חפרפרת

Attested in the Dead Sea Scrolls, as a single word, חפרפרת, while the Masoretic Text (the basis for every subsequent Torah) renders it as two separate words, חְפֹּר פֵּרוֹת (literally “to dig fruit”). Jerome of Stridon reckoned the word must've originally referred to a burrowing animal, based on the identification of עֲטַלֵּף (ʿăṭallep̄) as “bat”. This theory gained currency among Christian and Jewish scholars, with Rashi rendering the word as taupe in his commentaries on the Torah.

While possible that the term Masoretic Text is corrupted, and the term might've indeed originally referred to an animal, it was almost certainly not a mole, as they are not native to the region of Syria-Palestine, but rather a mole-rat or another burrowing creature.

• (Modern Israeli Hebrew) IPA^(key): /χa.faʁ.ˈpe.ʁet/
• (Modern Israeli Hebrew, non-standard) IPA^(key): /χa.paʁ.ˈpe.ʁet/, /χa.faʁ.ˈfe.ʁet/

• Audio:

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חֲפַרְפֶּרֶת • (khafarpéret, ḥăp̄arpereṯ) f (plural indefinite חֲפַרְפָּרוֹת)

1. mole (burrowing animal)

• “חפרפרת” in the Hebrew Terms Database of the Academy of Hebrew Language