Milk and meat in Jewish law

This dietary law, basic to kashrut, is based on two verses in the Book of Exodus, which forbid "boiling a (goat) kid in its mother's milk"[1] and a third repetition of this prohibition in Deuteronomy.

[5] Obadiah Sforno and Solomon Luntschitz, rabbinic commentators living in the late Middle Ages, both suggested that the law referred to a specific Canaanite 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.

[6][7] More recently, a theogonous text named the birth of the gracious gods, found during the rediscovery of Ugarit, has been interpreted as saying that a Levantine 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.

Rashbam argued that using the milk of an animal to cook its offspring was inhumane, based on a principle similar to that of Shiluach haken.

[13] The Talmudic rabbis believed that the biblical text only forbade cooking a mixture of milk and meat,[14] but because the biblical regulation is triplicated they imposed three distinct regulations to represent it: Jacob ben Asher, an influential medieval rabbi, remarked that the gematria of do not boil a kid (Hebrew: לא תבשל גדי) is identical to that of it is the prohibition of eating, cooking and deriving benefit (Hebrew: ובישול והנאה), a detail that he considered highly significant.

Rashi, one of the most prominent talmudic commentators, argued that the term gəḏî must actually have a more general meaning, including calves and lambs, in addition to young goats.

[14] Consumption of non-kosher animals (e.g., pigs, camels, and turtles) is prohibited in general, 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.

[37] 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, baking, roasting, and frying.

[citation needed] The classical rabbis interpreted Leviticus 18:30 to mean that they should (metaphorically) create a protective fence around the biblical laws,[42] and this was one of the three principal teachings of the Great Assembly.

[48][49] Today the rabbis apply the principle of batel b'shishim[50] ('nullified in sixty'), that is, permissible so long as forbidden ingredients constitute no more than 1⁄60 of the whole.

The Talmud states that the Biblical prohibition applies only to meat and milk of domesticated kosher mammals; that is, cattle, goats, and sheep.

[63] 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,[64] soaking,[65][66][67] or salting.

[70] Although, after 24 hours, some residual flavour may still reside in porous cooking vessels and utensils, some[specify] 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.

Shelomo Dov Goitein writes, “the dichotomy of the kitchen into a meat and a milk section, so basic in an observant Jewish household, is … never mentioned in the Geniza.

Since most Orthodox Sephardi Jews consider the Shulchan Aruch authoritative, they regard its suggestion of waiting six hours as mandatory.

[100] Ashkenazi Jews following kabbalistic traditions, based on the Zohar, additionally ensure that about half an hour passes after consuming dairy produce before eating meat.

[105] Hard and aged cheese has long been rabbinically considered to need extra precaution,[106] on the basis that it might have a much stronger and longer lasting taste;[107] the risk of it leaving a fattier residue has more recently been raised as a concern.

[110] The Karaites, completely rejecting the Talmud, where the stringency of the law is strongest, have few qualms about the general mixing of meat and milk.

[citation needed] In Exodus 23:19, the Samaritan Pentateuch adds the following passage after the prohibition: [כי עשה זאת כזבח שכח ועברה היא לאלהי יעקב] which translates, "For he who does such as that is like a forbidden offering.