation conveyed in the mandatory passages. The yoteret must, therefore, be looked for among the viscera adjacent to and over the liver. Leeser finds it in the midriff; and this partly agrees with Rashi's definition, as explained by Kohut (l.c. iv. 94, s.v. ; compare Jastrow, l.c. 557b, s.v. ), "Rothfleisch," the fleshy fibers connecting the midriff with the costal cartilages. But, as even the midriff is not directly over the liver, a double layer of tissue intervening between them, the A. V. renders the phrase by "the caul over the liver." This definition is supported by the Vulgate, and agrees with that of Rashi (to Ex. xxix. 13, according to Musaphia, in "'Aruk," s.v. ), and with the translations of Zunz (Arnheim), Luzzatto, Fürst (in Lev. l.c.; in Ex. l.c. he translates "lappen"); and by it is meant that part of the caul which forms the duplicature extending from the transverse fissure of the liver to the lesser curvature of the stomach, technically called the "gastrohepatic" or "small omentum" (compare Strack to Ex. xxix. 13; Kautzsch, Ex. and Lev. l.c.; contrast Kohut, l.c., s.v. ). Some object to this definition, because the small omentum is devoid of fat; but as the Bible never includes the yoteret under the fats, this objection is not tenable (compare Sifra, Wayiḳra, Ḥobah, ix. [ed. Weiss, p. 21b]; Pesiḳ. Zuṭṭa to Lev. iii. 10; Hastings, "Dict. Bible," s.v. "Caul"; Cheyne, "Encyc. Bibl." s. v. "Caul"; see Sacrifice).

The Karaites include the yoteret among the animal parts forbidden to the Jews as food (see Aaron b. Elijah, l.c.; Elijah Bashyaẓi, "Aderet Eliyahu," Sheḥiṭah, xviii.); rabbinic law, however, knows of no such prohibition (see Ḥul. 117a; Rashi, ad loc., s.v. ; Pesiḳ. Zuṭṭa, l.c.; Maimonides, "Yad," Ma'akalot Asurot, vii. 5; Naḥmanides to Lev. iii. 6 etseq.). That the caul mentioned by Josephus ("Ant." iii. 11, § 2) in connection with such a law does not mean the yoteret is evident from his naming the caul and the lobe of the liver as distinct parts devoted to the altar (ib. iii. 9, § 2). What he means is doubtlessly the epiploon, or the fatty membrane constituting the gastrocolic or great omentum. The same is meant by Herodotus (ii. 47), who mentions the caul in connection with an ancient Egyptian sacrifice to the moon.

CAUL.—The Eng. word ‘caul’ is used (1) In Isa 3:18 for a veil of net-work. (2) In Exo 29:13, Lev 3:4; Lev 3:10; Lev 3:15; Lev 4:9; Lev 7:4; Lev 8:16; Lev 8:25; Lev 9:10; Lev 9:19 for the fatty mass at the opening of the Liver (wh. see). (3) In Hos 13:8 for the pericardium,

kôl:

(1) יתרת, yōthereth (Exo 29:13), the large lobe or flap of the liver, which is usually mentioned together with the kidneys and the fat as the special portions set aside for the burnt offering (Lev 3:4, Lev 3:10, Lev 3:15; Lev 4:9; Lev 7:4; Lev 8:16, Lev 8:25; Lev 9:10, Lev 9:19).

(2) סגור, ṣ^eghōr (from the root ṣāghar, “to enclose,” “shut up”), Hos 13:8, literally the enclosure or covering of the heart, the caul or pericardium, or perhaps the chest as surrounding the heart. It must not be forgotten, however, that the expression may be taken in the sense of “mailcoat of the heart,” i.e. hardened heart, which is shut to the influence of God’s grace. So Luther and many modern translators and commentators.