Reply To: Why does Rashi classify a fly as having four legs

Sam Klein – I don’t think that answer is sufficient. First of all, flies constantly use all 6 legs for walking. It’s only when they need a leg for a specific task like cleaning that they alternate its use, otherwise the default task is walking.

Secondly, you don’t need both legs to get around – if you wanted you could just hop around one one foot, yet we would still classify you as 2 legged, not 1.

Thirdly, in passuk 21 it differentiates between the jumping legs and the four walking-only legs. A grasshopper can also use all 6 legs for walking if it chooses, yet sometimes only uses 4 while jumping with the other 2, yet the Torah deems that function sufficient to put it in a different category. Your answer would negate the very differentiation that passuk 21 comes to bring.