Refining good from evil in creation

בפסוק זאת החי' כו' לפי שישראל דביקים בחיים כו'.

On the verse "This is the living thing (zos hachayah)..." — because Bnei Yisrael cleave to life (chayim)...

The Midrash links the laws of kosher animals (chayah) to the fact that Bnei Yisrael cleave to "the living God," to true life; their attachment to life is what enables them to distinguish the pure from the impure.

ובמד' עמד וימודד ארץ כו'.

And in the Midrash: "He stood and measured the earth..." (Chavakuk 3:6).

The Midrash brings the verse of Hashem "measuring the earth" to teach that He apportioned and ordered all of creation — a measuring that is bound up with the separation of pure from impure.

הענין הוא כי ע"י חטא אדם נתערב טו"ר.

The matter is this: through the sin of Adam, tov v'ra (good and evil) became intermingled.

Before the cheit, good and evil were distinct; Adam's sin caused them to become mixed together throughout creation, so that good and evil are now found intertwined.

ובנ"י במצרים התחילו לברר זה התערובות.

And Bnei Yisrael in Mitzrayim began to clarify and separate (l'vareir) this mixture.

The avodah of Yetzias Mitzrayim was the beginning of the great work of birur — sifting the good out from the evil with which it had become mixed.

וגאולת מצרים לא הי' בנפשות בנ"י בלבד.

And the redemption from Mitzrayim was not in the souls of Bnei Yisrael alone.

The Geulah did not merely refine the souls of Bnei Yisrael; its effect reached into the whole of creation.

אבל כפי הבירור בנפשותינו כן נתברר בכלל הבריאה.

Rather, in accordance with the birur (refinement) within our souls, so too was a refinement effected in the whole of creation.

The inner work of clarifying good from evil within Bnei Yisrael radiates outward — as we are refined, so too is all of creation correspondingly refined.

ולכן נבדלו המינים טהורים מן הטמאים.

And therefore the species became distinguished — the pure from the impure.

This cosmic birur is reflected in the very distinction between tahor and tamei animals: the separation in creation mirrors the separation of good from evil.

ולכן תלהו הכתוב ביצ"מ המעלה אתכם כו'.

And therefore the verse links it to Yetzias Mitzrayim: "...who brings you up [from the land of Egypt]..."

The Torah ties the laws of kashrus to the Exodus, because the very ability to separate pure from impure flows from the birur that began with the redemption from Mitzrayim.

ולכן איתא במד' המינים טמאים נגד הד' מלכיות.

And therefore it is taught in the Midrash that the impure species correspond to the four kingdoms (arba malchiyos).

The Midrash sees the four impure animals as symbols of the four exiles — the four world-empires under which Bnei Yisrael would be subjugated.

פי' שבהיותינו עוד בגלות הוא הסימן שיש עוד התערובות שצריך בירור.

The meaning is that our still being in galus is the sign that there remains a mixture that still requires birur.

So long as we remain in exile, it is a sign that the work of separating good from evil is not yet complete — the intermingling still awaits its full clarification.

ולכן איתא כי עוד יחזיר מין טמא להיות טהור כמ"ש ואבדיל אתכם מן העמים לשון הוה ודרשו חז"ל בורר וחוזר ובורר ע"ש:

And therefore it is taught that in the future an impure species will yet be restored to be pure, as it is written, "And I separate you from the nations" — in the present tense — and Chazal expounded: "He sorts and sorts again (boreir v'chozeir u'voreir)."

The birur is ongoing — "I separate you" is phrased in the continuous present. Chazal describe Hashem as endlessly sifting, and in the end even what is now impure will be elevated and restored to purity when the great work of refinement reaches completion.

Summary: Adam's sin intermingled good and evil throughout creation. The avodah of Bnei Yisrael — beginning with Yetzias Mitzrayim — is the ongoing birur of sifting good from evil, mirrored in the separation of pure from impure animals. Our remaining in galus signals that the mixture is not yet fully clarified, but Hashem continually "sorts and sorts again" until, in the end, even the impure will be raised up to purity.