שֶׁרֶץ, Shaf. of רוץ) moving creature, esp. unclean reptile. Tosef. Taan. I, 8 אם יהא הש׳ בידו וכ׳ if a man has a reptile in his hand, he cannot become clean, even if he bathe &c.; השליך הש׳ וכ׳ when he throws the reptile out of his hand, a bath in a basin of forty S’ah avails him (fasting without restitution is of no avail); Y. ib. II, beg. 65ᵃ; Bab. ib. 16ᵃ. Erub. 13ᵇ היה מטהר את הש׳ וכ׳ could prove a reptile to be clean with one hundred and fifty reasons (was a dialectician). Snh. 17ᵃ אין … לטהר ש׳ וכ׳ none could be seated in the Sanhedrin, unless he could prove the cleanness of a reptile from Biblical texts; a. fr.—Pl. שְׁרָצִים. Sabb. XIV, 1 שמנה ש׳ וכ׳ the eight reptiles mentioned in the Torah (Lev. XI, 29, sq.). Yoma 22ᵇ, v. פַּרְנָס; a. fr.—פרשת ש׳ the section treating of unclean animals, in Sifra Sh’mini.