The Cat and the Dog: Babylon and Persia

The cat that ate the kid refers to the first of the four kings in Daniel’s prophetic dream, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. The Aramaic word for cat, shunra, has the same numerical value as “He is Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon.” Cats are known for ingratitude, and Nebuchadnezzar was ungrateful toward Hashem despite all the miracles that occurred for him and his success in conquering Eretz Yisroel. He destroyed the First Temple and sent the Jews into exile. Shunra can also be spelled ending with yud or heh, alluding to the nesher or aryeh, the vulture or lion, to both of which Babylon is compared (Daniel 7). The dog that ate the cat is Koresh the Persian, who killed Belshatzar and all of Nebuchadnezzar’s descendants. Kalba stands for “Koresh fought against Belshatzar” and “Koresh captured Babylon,” and it has the numerical value of the gazelle or bear by which he appeared in Daniel’s vision. A dog is loyal, and Koresh was loyal to Hashem, urging the return of the exiles and the rebuilding of the Temple (Ezra 1). Kalba also means chaperon, as in Nechemia 2, and there are legends that he was weaned by a dog (Sefer Yuchsin 136b).