Cytowanie Komentarza do Powtórzonego Prawa 14:7

THOU SHALT NOT EAT ANY ABOMINABLE THING. He wanted now to add an explanation [to the laws] pertaining to forbidden foods, and therefore he said, Thou shalt not eat an abominable thing, thus declaring that all things that are forbidden are abhorrent to the pure soul, for the meaning of every expression of “abomination” is “hatefulness and repugnance,” similar to, for the king’s word was abominable to Joab;²⁰¹I Chronicles 21:6. their soul abhorred all manner of food.²⁰²Psalms 107:18. For forbidden foods that are coarse generate a thickness and obstruction in the soul, as I have explained in its place.²⁰³Leviticus 11:13. See also Exodus 22:30 (Vol. II, p. 401). Therefore he said further, Of all clean winged things ye may eat²⁰⁴Verse 20. in order to declare that [only] those [foods] which He prohibited are “abominable,” and the rest are clean and fit for the pure soul. And in the Sifre the Rabbis have said:²⁰⁵Sifre, R’eih 103. “Rabbi Shimon says: Of all clean winged things ye may eat²⁰⁴Verse 20. — these are the clean locusts; and all winged swarming things are unclean unto you²⁰⁶Verse 19. these are the unclean locusts.” He has said well. Now this is the sense of these verses. He mentioned the prohibition of all winged swarming things, those that go upon all fours,²⁰⁷Leviticus 11:20. and then he said Of all clean winged things ye may eat²⁰⁴Verse 20. to permit those of them which have joined legs above their feet:²⁰⁸Ibid., Verse 21. the locust, the bald locust, the cricket, and the grasshopper.²⁰⁹See ibid., Verse 22. It was not necessary to explain this because it has already been stated.²⁰⁹See ibid., Verse 22. But he mentioned in general, briefly, Of all clean winged things ye may eat²⁰⁴Verse 20. that is to say, all those that have been mentioned are abominable foods, and the rest of the fowls, according their species and multitudes, you may eat of them all clean things which I have not prohibited. Thus he included all things that are forbidden to us, for they are all abominable. It was not necessary afterwards to detail [here] the swarming things and all that creep upon the earth, for it is known that any pure-minded person abhors them completely. But he mentioned the signs of beasts and wild animals,²¹⁰See Verses 6-8. fish,²¹¹See Verses 9-10. fowl,²¹²See Verses. 11-20. and carcass [of an animal that died without being properly slaughtered]²¹³See Verse 21. in order to inform you that they, too, are abominable to the soul. He did not mention treifah²¹⁴A clean animal or fowl suffering from a serious organic disease whose meat we are forbidden to eat even if ritually slaughtered. since it is not “abominable;” nevertheless, in order to prevent harm to those who would eat it, it is forbidden, because of its poison or mortal sickness. Our Rabbis have yet more interpretations on this section:²¹⁵Chullin 63b. “Why were [these laws of forbidden foods] repeated here? In the case of beasts [the laws were restated] on account of hashesuah (the cleft one)²¹⁶See Verse 7. “This is a certain animal which has two backs and two spinal columns” (Chullin 63b, and quoted by Rashi here). [which we are forbidden to eat, and is not mentioned in Leviticus], and in the case of birds the laws were restated because of the glede”²¹⁷See Verse 13. [which is not mentioned in Leviticus and is forbidden]. And there is yet another interpretation:²⁰⁵Sifre, R’eih 103. “Of all clean birds ye may eat²¹⁸Verse 11. — this is intended to permit [as food] the bird that is set free [at the purification rite of] the leper;²¹⁹Leviticus 14:7. But these are they of which ye shall not eat²²⁰Verse 12. — this is intended to prohibit the bird that is slaughtered” [at the purification rite of the leper].²²¹Leviticus 14:5. They [the Rabbis] received [this tradition that the expression] of ‘all’ clean birds²¹⁸Verse 11. hints that the [living] bird, not contracting the impurity [of the leper], is permissible as food. The impurity of the leper does not attach to the living [bird] — for no living things among beast or fowl are susceptible to impurity when touching a corpse or dead creeping thing. But the slaughtered [bird], being susceptible to uncleanness, the spirit of impurity which leaves the leper, attaches thereto, and is [therefore] not clean. Thus it becomes one of the “abominable” things, because eating it is abhorrent.

Midrash Tanchuma Shemini 8 points out that four animals are mentioned here in four separate verses to allude to four different empires which will play host to the Jewish people in exile. Verse four speaks of גמל, the camel, a reference to the Babylonian exile; we have a hint of this in Psalms 137,8 בת בבל השדודה אשרי שישלם לך את גמולך שגמלת לנו, “fair Babylon you predator, a blessing on him who repays you in kind what you have inflicted on us.” [The letters of the word גמל, “camel, appear twice in that verse. Ed.]
In verse five, the Torah speaks of the שפן, hyrax.” (it has short ears and hoofed feet).This is a reference to the exile under the Greeks which forbade the study and practice of Torah as we know from Amos 8,11: “a time is coming, declares my Lord G’d, when I will send a famine upon the land; not a hunger for bread or thirst for water, but for hearing the words of the Lord.” It is also written in verse 12 of that chapter: “men shall wander from sea to sea and from north to east to seek the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it.” [The connection of the above verse to שפן is not clear, there is also a variant in the Tanchuma relating the above verse to the hare, ארנבת, Ed.]
Concerning the hare, ארנבת, mentioned in verse six, this is a reference to the exile under the Medes, (Ahasverus) which treated the Jewish people as a פאה, the corner of a field the farmer must leave unharvested allowing all comers to help themselves. This is what almost happened under Haman, the regent of that empire. The name of the wife of King Talmay was ארנבת, hare. [Ptolemaus of Egypt, one of the heirs of Alexander’s empire who staked a claim to the land of Israel as part of his share, and was defeated by Antiochus. He commissioned translation of the Bible from Hebrew to Greek. That day was considered a black day in Jewish history by the scholars of the Talmud, Ed.]
The pig,חזיר, mentioned in verse 7 is a reference to the Roman empire, the fourth exile, the one which we still endure. David says in Psalms 80,14: “wild boars gnaw at it and creatures of the forest feed on it.” The word חזיר in that verse is a reminder of the Romans and their Satanic origin, the forest being considered where Satan has its lair. The words וגרה לא יגר, “it does not chew the cud,” is taken as a hint that this is the last exile, i.e. it will not repeat itself. Whereas these animals appear in separate verses in our chapter, in Deut. 14 where the gist of this legislation is repeated, the first three animals mentioned here appear in a single verse except for the pig. The message is that although the first three exiles occurred at different times they have something in common, i.e. the period that they lasted was relatively short. The present exile is in a totally different category equivalent to all the previous exiles combined. David arranged four separate Thanksgivings in Psalms to acknowledge our salvation from each of these exiles in chapter 136 known as הלל הגדול, “the great Hallel.” He commences with the words “Praise the Lord for He is good, His steadfast loves is eternal.” This line referred to our being redeemed from the Babylonian exile. The second verse “Praise the G’d of G’ds, His steadfast love is eternal,” is an expression of gratitude for our having been redeemed from the exile of the Greeks; the third verse, i.e. “Praise the Lord of lords, His steadfast love is eternal,” refers to our redemption from the exile of the Medes. David uses the expression הודו, ”praise!” in three successive verses to allude to the three animals Moses mentioned in verses 4-5-6 in our chapter. In the last verse of this “Hallel hagadol” where he concludes with the words הודו ל-אל השמים, this is a reference to the redemption from the yoke of the Romans. Seeing that he had foreseen all these exiles and their redemptions by means of his Holy Spirit, he mentions the word השמים, seeing that of that final redemption it is stated in Psalms 96,11 ישמחו השמים ותגל הארץ, “both the heavens and the earth will rejoice then.” [That psalm which commences with the words שירו לה' שיר חדש, clearly speaks of the final redemption as it will be different from the weaker שירה חדשה which earmarked the thanksgiving for the Exodus from Egypt. Ed.]