Re'eh 4th Portion
Clean and Unclean Food
1 You
are the children of the Lord your God. Do not cut yourselves [as the
Amorites do (for you are children of the Lord, and it befits you to be comely
and not lacerated and bald)] or shave the front of your heads [opposite the
forehead (see Lev 21:5)] for the dead,
Rashi’s Commentary
Do not cut yourselves—i.e. do not make cuttings and incisions in your
flesh for the dead in the way the Amorites do (Sifrei Devarim 96:11), because
you are the children of the Lord and it is therefore
becoming for you to be comely and not cut about and with hair torn out.
2 for
you are a people holy to the Lord your God [by virtue of your
fathers]. Out of all the peoples on the face of the earth,
the Lord has chosen you [in your own right] to be his treasured
possession.
Rashi’s Commentary
For you are a people holy—You are holy—your actual
holiness comes to you from your fathers, but, in addition, the Lord has
chosen you so that you are for two reasons bound to keep away
from these pagan customs (cf. Sifrei Devarim 97:1).
3 Do
not eat any detestable thing [i.e., anything that I rendered an abomination to
you, e.g., cooking milk and meat together (if you have performed this
abomination, you may not eat it)].
4 These
are the animals you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat,
5 the
deer, the gazelle, the roe deer [whence it is derived that unclean animals are
more numerous than the clean, the lesser number always being specified], the
wild goat, the ibex, the antelope and the mountain sheep.
6 You
may eat [but not an unclean beast (a positive commandment being superadded to
the negative, in which instance the transgressor is liable for violation of
both a positive and a negative commandment (see 20))] any animal that has a
divided hoof [for there are those whose hooves are split but not entirely
cloven] and that chews the cud [the implication is that what is found in the
beast after slaughtering, i.e., a fetus, may be eaten without slaughtering].
Rashi’s Commentary
You may eat any animal—If one
takes בַּבְּהֵמָה
to signify “within the animal,” it suggests: that
which is found in the beast you may eat. From here, therefore, they (the
Rabbis) derived the law that a fully developed embryo becomes permitted to be
eaten through the slaughter of its mother without requiring ritual slaughtering
itself (Chullin 69a; 74a).
Divided—Heb.
מַפְרֶסֶת, divided, as the Targum has it.
Hoof—Heb.
פַּרְסָה, plante in O. F. (English = hoof).
7
However, of those that chew the cud or that have a divided hoof [a creature
with two backs and two spines] you may not eat the camel, the rabbit or the
hyrax. Although they chew the cud, they do not have a divided hoof; they are
ceremonially unclean for you [the enumeration is repeated though given
previously (Lev 11)—the beasts, because of the divided hoof; and the birds,
because of the red kite (13), both of which are not mentioned there].
8 The
pig is also unclean; although it has a divided hoof, it does not chew the cud.
You are not to eat their meat or touch their carcasses [on the festival, one
being obliged to cleanse himself on a festival].
9 Of
all the creatures living in the water, you may eat any that has fins and
scales.
10 But
anything that does not have fins and scales you may not eat; for you it is
unclean.
11 You
may eat any clean bird [including that sent out by the leper (Lev 14:7)].
12 But
these you may not eat [including the slaughtered bird of the leper]: the eagle,
the vulture, the black vulture,
Rashi’s Commentary
But these you may not eat—This again is intended to forbid as food the bird
that is slaughtered in the case of a leper (Kiddushin 57a; SifreiDevarim
103:1-2).
13 the
red kite, the black kite, any kind of falcon. [The red kite (רָאָה),
the black kite (אַיָּה),
any kind of falcon (דַּיָּה) are
one and the same. It is called “רָאָה” for it “sees” (רוֹאֶה) very clearly. All of its names are given so as not to provide
an opening for “objectors,” one who forbids it calling it “רָאָה,” and one who wishes to permit it
calling it “דַּיָּה” or
“אַיָּה,” saying
that Scripture did not interdict the latter. (The unclean birds are enumerated,
being fewer than the clean. See 5)]
14 any
kind of raven,
15 the
horned owl, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk,
16 the
little owl, the great owl, the white owl,
17 the
desert owl, the osprey, the cormorant,
Rashi’s Commentary
The cormorant— שָׁלָךְ is a bird that draws out (שׁוֹלֶה = שָׁלָךְ) fish from out the sea (see Rashi on Lev 11:17).
18 the
stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe and the bat.
Rashi’s Commentary
The hoopoe— וְהַדּוּכִיפַת is the wild cock, which is called in old French herupe, and which
has a double comb (Chullin 63a; cf. Rashi on Lev 11:19).
19 All
flying insects (שֶׁרֶץ) [which
moves on the ground, e.g., flies, hornets, and unclean hoppers] are unclean to
you; do not eat them.
Rashi’s Commentary
Flying insects— שֶׁרֶץ. These are the lowly creatures which move upon the ground: flies, hornets and the unclean
species of grass-hoppers (cf. Rashi on Lev 11:20), come under the term of שֶׁרֶץ.
20 But
any winged creature that is clean you may eat [but not the unclean—a positive
commandment superadded to the negative, in which instance the transgressor is
liable for violation of both a positive and a negative commandment (see 6)].
21 Do
not eat anything you find already dead. You may give it to the foreigner
residing in any of your towns [a גֵּר תּוֹשָׁב (a “resident stranger”), one who has taken it upon himself not
to serve idolatry, but who eats carcass], and they may eat it, or you may sell
it to any other foreigner. But you are a people holy to the Lord your
God [things which are permitted to you, and which others forbid to themselves,
you are forbidden to permit in their presence].
Do not cook a young goat in its
mother’s milk [this is stated three times (here, Exo 23:19; 34:26), (“a young
goat”): excluding animals, birds, and unclean beasts)].
Rashi’s Commentary
Do not eat anything you find
already dead. You may give it to the foreigner
residing in any of your towns—i.e. unto a stranger
that is a sojourner (גֵּר תּוֹשָׁב)—one
who has undertaken not to worship idols (i.e. one who has been converted to the
fundamental tenet of Judaism) but who eats carrion (does not obey the other
teachings of the Law) (SifreiDevarim 104:2; cf. Rashi on Lev 25:35).
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