Dear Rabbi Kornfeld:
I'm sorry to bother you, but I'm not very learned, I have a question, and I don't know who might be able to help me get the answer. I enjoy what I'm able to understand of your Daf Yomi explanations, and thought you might know the answer to my question.
In Devarim 14:4-5, the Torah lists 10 kosher animals. Pasuk 6 then adds, "and every animal that [has fully split hooves], a geirah raiser 'ba-behema' . . ." On its face, this would appear to suggest that the list is NOT exclusive. I am aware that the predominant view in the Gemara (Chulin 80a) is that this long list must be exclusive, and that this pasuk (14:6) is interpreted by the Gemara to refer to fetuses, though that is not its p'shat. Its p'shat would appear to be at odds with the Gemara's conclusion that the list of 10 is exclusive, i.e., to suggest that there are others. But the Gemara rejects this.
Do you have any idea what the Gemara thought the p'shat of the pasuk was and how they would explain the vav--which implies that the 10 aren't exclusive--in that p'shat? Is the p'shat it mentioned in Chulin?
Kol tuv,Mendy
A number of approaches may be suggested in answer to your question.
(a) The CHIZKUNI (Devarim 14:6), who asks your question, answers that the Torah knew that the layman is not expert in naming the more esoteric animals in the Torah's list. Therefore the Torah added for the layman a simple method to determine the Kashrus status of an animal without even knowing the animal's name.
The Chizkuni's explanation probably did not satisfy you because of the Vav at the beginning of the verse, which implies that this is *in addition* to the ten kosher animals already listed. According to the Chizkuni, the Vav apparently means "And [if you are *not sure* if the animal you see is included in this list or not, then rely on the following:] any animal with split hooves that chews its cud" is kosher." (This is a not even such an unusual usage of the Vav ha'Chibur by the way.)
(b) The Maharam (cited in Chumash Toras Chayim) points out that the Tachash was a Behemah Tehorah that was not included in the list. He explains that the list of ten animals does not include animals that only existed for a limited period of time.
If so, this verse may have been written to include the Tachash and similar "short-lived" animals. Or it might have been written to include any mutations that might give rise, at some future date, to unique animals that did not yet exist at the time the Torah was given.
(c) On a similar note, some authors suggest that the Torah's list only includes animals that lived in the Mediterranean region, and that the Jews who lived at the time might have come across. If so, this verse was written to include any future animals in far-away regions that would be discovered with the two kosher signs.
(d) Finally, the verse might be teaching that other animals with the kosher signs are considered to be sub-species (Minim) of the ten listed species.
Best wishes,
Mordecai