Rabbi Roodyn

The Malbim explains that things that have one similar property but are different in their essence cannot be classified as being within the same category.

He gives an example of the whale. He claims that essentially it is a fish, it is just that it gives birth to a living being and nurses its young. The fact they do so does not put them in the same classification as man, even though they have this similarity. One would not say that essentially they are the same as they both give birth and nurse their young and they just differ in that one lives in the water and one lives on land. Rather one has to take the main factors as being the ones that define similarities and classifications.

When reading this piece of Malbim, it is important to bear in mind that as far as his example goes, he is suggesting a different way of classifying whales. Contemporary science does classify whales as mamals rather than fish. Marine mammals are animals that are warm-blooded with back bones that live in water. The Malbim’s point of classifying according to  one’s essence rather than secondary factors, however remains valid and is relevant to the main thrust of his argument and interpretation of the pasuk.

With regard to men and angels, the Torah says that we ought to be classified as being in the same class because we have seichel intellect like they do. Of course one could say that they fact that we have physical bodies makes us essentially different from the angels but that would be running against the Torah’s definition of man. This is why man is defined as medaber chai, as speaking being who lives. This means that the main essence of man is his intellect and soul. We just happen to have a body. Therefore we are closer in essence to angels  than we are to animals.

This chance quality will finish after he dies, but the essence will remain and this is the essence of the person and doesn’t change or get lost. So man’s essence is from the  higher realms . They are same in one category as the angels. The physical difference between them is a secondary factor and does not determine how they ought to be classified.

The philosophers are coming from a different, more physical perspective. They say that man is in essence a physical being and that should be the determining factor in his classification and our intellect is incidental and therefore secondary. This doesn’t mean that man isn’t unique, but it does imply that all that is special about is that we are just a bit more advanced  that animals.