Halakhah su Levitico 11:8

And you already knew that the words of our rabbis follow the Torah’s means of expression, and so in the Torah there are permitted and prohibited foods: this you shall eat; this you shall not eat, and it is written, “from their flesh you shall not eat.”²⁷Lev 11:8. You wouldn’t say that this is an allegory – God forbid! – but it’s the actual literal meaning. And so they went on to say The Holy One, blessed be He, will in time to come make a sukkah for the righteous from the skin of Leviathan; for it is said: “Can you fill sukkot with his skin?”²⁸Job 40:31. Sukkot here is spelled with a sin, not a samekh as in sukkah meaning “tent,” and means “darts.” Thus, the meaning of the verse in context is “Can you fill his skin with darts?” If a man is worthy, a sukkah is made for him; if he is not worthy, a shadow [tzel] is made for him, for it is said: “And his head with a fish covering [bi-tziltzel].”²⁹Job 30:41. R. Bahya following the Talmud takes the two parts of this verse in Job as contrasting: the first part hints at the reward of the worthy, the second part to the punishment of the unworthy – “shade.” After this he skips a few lines of Talmud that expand on this theme of the worthy and unworthy’s “rewards.” The rest [of Leviathan] will be spread by the Holy One, blessed be He, upon the walls of Jerusalem, and its splendor will shine from one end of the world to the other; as it is said: “And nations shall walk by Your light.”³⁰Is 60:3, in b. Baba Batra 75a.

That is that He commanded us that when any person touches a carcass, he becomes impure. And this commandment includes the impurity of a carcass and all of its laws. And I will now present a preface that is appropriate that we remember anytime we mention the various types of impurity. And it is that that which we count each type as a positive commandment - its content is not that we are obligated to become impure with a certain impurity, and also not that we are prohibited from becoming impure from it and that it be a negative commandment. Rather the Torah said that anyone who touches this type [of object] becomes impure; or that this thing renders one who touches it impure according to this description. And that is the positive commandment - meaning that this law with which we have been commanded is a positive commandment. And that is His saying, whoever touches this according to this description has become impure; and whoever according to that description does not become impure. But the matter itself is optional - if he wants, he becomes impure; if not, he doesn't become impure. And the language of the Sifra (Sifra, Shemini, Chapter 4:10) is, "'And their carcass do not touch' (Leviticus 11:8) - I might think that if one touched a carcass, he receives lashes. [Hence] we learn to say, 'and to these you shall become impure' (Leviticus 11:24). I might [then] think that if one saw a carcass, he should go and become impure from it. [Hence] we learn to say, 'and their carcass do not touch.' How is this? You shall say, it is an option." And this commandment that has been told to us about this law - that one who touches this become impure; and that he will be impure, such that he will be obligated about everything that impure people are obligated, [such as] to exit from the camp of the Divine Presence, not to eat consecrated food, not to touch it and other things besides this - this is the command. That means to say, one becoming impure from this type when he touches it or was proximate to [it] in such a manner. And remember this matter with every one of the types of impurity. (See Parashat Shemini; Mishneh Torah, Other Sources of Defilement 1.)

That is that He commanded us to check for the signs of [permissible] fish, which are written [in the Torah]. And that is His, may He be blessed, saying, "These are what you may eat from all that is in the water" (Leviticus 11:8). And in explanation, they said in the Gemara (Chullin 66b), "One who eats an impure fish transgresses a positive and a negative commandment." As its statement - "These are what you may eat" - [makes] me understand that one besides these may not be eaten. And a negative commandment that is derived from a positive commandment is a positive commandment. Behold it has been made clear that its statement, "These are what you may eat," is a positive commandment. And the content of our saying that this is a positive commandment is what we have mentioned to you; and that is our being commanded to administer these signs, and to say that this is permissible to eat and this is not permissible to eat - as it is stated (Leviticus 20:25), "And you shall distinguish the clean beast from the unclean." And their distinguishment is though the signs. And therefore each and every one of these four types and their signs is a separate commandment - meaning the signs of the beasts and the animals; the birds; the locusts; and the fish. And we have already explained their expressions in each of the verses as an individual commandment. And the regulations of this commandment - meaning the signs of the fish - have already been explained in Chapter 3 of Tractate Chullin. (See Parashat Shemini; Mishneh Torah, Forbidden Foods 1.)