Commentary for Leviticus 3:17

חקת עולם This whole verse is well expounded in Torath Cohanim (Sifra, Vayikra Dibbura d'Nedavah, Chapter 20 6-8).

חקת עולם, a perpetual statute, etc. This verse provides us with the ammunition necessary to prove that not only the חלב, certain fat parts of animals which are being offered on the altar, are forbidden for consumption by Jews, but that those fat parts are equally forbidden when the animal has been designated for consumption as חולין, secular purposes. This is why the Torah writes that this statute applies throughout the generations in all parts of the earth where Jews reside. This part of the verse would not make sense unless the prohibition applied to animals not slaughtered as sacrifices. Torat Kohanim (189) also explains the word חקת עולם as applying לבית העולמים, "when the permanent Temple would be built," whereas it explains the word לדורותיכם as לדירותיכם בכל מושבותיכם בארץ ובחוצה לארץ, "in all your dwellings both inside and outside the Holy Land." Seeing the Torah already wrote that this was a perpetual statute, what need was there for the additional words: "for all your generations in all your dwellings?" Clearly, the words חוקת עולם have to be read as a continuation of כל חלב לשם, (3,16), that all the fat parts are to be be offered on the altar, including the periods when the permanent Temple would be built. The Torah continues that this warning (law) is also applicable for all times and in all places, even in the diaspora. We might have thought that prohibition of these fat parts was a reasonable prohibition while these parts were offered as something sacred on the altar, but that at times when the entire sacrifice legislation was in abeyance due to the absence of a Temple or Tabernacle, such a prohibition did not make sense; we might also have argued that this legislation should apply only in locations where the Tabernacle or Temple was situated but not in other locations; the Torah therefore had to write that it applies unconditionally and universally. [The thought presented here by our author that there was a case for arguing that this fat should be permitted, may be based on the fact that the Torah permitted meat not offered on the altar (Deut. 12,20) after the Israelites settled in the Holy Land, while in the desert no meat other than sacrificial meat was permitted for general consumption. Ed.]

בכל מושבותיכם כל חלב וכל דם לא תאכלו, even in those locations where you eat secular meat, i.e. meat from animals which were not offered on the altar as sacrificial meat. Although none of the fat or blood of those animals was destined for the altar, it is still forbidden.