Comentário sobre Levítico 11:43

אל תשקצו YE SHALL NOT MAKE [YOUR SOULS] ABOMINABLE, by eating these (Meilah 16b): this must be the meaning, because you see it is written “[ye shall not make] your souls [abominable]” and no soiling of the soul arises from touching these creatures. And similarly the words (v. 44) “neither shall ye defile [your souls]” mean: by eating them.

ולא תטמאו בהם כי אני ה' אלוקיכם והתקדשתם, do not contaminate yourselves in a manner that will make this contamination really serious, i.e. by eating these creatures or parts of them. Seeing that I am your G’d I desire you to sanctify yourselves so that you will be in a state capable of absorbing holiness on an ongoing basis.

בכל השרץ השורץ, “through any of the teeming creatures which teem.” Significantly, the words “on earth,” are absent in this verse. If the Torah had added these words (as previously) we would have thought that the warning not to allow these abhorrent things to contaminate us was limited to the creatures moving about on the earth. We are aware already that the creature known as עכבר, exists both on land and in the sea (compare Chulin 126). When seen on land we know it as “a mouse.” The same applies to some of the species which we are not familiar with. By omitting mention of “on land,” the Torah ensures that we know that all the creatures bearing the names mentioned here, be they land-based or water-based, fall under the same prohibition. He who eats them makes himself an abomination and defiles himself ritually.

אל תשקצו את נפשותיכם, "Do not make something detestable out of your persons, etc." Why did the Torah repeat this commandment? Torat Kohanim writes that this includes separate culpability for someone who after having contacted the dead part, let it go, and then touched it again. Granted that what is stated in Torat Kohanim is true and that one is indeed culpable for repeated contact with carrion, why did the Torah have to write this? Who would have imagined that the second time one contacted the carrion one would not be culpable? Perhaps the verse wants to inform us that if someone eats these swarming things his soul will become something detestable and the Torah warns us in clear terms not to cause our souls to become something detestable. The Torah hints at the same time how much or how little of such carrion will have such an effect on our souls. Look at what we have written on Genesis 1,26 on the words וירדו בדגת הים, "and they are to have dominion over the fish of the sea, etc." You will find there that our sages in Pessachim 49 referred to עמי הארץ, unlearned and therefore not truly observant Jews, as שקץ and that they compared the daughters of such people to שרץ also. All such statemnents of our sages are inspired by the Holy Spirit. These words are identical to what we have written here.

ונטמתם בם, “so that you have become ritually contaminated by them.” The word ונטמתם has the letter א after the letter מ missing. We find more such examples in the Torah, as in Genesis 20,6: מחטו לי, “from sinning against Me, or Numbers 10, 13, צב instead of צבא, as well as Deuteronomy 11,12, מרשית instead of מראשית. [Our author cites similar examples also from the Books of the prophets. Ed.]

ונטמתם בם THAT YE SHOULD BE DEFILED THEREBY — If you become defiled thereby on earth I will treat you as defiled in the world-to-come and in the heavenly academy (cf. Yoma 39a).

The Torah says here ולא תטמאו בהם, "do not make yourselves unclean with them." We need to be very circumspect concerning anything which may possibly infringe on this warning. Whenever we are in doubt about contacting something which may or may not fall under the category of things that would confer impurity on our souls we must avoid such things at all costs. There is no vegetable or other produce which is not infested with some of the things which are detestable; we must therefore be most careful in examining all such produce before consuming it.