Milk and meat in Jewish law
Encyclopedia
Mixtures of milk and meat are prohibited according to Jewish law. This dietary law, basic to kashrut
, is based on a verse in the Book of Exodus, which forbids "boiling a (kid) goat in its mother's milk". The prohibition appears again in Deuteronomy
.
According to the Talmud
, these almost identical references are the basis for three distinct dietary laws:
, opined that the law was connected to a prohibition of Idolatry in Judaism
. Obadiah Sforno
and Solomon Luntschitz
, rabbinic commentators living in the late middle ages
, both suggested that the law referred to a specific foreign religious practice, in which young goats were cooked in their own mothers' milk, aiming to obtain supernatural assistance to increase the yield of their flocks. More recently, a theogonous text, named the birth of the gracious gods, found during the rediscovery of Ugarit
, clarified that a Levant
ine ritual to ensure agricultural fertility involved the cooking of a young goat in its mother's milk, followed by the mixture being sprinkled upon the fields. Another explanation is the separation accommodates significantly the large percentage of the population, particularly those who are aging, who are lactose intolerant.
The biblical suppression of these practices was seen by some rabbinic commentators as having an ethical
aspect. Sforno argued that using the milk of an animal to cook its offspring was inhumane, based on a principle similar to that of Shiluach haken
, the injunction against gathering eggs from a nest while the mother bird watches. Chaim ibn Attar
compared the practice of cooking of animals in their mother's milk to the barbaric slaying of nursing infants.
, one of the most prominent talmudic commentators, argued that the term g'di must actually have a more general meaning, including calves and lambs, in addition to young goats. Rashi also argued that the meaning of g'di is still narrow enough to exclude birds, all the undomesticated kosher animals
(for example, chevrotain
s and antelope
), and all of the non-kosher animals. The Talmudic writers had a similar analysis, but believed that since domesticated kosher animals (sheep, goats, and cattle) have similar meat to birds and to the non-domestic kosher land-animals, they should prohibit these latter meats too, creating a general prohibition against mixing milk & meat from any kosher animal, excepting fish.
The term non-kosher means something is not allowed as food—non-kosher animals (e.g., pig
s, camel
s, and turtle
s) were already generally prohibited, and questions about the status of mixtures involving their meat and milk would be somewhat academic. Nevertheless, the lack of a classical decision about milk and meat of non-kosher animals gave rise to argument in the late Middle Ages. Some, such as Yoel Sirkis
and Joshua Falk
, argued that mixing milk & meat from non-kosher animals should be prohibited, but others, like Shabbatai ben Meir and David HaLevi Segal
, argued that, excluding the general ban on non-kosher animals, such mixtures should not be prohibited.
from the regulation, since only mammal
s produce milk. According to Shabbethai Bass
, Rashi was expressing the opinion that the reference to a mother was only present to ensure that birds were clearly excluded from the prohibition; Bass argued that Rashi regarded the ban on boiling meat in its mother's milk to really be a more general ban on boiling meat in milk, regardless of the relationship between the source of the meat and that of the milk.
Substances derived from milk, such as cheese
and whey
, have traditionally been considered to fall under the prohibition, but milk substitutes, created from non-dairy sources, do not. However, the classical rabbis were worried that Jews using artificial milk might be misinterpreted, so they insisted that the milk be clearly marked to indicate its source. In the classical era, the main form of artificial milk was amygdalate, so the classical rabbis imposed the rule that almond
s must be placed around such milk; in the Middle Ages, there was some debate about whether this had to be done during cooking as well as eating, or whether it was sufficient to merely do this during the meal.
, roasting
, and frying
. Lenient figures like Jacob of Lissa and Chaim ibn Attar argued that such a prohibition would only be a rabbinic addition, and not the biblical intent, but others like Abraham Danzig and Hezekiah da Silva
argued that the biblical term itself had this wider meaning.
Jacob ben Asher
, an influential medieval rabbi, remarked that the gematria
of do not boil a kid (Hebrew:lo t'vasheil g'di, לא תבשל גדי) is identical to that of it is the prohibition of eating, cooking and deriving benefit (Hebrew: he issur achilah u'bishul v'hana'ah, היא איסור אכילה ובישול והנאה), a detail that he regarded to be highly significant. Though deriving benefit is a superficially vague term, it was later clarified by writers in the middle-ages to include:
The classical rabbis only considered milk and meat cooked together biblically forbidden, but Jewish writers of the Middle Ages also forbade consumption of anything merely containing the mixed tastes of milk and meat. This included, for example, meat that had been soaked in milk for an extended period. The prohibition against deriving benefit, on the other hand, was seen as being more nuanced, with several writers of the late Middle Ages, such as Moses Isserles
and David Segal, arguing that this restriction only applied to the milk and meat of g'di, not to the much wider range of milks and meats prohibited by the rabbis; other prominent medieval rabbis, like Solomon Luria
, disagreed, believing that the prohibition of deriving benefit referred to mixtures of all meats and milks.
, to mean that they should (metaphorically) create a protective fence around the biblical laws, an attitude particularly expressed by The Ethics of the Fathers (a Mishnaic tractate discussing the ethics surrounding adherence to biblical rules). Nevertheless, the rabbis of the classical and Middle Ages also introduced a number of leniencies. Another prohibition on mixtures in Jewish law is kil'ayim
.
Food in the parve category includes fish, fruit, vegetables, salt, non-organic foods, etc.; among the Karaites
, Ethiopian Jews
, and some Persian Jews
it also includes poultry
, but other Jewish groups consider poultry to count as "meat." However, classical Jewish authorities argue that foods lose parve status if treated in such a way that they absorb the taste of milk or meat during cooking, soaking, or salting.
(כזית), literally meaning anything "similar to an olive" in size. However, some Orthodox Jews argue that the shiur is merely the minimum amount that leads to formal punishment in the classical era, and insist that even half a shiur is prohibited by the Torah (Hebrew: Hatzi shiur assur min haTorah, חצי שיעור אסור מן התורה).
Many rabbis followed the premise that taste is principle (Hebrew: ta'am k'ikar, טעם כעיקר): in the event of an accidental mixing of milk and meat, the food could be eaten if there was no detectable change in taste. Others argued that forbidden ingredients could constitute up to half of the mixture before being disallowed. Today the rabbis apply the principle of batel b'shishim (nullified in sixty; that is, permissible so long as forbidden ingredients constitute no more than 1/60 of the whole) (Hebrew: batel b'shishim; this principle is known as ).
Due to the premise that taste is principle, parve (i.e. neutral) foods are considered to take on the same meat/dairy produce classification as anything they are cooked with.
is used to fry bacon
(which itself is not kosher), and is then used a few hours later to fry an omelette
with cheese, a slight taste of the bacon might linger.
Samuel ben Meir, brother of Jacob ben Meir, argued that infused tastes could endure in a cooking vessel or utensil for up to 24 hours; his suggestion lead to the principle, known as ben Yomo (Hebrew: son of the day, בן יומו), that vessels and utensils should not be used to cook milk within 24 hours of being used to cook meat (and vice versa). Although, after 24 hours, some residual flavour may still reside in porous cooking vessels and utensils, some rabbis hold the opinion that such residue would become stale and fetid, hence only infusing taste for the worse (Hebrew: nosen taam lifgam, נותן טעם לפגם), which they do not regard as violating the ban against mixing the tastes of milk and meat.
Since parve food is reclassified if it takes on the flavour of meat or dairy produce, Ashkenazi Jews
traditionally forbid eating parve contents of a pot that has been used within 24 hours to cook meat, if the parve contents would be eaten with dairy produce. Their tradition similarly forbids eating parve foods with meat if the cooking vessel was used to cook dairy produce within the previous 24 hours. According to Joseph Caro, the Sephardic
tradition was more lenient about such things, but Moses Isserles
argued that such leniency was unreliable.
In light of these issues, Orthodox Jews take the precaution of maintaining two distinct sets of crockery and cutlery
; one set (known in Yiddish as milchig and in Hebrew as halavi) is for food containing dairy produce, while the other (known in Yiddish as fleishig/fleishedik and in Hebrew as basari) is for food containing meat.
The rabbis of the Middle Ages discussed the issue of people eating milk and meat at the same table. Jacob ben Asher suggested that each individual should eat from different tablecloths, while Moses Isserles argued that a large and obviously unusual item should be placed between the individuals, as a reminder to avoid sharing the foods. Later rabbinic writers pointed out exceptions to the rule. Chaim ibn Attar, an 18th century kabbalist, ruled that sitting at the same table as a non-Jew eating non-kosher food was permissible; Yechiel Michel Epstein
, a 19th century rabbi, argued that the risk was sufficiently reduced if individuals sat far enough apart that the only way to share food was to leave the table.
stated that meat leaves a fatty residue in the throat and on the palate and Maimonides
noted that meat stuck between the teeth might not degrade for several hours Jonathan Eybeschutz
pointed out that meat and dairy produce mix during digestion, and Feivel Cohen maintained that hard cheese leaves a lingering taste in the mouth. Generally, rabbinic literature considers the collective impact of each of these issues.
, a respected rabbi, would not eat dairy after eating meat at the same meal, and had a father who would wait an entire day after eating meat before eating dairy produce. Jacob ben Meir speculated that Mar Ukva's behaviour was merely a personal choice, rather than an example he expected others to follow, but prominent rabbis of the Middle Ages argued that Mar Ukva's practice must be treated as a minimum standard of behaviour.
Maimonides argued that time was required between meat and dairy produce because meat can become stuck in the teeth, a problem he suggested would last for about six hours after eating it; this interpretation was shared by Solomon ben Aderet, a prominent pupil of his, and Asher ben Jehiel
, who gained entry to the rabbinate
by Solomon ben Aderet's approval, as well as by the later Shulchan Aruch
. By contrast, tosafists
argued that the key detail was just the avoidance of dairy produce appearing at the same meal as meat. Therefore it was sufficient to just wait until a new meal—which to them simply meant clearing the table, reciting a particular blessing
, and cleaning their mouths. Some later rabbinic writers, like Moses Isserles
, and significant texts, like the Zohar
(as noted by Vilna Gaon
and Daniel Josiah Pinto), argued that a meal still did not qualify as new unless at least an hour had passed since the previous meal.
Since most Orthodox Sephardi Jews
regard the Shulchan Aruch as authoritative, they regard its suggestion of waiting for six hours to be mandatory, but Ashkenazi Jews
have various customs; Orthodox Jews of European ancestry usually wait for six hours, although those of German ancestry traditionally wait for only three hours, and those of Dutch ancestry have a tradition of waiting only for the one hour. The medieval tosafists stated that the practice does not apply to infants, but 18th and 19th century rabbis, such as Abraham Danzig and Yechiel Michel Epstein, criticised those who followed lenient practices that were not traditional in their region. In the 20th century, many rabbis were in favor of leniency. Moses Stern ruled that all young children were excluded from these strictures, Obadiah Joseph made an exception for the ill, and Joseph Chaim Sonnenfeld
exempted nursing women.
traditions, based on the Zohar
, additionally ensure that about half an hour passes after consuming dairy produce before eating meat
Some rabbis of the Middle Ages argued that after eating solid dairy products such as cheese, the hands should be washed. Shabbatai ben Meir even argues that this is necessary if utensils such as forks were used and the cheese never touched by hands. Other rabbis of that time, like Joseph Caro, thought that if it was possible to visually verify that hands were clean, then they need not be washed; Tzvi Hirsch Spira argued that washing the hands should also be practiced for milk.
Jacob ben Asher thought that washing the mouth was not sufficient to remove all residue of cheese, and suggested that eating some additional solid food is required to clean the mouth. Hard and aged cheese has long been rabbinically considered to need extra precaution, on the basis that it might have a much stronger and longer lasting taste; the risk of it leaving a fattier residue has more recently been raised as a concern. According to these rabbinic opinions, the same precautions (including a pause of up to six hours) apply to eating hard cheese before meat as apply to eating meat in a meal when the meat is eaten first. Judah ben Simeon, a 17th century doctor
in Frankfurt, argued that hard cheese is not problematic if melted. Binyomin Forst argues that leniency is proper only for cooked cheese dishes and not dishes topped with cheese.
cooking of meat with dairy produce is not listed by the classical rabbis as being among the biblically prohibited forms of cooking such mixtures, a controversy remains about using a microwave oven
to cook these mixtures. Rav Moshe Feinstein
argues that microwave cooking is a form of cooking that counts as melacha during a Sabbath
, but Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach
disagrees.
Kashrut
Kashrut is the set of Jewish dietary laws. Food in accord with halakha is termed kosher in English, from the Ashkenazi pronunciation of the Hebrew term kashér , meaning "fit" Kashrut (also kashruth or kashrus) is the set of Jewish dietary laws. Food in accord with halakha (Jewish law) is termed...
, is based on a verse in the Book of Exodus, which forbids "boiling a (kid) goat in its mother's milk". The prohibition appears again in Deuteronomy
Deuteronomy
The Book of Deuteronomy is the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible, and of the Jewish Torah/Pentateuch...
.
According to the Talmud
Talmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
, these almost identical references are the basis for three distinct dietary laws:
- the prohibition against cooking a mixture of milk and meat
- the prohibition against eating a cooked mixture of milk and meat
- the prohibition against deriving any benefit from a cooked mixture of milk and meat.
Explanation of biblical law
The rabbis of the Talmud gave no reason for the prohibition, but later authorities, such as MaimonidesMaimonides
Moses ben-Maimon, called Maimonides and also known as Mūsā ibn Maymūn in Arabic, or Rambam , was a preeminent medieval Jewish philosopher and one of the greatest Torah scholars and physicians of the Middle Ages...
, opined that the law was connected to a prohibition of Idolatry in Judaism
Idolatry in Judaism
Judaism strongly prohibits any form of idolatry. Judaism holds that idolatry is not limited to the worship of an idol itself, but also worship involving any artistic representations of God. In addition it is forbidden to derive benefit from anything dedicated to idolatry...
. Obadiah Sforno
Obadiah ben Jacob Sforno
Obadiah ben Jacob Sforno was an Italian rabbi, Biblical commentator, philosopher and physician. He was born at Cesena about 1475 and died at Bologna in 1550....
and Solomon Luntschitz
Shlomo Ephraim Luntschitz
Shlomo Ephraim ben Aaron Luntschitz was a rabbi, poet and Torah commentator, best known for his Torah commentary Keli Yakar.-Biography:...
, rabbinic commentators living in the late middle ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
, both suggested that the law referred to a specific foreign religious practice, in which young goats were cooked in their own mothers' milk, aiming to obtain supernatural assistance to increase the yield of their flocks. More recently, a theogonous text, named the birth of the gracious gods, found during the rediscovery of Ugarit
Ugarit
Ugarit was an ancient port city in the eastern Mediterranean at the Ras Shamra headland near Latakia, Syria. It is located near Minet el-Beida in northern Syria. It is some seven miles north of Laodicea ad Mare and approximately fifty miles east of Cyprus...
, clarified that a Levant
Levant
The Levant or ) is the geographic region and culture zone of the "eastern Mediterranean littoral between Anatolia and Egypt" . The Levant includes most of modern Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian territories, and sometimes parts of Turkey and Iraq, and corresponds roughly to the...
ine ritual to ensure agricultural fertility involved the cooking of a young goat in its mother's milk, followed by the mixture being sprinkled upon the fields. Another explanation is the separation accommodates significantly the large percentage of the population, particularly those who are aging, who are lactose intolerant.
The biblical suppression of these practices was seen by some rabbinic commentators as having an ethical
Ethics
Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality—that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime, etc.Major branches of ethics include:...
aspect. Sforno argued that using the milk of an animal to cook its offspring was inhumane, based on a principle similar to that of Shiluach haken
Shiluach haken
Shiluach haken is the Jewish law derived from the Torah that enjoins one to send away the mother bird before taking her young or her eggs. This only applies to Kosher birds. The Torah promises longevity to someone who performs this commandment.-Theodicy:...
, the injunction against gathering eggs from a nest while the mother bird watches. Chaim ibn Attar
Chaim ibn Attar
Chaim ben Moses ibn Attar also known as the Ohr ha-Chaim after his popular commentary on the Pentateuch, was a Talmudist and kabbalist; born at Meknes, Morocco, in 1696; died in Jerusalem, Israel July 7, 1743. He was one of the most prominent rabbis in Morocco.In 1733 he decided to leave his native...
compared the practice of cooking of animals in their mother's milk to the barbaric slaying of nursing infants.
The term "g'di"
Since the Book of Genesis refers to young goats by the Hebrew phrase g'di izim, but the prohibition against boiling a kid... only uses the term g'di (גדי), RashiRashi
Shlomo Yitzhaki , or in Latin Salomon Isaacides, and today generally known by the acronym Rashi , was a medieval French rabbi famed as the author of a comprehensive commentary on the Talmud, as well as a comprehensive commentary on the Tanakh...
, one of the most prominent talmudic commentators, argued that the term g'di must actually have a more general meaning, including calves and lambs, in addition to young goats. Rashi also argued that the meaning of g'di is still narrow enough to exclude birds, all the undomesticated kosher animals
Kosher animals
Kosher animals are those that comply with regulations for Kosher food in Jewish religion. These food regulations form the main aspect of kashrut, and ultimately derive from various passages in the Torah...
(for example, chevrotain
Chevrotain
Chevrotains, also known as mouse deer, are small ungulates that make up the family Tragulidae, the only members of the infraorder Tragulina. There are 10 living species in three genera, but there are also several species only known from fossils...
s and antelope
Antelope
Antelope is a term referring to many even-toed ungulate species indigenous to various regions in Africa and Eurasia. Antelopes comprise a miscellaneous group within the family Bovidae, encompassing those old-world species that are neither cattle, sheep, buffalo, bison, nor goats...
), and all of the non-kosher animals. The Talmudic writers had a similar analysis, but believed that since domesticated kosher animals (sheep, goats, and cattle) have similar meat to birds and to the non-domestic kosher land-animals, they should prohibit these latter meats too, creating a general prohibition against mixing milk & meat from any kosher animal, excepting fish.
The term non-kosher means something is not allowed as food—non-kosher animals (e.g., pig
Pig
A pig is any of the animals in the genus Sus, within the Suidae family of even-toed ungulates. Pigs include the domestic pig, its ancestor the wild boar, and several other wild relatives...
s, camel
Camel
A camel is an even-toed ungulate within the genus Camelus, bearing distinctive fatty deposits known as humps on its back. There are two species of camels: the dromedary or Arabian camel has a single hump, and the bactrian has two humps. Dromedaries are native to the dry desert areas of West Asia,...
s, and turtle
Turtle
Turtles are reptiles of the order Testudines , characterised by a special bony or cartilaginous shell developed from their ribs that acts as a shield...
s) were already generally prohibited, and questions about the status of mixtures involving their meat and milk would be somewhat academic. Nevertheless, the lack of a classical decision about milk and meat of non-kosher animals gave rise to argument in the late Middle Ages. Some, such as Yoel Sirkis
Yoel Sirkis
Joel ben Samuel Sirkis also known as the Bach - an abbreviation of his magnum opus, Bayit Chadash - was a prominent Jewish posek and halakhist. He lived in central Europe and held rabbinical positions in Belz, Brest-Litovsk and Kraków from 1561-1640.-Biography:Sirkis was born in Lublin in 1561...
and Joshua Falk
Joshua Falk
----Joshua ben Alexander HaCohen Falk was a Polish Halakhist and Talmudist, best known as the author of the Beit Yisrael commentary on the Arba'ah Turim as well as Sefer Me'irat Enayim on Shulkhan Arukh...
, argued that mixing milk & meat from non-kosher animals should be prohibited, but others, like Shabbatai ben Meir and David HaLevi Segal
David HaLevi Segal
David ha-Levi Segal , also known as the Turei Zahav after the title of his significant halakhic commentary on the Shulchan Aruch, was one of the greatest Polish rabbinical authorities....
, argued that, excluding the general ban on non-kosher animals, such mixtures should not be prohibited.
The term "halev imo"
Rashi expressed the opinion that the reference to mother's milk must exclude fowlFowl
Fowl is a word for birds in general but usually refers to birds belonging to one of two biological orders, namely the gamefowl or landfowl and the waterfowl...
from the regulation, since only mammal
Mammal
Mammals are members of a class of air-breathing vertebrate animals characterised by the possession of endothermy, hair, three middle ear bones, and mammary glands functional in mothers with young...
s produce milk. According to Shabbethai Bass
Shabbethai Bass
Shabbethai ben Joseph Bass , born at Kalisz, was the father of Jewish bibliography, and author of the Sifsei Chachamim supercommentary on Rashi's commentary on the Pentateuch.-Life:...
, Rashi was expressing the opinion that the reference to a mother was only present to ensure that birds were clearly excluded from the prohibition; Bass argued that Rashi regarded the ban on boiling meat in its mother's milk to really be a more general ban on boiling meat in milk, regardless of the relationship between the source of the meat and that of the milk.
Substances derived from milk, such as cheese
Cheese
Cheese is a generic term for a diverse group of milk-based food products. Cheese is produced throughout the world in wide-ranging flavors, textures, and forms....
and whey
Whey
Whey or Milk Serum is the liquid remaining after milk has been curdled and strained. It is a by-product of the manufacture of cheese or casein and has several commercial uses. Sweet whey is manufactured during the making of rennet types of hard cheese like cheddar or Swiss cheese...
, have traditionally been considered to fall under the prohibition, but milk substitutes, created from non-dairy sources, do not. However, the classical rabbis were worried that Jews using artificial milk might be misinterpreted, so they insisted that the milk be clearly marked to indicate its source. In the classical era, the main form of artificial milk was amygdalate, so the classical rabbis imposed the rule that almond
Almond
The almond , is a species of tree native to the Middle East and South Asia. Almond is also the name of the edible and widely cultivated seed of this tree...
s must be placed around such milk; in the Middle Ages, there was some debate about whether this had to be done during cooking as well as eating, or whether it was sufficient to merely do this during the meal.
The term "bishul"
Although the biblical regulation literally only mentions boiling (Hebrew:bishul, בישול), there were questions raised in the late Middle Ages about whether this should instead be translated as cooking, and hence be interpreted as a reference to activities like broiling, bakingBaking
Baking is the technique of prolonged cooking of food by dry heat acting by convection, and not by radiation, normally in an oven, but also in hot ashes, or on hot stones. It is primarily used for the preparation of bread, cakes, pastries and pies, tarts, quiches, cookies and crackers. Such items...
, roasting
Roasting
Roasting is a cooking method that uses dry heat, whether an open flame, oven, or other heat source. Roasting usually causes caramelization or Maillard browning of the surface of the food, which is considered by some as a flavor enhancement. Roasting uses more indirect, diffused heat , and is...
, and frying
Frying
Frying is the cooking of food in oil or another fat, a technique that originated in ancient Egypt around 2500 BC. Chemically, oils and fats are the same, differing only in melting point, but the distinction is only made when needed. In commerce, many fats are called oils by custom, e.g...
. Lenient figures like Jacob of Lissa and Chaim ibn Attar argued that such a prohibition would only be a rabbinic addition, and not the biblical intent, but others like Abraham Danzig and Hezekiah da Silva
Hezekiah da Silva
Hezekiah da Silva was a Jewish author born at Livorno, Italy, son-in-law of the dayan Mordecai Befael Malachi. About 1679 he left his native city for Jerusalem, Palestine, where he attended the yeshibah of Moses Galante, and ten years later he was sent to Europe to collect funds for Jerusalem...
argued that the biblical term itself had this wider meaning.
Three distinct laws
The Talmudic rabbis believed that the biblical text only forbade eating a mixture of milk and meat, but because the biblical regulation is triplicated they imposed three distinct regulations to represent it:- not cooking meat and milk together (regardless of whether the result was eaten)
- not eating milk and meat together (regardless of whether it was cooked together)
- not benefitting from the mixture in any other way
Jacob ben Asher
Jacob ben Asher
Jacob ben Asher, also known as Ba'al ha-Turimas well as Rabbi Yaakov ben Raash , was likely born in Cologne, Germany c.1269 and likely died in Toledo, Spain c.1343....
, an influential medieval rabbi, remarked that the gematria
Gematria
Gematria or gimatria is a system of assigning numerical value to a word or phrase, in the belief that words or phrases with identical numerical values bear some relation to each other, or bear some relation to the number itself as it may apply to a person's age, the calendar year, or the like...
of do not boil a kid (Hebrew:lo t'vasheil g'di, לא תבשל גדי) is identical to that of it is the prohibition of eating, cooking and deriving benefit (Hebrew: he issur achilah u'bishul v'hana'ah, היא איסור אכילה ובישול והנאה), a detail that he regarded to be highly significant. Though deriving benefit is a superficially vague term, it was later clarified by writers in the middle-ages to include:
- Serving mixtures of milk and meat in a restaurant, even if the clientele are non-Jewish, and the restaurant is not intended to comply with kashrut
- Feeding a pet with food containing mixtures of milk and meat
- Obtaining a refund for an accidental purchase of mixtures of milk and meat, as a refund constitutes a form of sale
The classical rabbis only considered milk and meat cooked together biblically forbidden, but Jewish writers of the Middle Ages also forbade consumption of anything merely containing the mixed tastes of milk and meat. This included, for example, meat that had been soaked in milk for an extended period. The prohibition against deriving benefit, on the other hand, was seen as being more nuanced, with several writers of the late Middle Ages, such as Moses Isserles
Moses Isserles
Moses Isserles, also spelled Moshe Isserlis, , was an eminent Ashkenazic rabbi, talmudist, and posek, renowned for his fundamental work of Halakha , entitled ha-Mapah , an inline commentary on the Shulkhan Aruch...
and David Segal, arguing that this restriction only applied to the milk and meat of g'di, not to the much wider range of milks and meats prohibited by the rabbis; other prominent medieval rabbis, like Solomon Luria
Solomon Luria
Solomon Luria was one of the great Ashkenazic poskim and teachers of his time. He is known for his work of Halakha, Yam Shel Shlomo, and his Talmudic commentary Chochmat Shlomo...
, disagreed, believing that the prohibition of deriving benefit referred to mixtures of all meats and milks.
Stringencies and leniencies
The classical rabbis interpreted the biblical phrase heed my ordinance (Hebrew:ushmartem et mishmarti), which appears in the holiness codeHoliness code
The Holiness Code is a term used in biblical criticism to refer to Leviticus 17-26, and is so called due to its highly repeated use of the word Holy. It has no special traditional religious significance and traditional Jews and Christians do not regard it as having any distinction from any other...
, to mean that they should (metaphorically) create a protective fence around the biblical laws, an attitude particularly expressed by The Ethics of the Fathers (a Mishnaic tractate discussing the ethics surrounding adherence to biblical rules). Nevertheless, the rabbis of the classical and Middle Ages also introduced a number of leniencies. Another prohibition on mixtures in Jewish law is kil'ayim
Kil'ayim (prohibition)
Kil'ayim is the prohibition of crossbreeding seeds, crossbreeding animals, and mixing wool and linen....
.
Classification of foods
To prevent the consumption of forbidden mixtures, foods are divided into three categories.- "meat" (Yiddish: fleishik, פֿליישיק; , בשרי)
- "dairy" (Yiddish: milkhik, מילכיק; Hebrew: halavi, חלבי)
- "parve" (or parv, pareve; from the Yiddish word parev (פאַרעוו), meaning neutral)
Food in the parve category includes fish, fruit, vegetables, salt, non-organic foods, etc.; among the Karaites
Karaite Judaism
Karaite Judaism or Karaism is a Jewish movement characterized by the recognition of the Tanakh alone as its supreme legal authority in Halakhah, as well as in theology...
, Ethiopian Jews
Beta Israel
Beta Israel Israel, Ge'ez: ቤተ እስራኤል - Bēta 'Isrā'ēl, modern Bēte 'Isrā'ēl, EAE: "Betä Ǝsraʾel", "Community of Israel" also known as Ethiopian Jews , are the names of Jewish communities which lived in the area of Aksumite and Ethiopian Empires , nowadays divided between Amhara and Tigray...
, and some Persian Jews
Persian Jews
Persian Jews , are Jews historically associated with Iran, traditionally known as Persia in Western sources.Judaism is one of the oldest religions practiced in Iran. The Book of Esther contains some references to the experiences of Jews in Persia...
it also includes poultry
Poultry
Poultry are domesticated birds kept by humans for the purpose of producing eggs, meat, and/or feathers. These most typically are members of the superorder Galloanserae , especially the order Galliformes and the family Anatidae , commonly known as "waterfowl"...
, but other Jewish groups consider poultry to count as "meat." However, classical Jewish authorities argue that foods lose parve status if treated in such a way that they absorb the taste of milk or meat during cooking, soaking, or salting.
Minuscule quantities
The classical rabbis expressed the opinion that each of the food rules could be waived, if the portion of food violating the regulations was less than a certain size, known as a shiur (Hebrew: size, שיעור), unless it was still possible to taste or smell it; for the milk and meat regulations, this minimal size was a ke'zayitKe'zayit
Ke'zayit is a Talmudic unit of volume approximately equal to the size of an average olive. The word itself literally means "like an olive." The rabbis differ on the precise definition of the unit:...
(כזית), literally meaning anything "similar to an olive" in size. However, some Orthodox Jews argue that the shiur is merely the minimum amount that leads to formal punishment in the classical era, and insist that even half a shiur is prohibited by the Torah (Hebrew: Hatzi shiur assur min haTorah, חצי שיעור אסור מן התורה).
Many rabbis followed the premise that taste is principle (Hebrew: ta'am k'ikar, טעם כעיקר): in the event of an accidental mixing of milk and meat, the food could be eaten if there was no detectable change in taste. Others argued that forbidden ingredients could constitute up to half of the mixture before being disallowed. Today the rabbis apply the principle of batel b'shishim (nullified in sixty; that is, permissible so long as forbidden ingredients constitute no more than 1/60 of the whole) (Hebrew: batel b'shishim; this principle is known as ).
Due to the premise that taste is principle, parve (i.e. neutral) foods are considered to take on the same meat/dairy produce classification as anything they are cooked with.
Dishes and cooking utensils
Since some cooking vessels and utensils (such as ceramic dishes and wooden spoons) are porous, it is possible for them to become infused with the taste of certain foods and transfer this taste to other foods. For example, if a frying panFrying pan
A frying pan, frypan, or skillet is a flat-bottomed pan used for frying, searing, and browning foods. It is typically in diameter with relatively low sides that flare outwards, a long handle, and no lid. Larger pans may have a small grab handle opposite the main handle...
is used to fry bacon
Bacon
Bacon is a cured meat prepared from a pig. It is first cured using large quantities of salt, either in a brine or in a dry packing; the result is fresh bacon . Fresh bacon may then be further dried for weeks or months in cold air, boiled, or smoked. Fresh and dried bacon must be cooked before eating...
(which itself is not kosher), and is then used a few hours later to fry an omelette
Omelette
In cuisine, an omelette or omelet is a dish made from beaten eggs quickly cooked with butter or oil in a frying pan, sometimes folded around a filling such as cheese, vegetables, meat , or some combination of the above...
with cheese, a slight taste of the bacon might linger.
Samuel ben Meir, brother of Jacob ben Meir, argued that infused tastes could endure in a cooking vessel or utensil for up to 24 hours; his suggestion lead to the principle, known as ben Yomo (Hebrew: son of the day, בן יומו), that vessels and utensils should not be used to cook milk within 24 hours of being used to cook meat (and vice versa). Although, after 24 hours, some residual flavour may still reside in porous cooking vessels and utensils, some rabbis hold the opinion that such residue would become stale and fetid, hence only infusing taste for the worse (Hebrew: nosen taam lifgam, נותן טעם לפגם), which they do not regard as violating the ban against mixing the tastes of milk and meat.
Since parve food is reclassified if it takes on the flavour of meat or dairy produce, Ashkenazi Jews
Ashkenazi Jews
Ashkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim , are the Jews descended from the medieval Jewish communities along the Rhine in Germany from Alsace in the south to the Rhineland in the north. Ashkenaz is the medieval Hebrew name for this region and thus for Germany...
traditionally forbid eating parve contents of a pot that has been used within 24 hours to cook meat, if the parve contents would be eaten with dairy produce. Their tradition similarly forbids eating parve foods with meat if the cooking vessel was used to cook dairy produce within the previous 24 hours. According to Joseph Caro, the Sephardic
Sephardi Jews
Sephardi Jews is a general term referring to the descendants of the Jews who lived in the Iberian Peninsula before their expulsion in the Spanish Inquisition. It can also refer to those who use a Sephardic style of liturgy or would otherwise define themselves in terms of the Jewish customs and...
tradition was more lenient about such things, but Moses Isserles
Moses Isserles
Moses Isserles, also spelled Moshe Isserlis, , was an eminent Ashkenazic rabbi, talmudist, and posek, renowned for his fundamental work of Halakha , entitled ha-Mapah , an inline commentary on the Shulkhan Aruch...
argued that such leniency was unreliable.
In light of these issues, Orthodox Jews take the precaution of maintaining two distinct sets of crockery and cutlery
Cutlery
Cutlery refers to any hand implement used in preparing, serving, and especially eating food in the Western world. It is more usually known as silverware or flatware in the United States, where cutlery can have the more specific meaning of knives and other cutting instruments. This is probably the...
; one set (known in Yiddish as milchig and in Hebrew as halavi) is for food containing dairy produce, while the other (known in Yiddish as fleishig/fleishedik and in Hebrew as basari) is for food containing meat.
Physical proximity
Prominent rabbis of the Middle Ages insisted that milk should not be placed on a table where people are eating meat, to avoid accidentally consuming milk while eating meat, and vice versa. Tzvi Hirsch Spira, an early 20th century rabbi and anti-zionist commentator, argued that when this rule was created, the tables commonly in use were only large enough for one individual; Spira concludes that the rule would not apply if the table being used was large, and the milk was out of reach of the person eating meat (and vice versa).The rabbis of the Middle Ages discussed the issue of people eating milk and meat at the same table. Jacob ben Asher suggested that each individual should eat from different tablecloths, while Moses Isserles argued that a large and obviously unusual item should be placed between the individuals, as a reminder to avoid sharing the foods. Later rabbinic writers pointed out exceptions to the rule. Chaim ibn Attar, an 18th century kabbalist, ruled that sitting at the same table as a non-Jew eating non-kosher food was permissible; Yechiel Michel Epstein
Yechiel Michel Epstein
Yechiel Michel Epstein , often called "the Aruch ha-Shulchan" , was a Rabbi and posek in Lithuania...
, a 19th century rabbi, argued that the risk was sufficiently reduced if individuals sat far enough apart that the only way to share food was to leave the table.
Problem of sequential foods
RashiRashi
Shlomo Yitzhaki , or in Latin Salomon Isaacides, and today generally known by the acronym Rashi , was a medieval French rabbi famed as the author of a comprehensive commentary on the Talmud, as well as a comprehensive commentary on the Tanakh...
stated that meat leaves a fatty residue in the throat and on the palate and Maimonides
Maimonides
Moses ben-Maimon, called Maimonides and also known as Mūsā ibn Maymūn in Arabic, or Rambam , was a preeminent medieval Jewish philosopher and one of the greatest Torah scholars and physicians of the Middle Ages...
noted that meat stuck between the teeth might not degrade for several hours Jonathan Eybeschutz
Jonathan Eybeschutz
Jonathan Eybeschutz , was a Talmudist, Halachist, Kabbalist, holding positions as Dayan of Prague, and later as Rabbi of the "Three Communities": Altona, Hamburg and Wandsbek. With Jacob Emden, he is well known as a protagonist in the Emden-Eybeschütz Controversy.-Biography:Eybeschütz's father was...
pointed out that meat and dairy produce mix during digestion, and Feivel Cohen maintained that hard cheese leaves a lingering taste in the mouth. Generally, rabbinic literature considers the collective impact of each of these issues.
Eating dairy after meat
The Talmud reports that Mar UkvaMar Ukva
Mar Ukva was a Jewish Amora sage of Babylon, of the first generation of the Amora era. He served as an Exilarch during the days of Samuel of Nehardea, who was also his Rabbi, but at the same time, Samuel was subordinated to Mar Ukva in Ukva's capacity as "Av Beit Din" - Chief of the rabbinical...
, a respected rabbi, would not eat dairy after eating meat at the same meal, and had a father who would wait an entire day after eating meat before eating dairy produce. Jacob ben Meir speculated that Mar Ukva's behaviour was merely a personal choice, rather than an example he expected others to follow, but prominent rabbis of the Middle Ages argued that Mar Ukva's practice must be treated as a minimum standard of behaviour.
Maimonides argued that time was required between meat and dairy produce because meat can become stuck in the teeth, a problem he suggested would last for about six hours after eating it; this interpretation was shared by Solomon ben Aderet, a prominent pupil of his, and Asher ben Jehiel
Asher ben Jehiel
Asher ben Jehiel- Ashkenazi was an eminent rabbi and Talmudist best known for his abstract of Talmudic law. He is often referred to as Rabbenu Asher, “our Rabbi Asher” or by the Hebrew acronym for this title, the ROSH...
, who gained entry to the rabbinate
Rabbinate
The term rabbinate may refer to the office of a rabbi or rabbis as a group:*Chief Rabbinate of Israel, the supreme Jewish religious governing body in the state of Israel...
by Solomon ben Aderet's approval, as well as by the later Shulchan Aruch
Shulchan Aruch
The Shulchan Aruch also known as the Code of Jewish Law, is the most authoritative legal code of Judaism. It was authored in Safed, Israel, by Yosef Karo in 1563 and published in Venice two years later...
. By contrast, tosafists
Tosafists
Tosafists were medieval rabbis from France and Germany who are among those known in Talmudical scholarship as Rishonim who created critical and explanatory glosses on the Talmud. These were collectively called Tosafot , because they were additions on the commentary of Rashi...
argued that the key detail was just the avoidance of dairy produce appearing at the same meal as meat. Therefore it was sufficient to just wait until a new meal—which to them simply meant clearing the table, reciting a particular blessing
Birkat Hamazon
Birkat Hamazon or Birkath Hammazon, , known in English as the Grace After Meals, , is a set of Hebrew blessings that Jewish Law prescribes following a meal that includes bread or matzoh made from one or all of wheat, barley, rye, oats, spelt...
, and cleaning their mouths. Some later rabbinic writers, like Moses Isserles
Moses Isserles
Moses Isserles, also spelled Moshe Isserlis, , was an eminent Ashkenazic rabbi, talmudist, and posek, renowned for his fundamental work of Halakha , entitled ha-Mapah , an inline commentary on the Shulkhan Aruch...
, and significant texts, like the Zohar
Zohar
The Zohar is the foundational work in the literature of Jewish mystical thought known as Kabbalah. It is a group of books including commentary on the mystical aspects of the Torah and scriptural interpretations as well as material on Mysticism, mythical cosmogony, and mystical psychology...
(as noted by Vilna Gaon
Vilna Gaon
Elijah ben Shlomo Zalman Kramer, known as the Vilna Gaon or Elijah of Vilna and simply by his Hebrew acronym Gra or Elijah Ben Solomon, , was a Talmudist, halachist, kabbalist, and the foremost leader of non-hasidic Jewry of the past few centuries...
and Daniel Josiah Pinto), argued that a meal still did not qualify as new unless at least an hour had passed since the previous meal.
Since most Orthodox Sephardi Jews
Sephardi Jews
Sephardi Jews is a general term referring to the descendants of the Jews who lived in the Iberian Peninsula before their expulsion in the Spanish Inquisition. It can also refer to those who use a Sephardic style of liturgy or would otherwise define themselves in terms of the Jewish customs and...
regard the Shulchan Aruch as authoritative, they regard its suggestion of waiting for six hours to be mandatory, but Ashkenazi Jews
Ashkenazi Jews
Ashkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim , are the Jews descended from the medieval Jewish communities along the Rhine in Germany from Alsace in the south to the Rhineland in the north. Ashkenaz is the medieval Hebrew name for this region and thus for Germany...
have various customs; Orthodox Jews of European ancestry usually wait for six hours, although those of German ancestry traditionally wait for only three hours, and those of Dutch ancestry have a tradition of waiting only for the one hour. The medieval tosafists stated that the practice does not apply to infants, but 18th and 19th century rabbis, such as Abraham Danzig and Yechiel Michel Epstein, criticised those who followed lenient practices that were not traditional in their region. In the 20th century, many rabbis were in favor of leniency. Moses Stern ruled that all young children were excluded from these strictures, Obadiah Joseph made an exception for the ill, and Joseph Chaim Sonnenfeld
Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld
Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld, also spelled Zonnenfeld, was the Chief Rabbi and co-founder of the Edah HaChareidis, Haredi Jewish community in Jerusalem, during the years of the British Mandate of Palestine. He was originally given the name "Chaim", however, the name "Yosef" was added to him while he...
exempted nursing women.
Eating meat after dairy
It has traditionally been considered less problematic to eat dairy produce before meat, on the assumption that dairy products leave neither fatty residue in the throat, nor fragments between the teeth. Many 20th century Orthodox rabbis say that washing the mouth out between eating dairy and meat is sufficient. Some argue that there should also be recitation of a closing blessing before the meat is eaten, and others viewing this as unnecessary. Ashkenazi Jews following kabbalisticKabbalah
Kabbalah/Kabala is a discipline and school of thought concerned with the esoteric aspect of Rabbinic Judaism. It was systematized in 11th-13th century Hachmei Provence and Spain, and again after the Expulsion from Spain, in 16th century Ottoman Palestine...
traditions, based on the Zohar
Zohar
The Zohar is the foundational work in the literature of Jewish mystical thought known as Kabbalah. It is a group of books including commentary on the mystical aspects of the Torah and scriptural interpretations as well as material on Mysticism, mythical cosmogony, and mystical psychology...
, additionally ensure that about half an hour passes after consuming dairy produce before eating meat
Some rabbis of the Middle Ages argued that after eating solid dairy products such as cheese, the hands should be washed. Shabbatai ben Meir even argues that this is necessary if utensils such as forks were used and the cheese never touched by hands. Other rabbis of that time, like Joseph Caro, thought that if it was possible to visually verify that hands were clean, then they need not be washed; Tzvi Hirsch Spira argued that washing the hands should also be practiced for milk.
Jacob ben Asher thought that washing the mouth was not sufficient to remove all residue of cheese, and suggested that eating some additional solid food is required to clean the mouth. Hard and aged cheese has long been rabbinically considered to need extra precaution, on the basis that it might have a much stronger and longer lasting taste; the risk of it leaving a fattier residue has more recently been raised as a concern. According to these rabbinic opinions, the same precautions (including a pause of up to six hours) apply to eating hard cheese before meat as apply to eating meat in a meal when the meat is eaten first. Judah ben Simeon, a 17th century doctor
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
in Frankfurt, argued that hard cheese is not problematic if melted. Binyomin Forst argues that leniency is proper only for cooked cheese dishes and not dishes topped with cheese.
Eating dairy/meat after eating dairy/meat dishes
The following guidelines apply when eating pareve food cooked on dairy or meat dishes:- After eating pareve food cooked on meat dishes, one must wash out one's mouth and wait at least 36 minutes before consuming dairy foods. One must also make the appearance of a separate meal due to concerns of Morat Ayin. If the food being consumed after the meat is pareve, but prepared on dairy equipment, the 36-minute waiting period is not necessary, but the mouth must be washed.
- After eating pareve food cooked on dairy dishes, the above guidelines must be followed except for the waiting period.
- If all food involved is pareve, but one is cooked on dairy equipment, and the other is cooked on meat equipment, all physical separations are required, but no special appearance is needed, because there is no concern of Morat Ayin.
- According to some opinions, when any of the above take place, an interruption of some type must be made between eating each item. This may include exiting and re-entering the structure one is in, or if this is not feasible, entering a room within the structure where one would normally not expect to go during a meal, or engaging in some activity one would normally not perform during a meal.
Microwave cooking
Though radiativeRadiation
In physics, radiation is a process in which energetic particles or energetic waves travel through a medium or space. There are two distinct types of radiation; ionizing and non-ionizing...
cooking of meat with dairy produce is not listed by the classical rabbis as being among the biblically prohibited forms of cooking such mixtures, a controversy remains about using a microwave oven
Microwave oven
A microwave oven is a kitchen appliance that heats food by dielectric heating, using microwave radiation to heat polarized molecules within the food...
to cook these mixtures. Rav Moshe Feinstein
Moshe Feinstein
Moshe Feinstein was a Lithuanian Orthodox rabbi, scholar and posek , who was world-renowned for his expertise in Halakha and was regarded by many as the de facto supreme halakhic authority for Orthodox Jewry of North America during his lifetime...
argues that microwave cooking is a form of cooking that counts as melacha during a Sabbath
Shabbat
Shabbat is the seventh day of the Jewish week and a day of rest in Judaism. Shabbat is observed from a few minutes before sunset on Friday evening until a few minutes after when one would expect to be able to see three stars in the sky on Saturday night. The exact times, therefore, differ from...
, but Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach
Shlomo Zalman Auerbach
Shlomo Zalman Auerbach , was a renowned Orthodox Jewish rabbi, posek, and rosh yeshiva of the Kol Torah yeshiva in Jerusalem, Israel...
disagrees.