Leviticus 11:8 Commentary - Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

(8) Of their flesh ye shall not eat.—During the second Temple the prohibition was defined to extend to the smallest quantity. If any one ate a piece of flesh less even than the size of an olive he was chastised with stripes.

And their carcase shall ye not touch.—As contact with a human dead body, which was regarded as the most defiling of all, was only forbidden to the priests (see Lev. 21:1-3), hence the prohibition here addressed to the whole nation was interpreted during the second Temple to apply simply to the occasions when the Israelites came to Jerusalem on the pilgrimage festivals. Contact with a carcase of an unclean animal on these visits precluded the worshipper from entering the sanctuary, from touching sacred things, and from partaking of the sacrificial meats.