כל רמש אשר הוא חי לכם יהיה לאכלה – after all, unclean animals are forbidden to eat

Hello & Greetings

Your question is beautiful, and the Torah commentators stand on it and explain it as follows:

Indeed, as you wrote in your question, the Torah in Leviticus chapter 11 details the signs of purity of the kosher animals that are permitted to be eaten, and explains that the other animals that do not have signs of purity are forbidden to eat.

The intention of the Torah in the book of Genesis 9, verse 3, כָּל־רֶ֙מֶשׂ֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר הוּא־חַ֔י לָכֶ֥ם יִהְיֶ֖ה לְאָכְלָ֑ה כְּיֶ֣רֶק עֵ֔שֶׂב נָתַ֥תִּי לָכֶ֖ם אֶת־כֹּֽל. To write the novelty that Hashem permitted the eating of meat for humans after the generation of the Flood, unlike generations before the Flood, who were forbidden to eat animal flesh and were only allowed to eat vegetables and grass.

However, the intention of the Torah is not to permit all beasts, but to renew that eating the flesh of beasts was permitted to man and the animals were given to him, although just as vegetables and grass are not all fit for human consumption, because some of them are poisonous and dangerous, so as not all animals are allowed to be eaten by humans, but some are forbidden to eat.

As proof of this, the commentators noted the addition of words written by the Torah, “ כירק עשב נתתי לכם’” and did not suffice with the words, “ כל רמש אשר הוא חי לכם יהיה לאכלה’ ”  . In this way, the Torah meant to say that just like weeds, some of which are eaten and some of which are not eaten because they are poisonous and dangerous, so too in animals some are permitted to eat and some are forbidden to eat.

Best regards

Rabbi David Ohayon

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