Commentaire de citation sur Les Psaumes 51:13

Regarding the Torah's prohibition of foods, many of the commentators have thought that it is because of the body's health and medical care, those foods being bad, and generating a harmful moistness. This is the view of the Ramban, on the verse, "these you shall abhor among the birds" (Lev. 11:13). But God forbid that I should believe this, because if that were the case, the divine Sefer Torah would be on the level of a minor book among the books of medicine -- short in both words and reasoning. And this is not the way of the divine Torah, or the depth of its purpose. Further, we can see with our own eyes that the nations that eat the flesh of the pig, the creepers, the mouse, and the other impure birds, beasts, and fish are all alive to this day, "firm as a mirror of cast metal" (Job 37:18), and there is none tired or weak among them. Also, there are other animals that are well known to be harmful, like the viper, snake, serpent, and scorpion, that are not mentioned here among the category of prohibitions. And there are also grasses and plants that are very injurious and deadly poisonous, like the alisor and its like, among those mentioned by the medical experts, and the Torah does not prohibit their consumption. And all of this shows that the divine Torah does not come to heal the bodies, or to seek their health, but rather to promote the health of the soul and to heal its ailments, and therefore, it forbade foods that sully and abominate the pure and sublime soul, and that engender in the human temperamental mixture an impenetrability and a distortion of desires, by creating a bad mixture that gives rise to a spirit of pollution that defiles the mind and the deeds, and that expels the spirit of purity and holiness for which David prayed: "Do not take Your holy spirit away from me" (Ps. 51:13). And he said "Fashion a pure heart for me, O God; create in me a steadfast spirit" (id. 12). And it was because of this that He, may He be blessed, said, "You shall not draw abomination upon yourselves through anything that swarms; you shall not make yourselves impure therewith" (Lev. 11:43). For in this consists the idea of impenetrability and impurity. And Scripture does not call them "injurious" or "disease-causing," but "impure" and "abominable," showing that the rationale for the prohibition is on account of the soul and not on account of the body and its health. It was necessary for the wholeness, clarity, and purity of the soul that the bodily temperament would be right, and that its food would create blood that was pure and refined, and not gross and thick and not right, as would be created by the forbidden foods. And also the forbidden foods were related to the idolaters. And even today in the land of India, it is forbidden to eat from the herd or from the flock, as the Master [Rambam] says in his Guide. And in other countries, they eat forbidden foods because of their religion, and that is why these foods are called "abominations," as idolatry is called "abomination."

AND SHE CAST THE CHILD. Thirst overtook him and he was unable to walk, and so his mother laid him under the tree, cast away and abandoned. It may be that the word vatashleich (and she cast) is similar in sense to the verses: And He cast them into another land;³³³Deuteronomy 29:27. Cast me not away from Thy presence,³³⁴Psalms 51:13. meaning “sending away.”
Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra said: “And she cast for she had taken him onto her lap when he was weakened by thirst, [and seeing that he was expiring from thirst, she cast him from her].”
Our Rabbis have said³³⁵Bereshith Rabbah 53:17. that he was sick at the time he sent him away, and therefore he put the child on her shoulder. This is the sense of the word vatashleich (and she cast) him: [until that point she had carried him].
All this occurred to Abraham because he had been commanded to do whatever Sarah said, and she commanded that he send him away immediately, and it was at her command that he did not give them silver and gold, servants, and camels to bear them.