Leviticus 11:29, commentary and pictures

The law given through Moses to Israel declared the weasel, the mouse, the tortoise after his kind, and other creeping things unclean and unfit for food, forbidding the Hebrews to eat them. In its wider setting in Leviticus 11, that same law prohibited swine and other unclean animals, birds, and fish, while even permitted meats were restricted by rules forbidding fat and blood and requiring the animals to be healthy and properly bled. It specified the animals least objectionable for food, with the understanding that the other forbidden animals were not the best food.

The restriction was a wise and reasonable health law, part of teaching on preserving health, given to preserve life and health and to reduce the harmful effects of eating animal food. Eating the prohibited animals, including swine's flesh and certain other animals, fills the blood with impurities and shortens life, whereas simple healthful food keeps the blood pure and the mind and body fit. These principles of distinguishing clean from unclean were taught to Israel during its wilderness training before entering Canaan. The rule explains Daniel's refusal of the king's food, since food from the king's table included meats pronounced unclean by this law, including swine's flesh. Daniel and his companions refused that food in order to preserve clear minds and sound bodies for service to God.

The restrictions do not warrant adding minute rules beyond what God specified, but they were perverted into unwarranted extremes and burdensome ceremonies. That perversion included such exactions as requiring all drinking water to be strained lest it contain the smallest insect that might be classed with the unclean animals, keeping people anxiously focused on distinguishing clean from unclean while making trivial demands out of the law and leaving great sins untouched.