Mixtures
of milk and meat
(Hebrew: בשר בחלב,
basar bechalav,
literally "meat in
milk") are prohibited
according to Jewish law.
This dietary law,
central 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:
-
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
Maimonides
(Rambam), 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 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.
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.
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