Commentaire sur Le Lévitique 22:5

בכל שרץ אשר יטמא לו [OR WHOSOEVER TOUCHETH] ANY PROLIFIC CREATURE BECAUSE OF WHICH (לו) HE MAY BE MADE UNCLEAN — This means: who touches any שרץ of the minimum size that is capable of communicating uncleanness, viz., a particle of the size of a lentil (cf. Sifra, Emor, Chapter 4 4; Chagigah 11a).

A lentil. Otherwise Scripture should have written only “Anyone who touches any creeping creature,” and nothing more. Why does it write “that causes impurity to him”? So that you do not say that [he is impure] only if he touched a complete creeping creature.

אשר יטמא לו, “whereby he may become ritually unclean;” the word לו in this verse means בשבילו, “on its account,” on account of the creeping animal. It is parallel to Exodus 1,10, where Pharaoh exerted his people to outsmart the Israelites since he could not outnumber them and said: הבה נתחכמה לו, “let us instead try to be smarter than it,” i.e. “on account of its numerical superiority.” It is also similar to Esther 6,4: אשר הכין לו, “which he had prepared on his account.” (On Mordechai’s account, in order to hang him from that gallows). Our author cites more parallels.

או באדם OR A HUMAN BEING — a dead person (Sifra, Emor, Chapter 4 4).

A dead body. You might ask: Impurity imparted by a dead body requires seven days [for the person to become pure], yet here it is written that one only requires for the sun to set [for the person to become pure, which is] like the impurity imparted by a creeping creature where it is written, “He will be impure until the evening”? The answer is that we are only deriving [the law of] the impurity imparted by a dead body from [the law of] the impurity imparted by a creeping creature regarding the necessity for the sun to set. So that you do not say that once as soon as the seventh day begins he is pure, [on the basis] that part of the day is considered the whole day. I found this.

אשר יטמא לו BY WHOM HE MAY BE MADE UNCLEAN - i. e. by touching the minimum size of a portion of the dead person which is capable of transmitting uncleanness, and this is, a portion as large as an olive (Mishnah Oholot 2:1).

An olive’s-bulk. Otherwise, why write “Which causes uncleanness to him”? This would [already] be implied in “Any person ... [with] whatever impurity he has.”

לכל טמאתו WHATSOEVER UNCLEANNESS HE HATH — This is intended to include in the prohibition of eating holy things one who has touched a man or a woman who has an issue, or who has touched a נדה or a woman in childbirth (Sifra, Emor, Chapter 4 4).

This includes one who touches a zov. Even though this is not the uncleanness imparted by the dead that the verse is discussing, nonetheless it is included in “whatever impurity he has,” since all these are human impurities.