Chasidut sur L’Exode 2:7
וַתֹּ֣אמֶר אֲחֹתוֹ֮ אֶל־בַּת־פַּרְעֹה֒ הַאֵלֵ֗ךְ וְקָרָ֤אתִי לָךְ֙ אִשָּׁ֣ה מֵינֶ֔קֶת מִ֖ן הָעִבְרִיֹּ֑ת וְתֵינִ֥ק לָ֖ךְ אֶת־הַיָּֽלֶד׃
Sa sœur dit à la fille de Pharaon: "Faut-il t’aller quérir une nourrice parmi les femmes hébreues, qui t’allaitera cet enfant?"
Kedushat Levi
Exodus 11,1. Hashem spoke to Moses and Aaron to say to them: speak to the Children of Israel; saying: “this is the category of living creature that you are allowed to eat, etc.;” we must first concentrate on the meaning of the words לאמר אלהם, a combination not found elsewhere in the Torah.
In order to get a better understanding of the legislation that follows it is worthwhile to look at Rashi on Exodus 2,27 where Moses’ sister Miriam asks the daughter of Pharaoh if she should call for her a Hebrew wet nurse to suckle the infant Moses. Rashi explains that Moses had refused to be nursed by any of the Egyptian wet nurses, the reason being that in light of his destiny of communicating closely with G’d in the future, it was not appropriate that his body should have absorbed life-sustaining milk from a ritually impure wet nurse.
Nachmanides adds that what the Torah forbade the Jewish people to eat are those creatures that are cruel and insensitive by nature, and if we were to absorb their meat some of it would leave such tendencies behind in our bodies. The Jewish people being a holy nation must preserve this status and display love and compassion rather than cruelty or insensitivity to the needs of other creatures. We have it on the authority of the prophet Joel (Joel 3,1) that there will come a time when all members of the Jewish people will become endowed with prophetic powers and in order for G’d to communicate with them directly their bodies must retain the capacity to at all times respond lovingly to the needs of others. It would be most inappropriate for the mouth that has been fed ritually unclean and therefore abhorrent creatures, to be addressed by the Divine Presence. An allusion to this future state of affairs is contained in the words לאמר אלהם, “to speak to them,” at this point before the Torah lists the living creatures that are repeatedly referred to as abhorrent, and therefore not fit as food for the Jewish nation, [although, after the deluge all of them had become permitted for the descendants of Noach. Ed.]
In order to get a better understanding of the legislation that follows it is worthwhile to look at Rashi on Exodus 2,27 where Moses’ sister Miriam asks the daughter of Pharaoh if she should call for her a Hebrew wet nurse to suckle the infant Moses. Rashi explains that Moses had refused to be nursed by any of the Egyptian wet nurses, the reason being that in light of his destiny of communicating closely with G’d in the future, it was not appropriate that his body should have absorbed life-sustaining milk from a ritually impure wet nurse.
Nachmanides adds that what the Torah forbade the Jewish people to eat are those creatures that are cruel and insensitive by nature, and if we were to absorb their meat some of it would leave such tendencies behind in our bodies. The Jewish people being a holy nation must preserve this status and display love and compassion rather than cruelty or insensitivity to the needs of other creatures. We have it on the authority of the prophet Joel (Joel 3,1) that there will come a time when all members of the Jewish people will become endowed with prophetic powers and in order for G’d to communicate with them directly their bodies must retain the capacity to at all times respond lovingly to the needs of others. It would be most inappropriate for the mouth that has been fed ritually unclean and therefore abhorrent creatures, to be addressed by the Divine Presence. An allusion to this future state of affairs is contained in the words לאמר אלהם, “to speak to them,” at this point before the Torah lists the living creatures that are repeatedly referred to as abhorrent, and therefore not fit as food for the Jewish nation, [although, after the deluge all of them had become permitted for the descendants of Noach. Ed.]
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