Commentaria in Leviticum
The hare may also be a symbol of the usurer; for, as Plutarch says, the hare at once bears and suckles another, and again conceives over: so the usurer bears debt before he has conceived. For giving a loan he at once asks interest, and taking it lends again at interest what he has received for interest.
Sins and vices therefore are beasts, and change man as it were into a beast.
Excellently Boethius, book 4, prose 3: “Whom you see transformed by vices, you cannot judge a man; but that he was a man, the very form of the human body still left shows. Does he burn with avarice, a violent snatcher of others’ wealth? you would call him like a wolf. Fierce and restless, does he exercise his tongue in quarrels? you will compare him to a dog. A hidden plotter, does he rejoice to have stolen by frauds? he will be classed with foxes. Does he, intemperate in anger, rage? let him be believed to bear the spirit of a lion. Fearful and fugitive, does he dread things not to be feared? let him be held like a stag. Sluggish and stupid, is he torpid? he lives an ass. Light and inconstant, does he change his pursuits? he differs nothing from birds. Is he plunged in foul and unclean lusts? he is held fast by the pleasure of a filthy sow. Thus man, probity deserted, is turned into a beast.”
Verse 31. All these (reptiles) are unclean—not only as to eating, but also as to touch, so that it is not lawful to touch them, as is plain from verses 41 and 43, and chapter 5:2, where the reptile is equated with a carcass, because each is venomous.
Verse 32. Haircloths.—In Hebrew it is sak, that is, sack, by which the Hebrews signify garments of hair, coarse, such as those of rustics, beggars, penitents.
In which any work is done—as if to say: Any vessel which we use for any work.
And so afterwards shall be clean—that is, shall be clean; for no other washing or cleansing was needed, but at the coming of evening this legal uncleanness expired, so that again they were reckoned clean. This is plain from the Hebrew, the Chaldee, the Septuagint.
Verse 33. But an earthen vessel, into which any of these shall fall, shall be defiled.—In Hebrew, everything that is in it, namely in such a vessel, shall be defiled, and therefore it is to be broken, because namely it is earthen: for if it were of wood or metal, it would not be broken, but washed, as was said in the preceding verse. We heard something like of the earthen vessel in which the flesh of the sacrifice for sin is boiled, chapter 6, verse 28.
Verse 34. Any meat which you eat, if water be poured upon it, shall be unclean.—By “water” understand unclean water, or flowing from an unclean vessel; whence the Chaldee renders, water which has touched any of these, namely of the polluted things already mentioned.
Tropologically, unclean water signifies softness of spirit; for this is the water of cupidity, which infects that with which it is mixed. As therefore temptation kills the soft and languid who are wet with such unclean water, so it exercises, strengthens and crowns the dry and strong. So Radulphus.
And every liquor that is drunk out of any such vessel shall be unclean.—By “vessel” understand unclean. Note: it is said only of liquids that they are polluted; whence it seems that dry things, for example bread put in such an unclean vessel, were not polluted: of which the fit reason is that dry things do not so easily receive filth as moist.
Verse 35. And upon whatsoever thing any of such carcasses shall fall (a vessel), it shall be unclean—namely that vessel in which something of the carcasses has fallen. Whether ovens (in which bread is baked), or pots with feet (chytropodes)—that is, pots having feet, as dipodes, tripodes, etc., because they are earthen and clayey, according to what was said in verse 33 (1).
Tropologically, the oven is the patience of Martyrs; the chytropodes are Doctors, in whom the food of sound doctrine, the fire of the operation of the Holy Spirit being supplied, is cooked; because these profit nothing unless they avoid all unclean things. So Hesychius and Radulphus.
Verse 36. But fountains and cisterns, and all gathering together of waters shall be clean.—Understand, even if something unclean has fallen into them: so God ordained on account of the necessity of waters, which man cannot lack (2). The same reason holds for seed, as follows in verse 37, unless it had been sprinkled with water; for then, because moist, it contracted filth more easily, and therefore was reckoned unclean, and had to be given to beasts, because no expiation is here mentioned.
Tropologically, by the fountain and the seed is signified the doctrine of truth, which, even when disputing or discoursing of carcasses, that is, vices, is not polluted, nor pollutes, unless it be a watery and soft soul, which draws in and imbibes shameful things by consent. So Radulphus.
Verse 40. He that eateth anything of it (the carcass), or carrieth it (understand, unknowingly), shall be unclean until the evening—for if anyone had eaten knowingly, he would have sinned gravely, and been worthy of punishment.
Verse 41. Every thing that creepeth upon the ground shall be an abomination—because it is earthy, foul and venomous, as I said in verse 31.
Tropologically, reptiles are, and creep, those who are earthly and neglect heavenly things, who drag body and mind along the ground; all of whose desires are earthly, whose mind is not in the ether but in the air, whose God is the belly, or mammon, or ambition. Similar is the tropology of what follows.
Verse 42. Whatsoever goeth upon the breast on four feet (because it has short feet: whence it must in motion lean upon the belly and the earth, as serpents. Tropologically the gastrimargi, or those given to gluttony, are signified: so Hesychius), or hath many feet (as worms), or traileth upon the earth (as reptiles), you shall not eat, because it is abominable.
Verse 43. Do not defile your souls—that is, yourselves, by contracting legal uncleanness through the eating of the animals here forbidden; though they could defile the soul also by sin, if namely they had knowingly eaten them against this precept.
Nor touch aught thereof—of those especially which have gone before: for others at least it was lawful to touch, for example they could sit on camels, as I said in verse 26. Hence it is plain from this law that it was not lawful for the Jews to touch reptiles, so that if they knowingly touched them they sinned.
The Jews therefore by the touch of reptiles incurred not only legal uncleanness, as Abulensis will have it, but also spiritual, namely sin.
For they violated this precept of God: “Nor touch aught thereof”; and again: “Defile not your souls by any creeping thing.” For God commands that these, as most unclean, be neither eaten nor touched: “Lest,” He says, “you be unclean,” namely both legally and spiritually. The reason is that which follows.
Verse 44. Be holy (that is, clean; so “holy” is taken for “clean” in Deuteronomy 23:14, where it is said: “That thy camp may be holy,” that is, clean), because I am holy (that is, clean)—I who detest the uncleanness of the Gentiles in sacrifices and feasts, of which St. Augustine, books 6 and 7 of the City of God, and who will have you imitate and represent my spiritual holiness by this bodily cleanness of yours.
Note: Temperance and abstinence from forbidden foods is here called holiness, that is, purity, because the forbidden foods were deemed unclean, polluted and execrable, and to pollute and contaminate him who eats, as God here often inculcates. Hear St. Bernard, sermon 22 on the Canticle: “It is usual in Scripture,” he says, “to put sanctification for continence or cleanness. Finally what were those so frequent sanctifications in Moses but certain purifications of men abstaining from food, from drink, from intercourse, and the like? But hear the Apostle: This is the will of God, your sanctification, that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour, not in the passion of desire. Again: For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto sanctification. It is clear that he puts sanctification for temperance.” Let heretics note this, and learn that fasts and abstinence ordained by the law of God and of the Church are called, and are, holiness.
Defile not your souls by any creeping thing.—Let Christians hear this and understand it tropologically, that they who creep on the ground and the lowest goods of the earth may not pollute themselves, but keep the soul holy for God and heaven.
Verse 45. For I am the Lord (in Hebrew, I am Jehovah, namely in myself by essence, and Elohim, namely to you by providence, command and government), that brought you out of the land of Egypt, that I might be your God—as if to say: Therefore I brought you out, that you might be to me a people separated from other nations, and from their rites, and peculiarly devoted to my worship. This benefit, since it is the first, greatest and foundation of the rest, He everywhere inculcates;
The law of purification is said to apply only to those who conceive on having received the seed of the husband.