Sefer HaChinuch ספר החינוך

The command of checking the signs of a beast or animal: That we were commanded to check the signs of a [domesticated] beast or [wild] animal when we want to eat of them — and they are that it brings up (chews) its cud and completely splits [its hoof], as it is stated (Leviticus 11:2-3), “This is the animal that you shall eat, from every beast upon the earth: All that separate the hoof, etc.” And the language of Sifrei, Shemini, Chapter 3:1 is “‘It shall you eat’ — it is for eating, but an impure animal is not for eating”; meaning to say, and we learn from it a negative commandment for an impure animal. And a negative commandment like this is called a negative commandment that comes from the implication of a positive commandment. And it is stated in another place, “And you shall differentiate between a pure beast and an impure, etc.” (Leviticus 20:25). And it is also written (Leviticus 11:47), “To differentiate between the impure, etc.”

We have written in the warning of the “torn” animal (Sefer HaChinukh 73) and forbidden fat (Sefer HaChinukh 143) that which we have known from the roots of the commandments of forbidden foods. And that root suffices according to the simple understanding for them all. And the matter of the command to check the signs goes after the reason for their prohibition; as it is fitting and obligatory upon us to properly check anything about which a prohibition comes to us. And I have not spared my pen here from writing the words of Rambam, may this memory be blessed (Sefer HaMitzvot, Positive Commandments 149) — who calculates this verse as a positive commandment — because I have set out at the beginning of my words to write the commandments according to the order that he counted. [This is] even though my heart is grabbed in this matter by the logic of Ramban, may his memory be blessed, (in his glosses of the Sefer HaMitzvot, Shorashim 6) that it is not fitting that we count the checking of the signs of beasts as a commandment — since in truth once the Torah had forbidden us some of the beasts, it becomes necessary to inform us of the signs of the pure ones in order to separate us from [the one] that is forbidden. And this is not fitting at all to count as a commandment in the tally. And the law is the same — and the reason is the same - also with the checking of fowl, fish and locusts, which Rambam, may his memory be blessed, counts as three; however Ramban, may his memory be blessed, does not count them [in the tally].

From the laws of the commandment is that every beast and animal that brings up the cud does not have teeth in its upper (rear) jaw. And every beast in the world that brings up the cud separates its hoof except for the camel. And all that separate its hoof brings up the cud except for the pig. And there are ten species of beasts and animals that are permitted: Three [domesticated] beasts that are well-known and they are the ox, the sheep and the goat; and seven species of [wild] animals that are explicit in Scripture — “The deer, the gazelle, etc.” (Deuteronomy 14:5). And [just] like we need to know the signs of the fit (kosher) ones to differentiate them from the impure ones, likewise must we know which is a species of beast and which is a species of animal regarding the chelev (forbidden fat) - as the chelev of a beast is forbidden, but the chelev of an animal is permissible, as we wrote above in the warning of chelev; and also as the blood of an animal requires covering, but not the blood of a beast. And the signs of the [wild] animal, as to how it is distinguished from a [domesticated] beast is not stated in the Torah. Rather, we learned from the heard tradition (Chullin 59b) that it is recognizable by its horns, as the horns of an animal are scaled, notched and circular: scaled like the horns of an ox; notched like the horns of a goat — such that the notch be absorbed in them (tight); and round like the horns of a gazelle. Therefore [with] any [being] that does not have these signs in its horns, a man must practice the prohibition of its chelev. And one who finds a [wild] animal without horns — such that he is not able to check its horns — if he recognizes it clearly by its shape, such as that which he is used to, it is permitted for him to trust his recognition. And it is not said that he has to check with the horns no matter what. And the rest of its details are in Chullin.

And [it] is practiced in every place and at all times by males and females. And if he transgressed it and did not check, but he saw one sign and relied upon it and ate it — even though afterwards he found that he ate something permissible — he violated this positive commandment of checking the signs.