In addition, three more Hebrew terms refer to chickens:
gever, sechvi, ziz sadai, and
tarnegol.
While the word
gever can mean ârooster,â it more often means âman/maleâ and seems to be a cognate of the word
gevurah (âpowerâ or âstrengthâ).
The Talmud (
Brachot 7a) teaches that every morning there is a moment when G-d is especially angry and one who can identify that moment can harness G-dâs wrath to curse other people.
Rabbeinu Efrayim writes that Balaam called himself a
gever because he was able to figure out the exact moment when G-d would be angry enough that a curse would be effective. Interestingly, a 2021 paper by Dr. Jessica L. Lamont of Yale University demonstrates that chickens were particularly associated with curse rituals in Ancient Greece.