Milk and Meat

From Halachipedia

The Biblical Prohibition

  • Please take note that we are only speaking in terms of the Torah prohibition here. There are many cases where it is rabbinically forbidden to have meat and milk even though there is no Biblical prohibition. For example it is Rabbinically forbidden to eat milk and meat together if they were not cooked together.
  1. The Torah states three times "לֹא-תְבַשֵּׁל גְּדִי בַּחֲלֵב אִמּוֹ-You shall not cook a kid (baby goat) in its mother's milk" (Exod. 23:19; 34:26; Deut. 14:21). Our Sages learn that the repitition teachs us the prohibitions of cooking, eating, and have any type of (monetary included) benefit of milk cooked with meat (or vice versa).[1]
  2. Our Sages teach us that the language of "לא תבשל"-"You shall not cook" implies that the Biblical prohibitions only apply if the meat and milk are cooked together. There is discussion whether frying meat and milk together is included in the biblical prohibition. [2]
  3. The Torah only refers to a "גדי"; however, our Sages have taught us that a "kid" refers to all kosher domesticated animals (e.g. sheep, cows). We were also taught that all types of milk are prohibited to cook with, not only the milk of the mother. Rather, the reason why the Torah was so specific is because it was speaking in the present (i.e. that the verse spoke in terms which are similar to the way the world functioned at the time).[3]

Sink for meat and milk

  1. If one is cleaning meat dishes in the same sink in which one cleaned milk dishes if there's still some dairy remnant in the sink it's forbidden to pour hot water there because at the time one pours the water the meat and milk are halachically cooked together even though one has no intention of using those remnants. [4]

Microwave for meat and milk

  1. If one uses a microwave for meat and for dairy (at different times), some authorities hold that one should preferably double wrap all foods[5], however, some authorities hold that covering it well with one covering is sufficient. Some also advise using different trays one for dairy and one for meat. [6]

References

  1. S"A Y"D 87:1. Maimonides in Ma'akhalot 'Asorot 9:2 explains that when the Torah only mentions the prohibition of cooking milk and meat together it means to say that in addition to not eating or having benefit from it, cooking is also prohibited. Rendering it unnecessary to mention the consumption of and the benefit from milk and meat. Similar to how the verse only prohibits one to have relations with his daughter's daughter, but makes no mention of not having relations with one's own daughter; the latter, unmentioned portion, is taken as a given.
  2. Chullin 108a, S"A YD 87:1. Sefer Kashrut HaShulchan (Baser BeChalev 6:1) writes that there is a dispute between the Pri Chadash and the Machaneh Yehuda whether frying milk and meat is included in the biblical prohibition or is only rabbinically prohibited. He concludes by quoting the Ben Ish Chai Bahalotcha who rules like the Pri Chadash that it is biblically forbidden.
  3. S"A Y"D 87:2. Maimonides in Guide to the Perplexed 3:48 even suggests that the practice of cooking a kid in its mother's milk may have been an idolatrous one.
  4. Sefer Kashrut HaShulchan (Baser BeChalav 6:3) quoting Sh"t Yabea Omer 5:3
  5. The OU quotes Rav Yisrael Belsky who says that preferably one should double wrap food put in a microwave if it's used for meat and dairy (at different times).
  6. Yalkut Yosef (Isser Veheter, vol 3, pg 167) rules that if the microwave works only on radiation (without a heater) one should make sure to cover all food very well and then it would be permissible to use it for meat and dairy one after another. This is also the opinion of Rabbi Mansour at Dailyhalach.com Rabbi Aryeh Lebowitz writes that one covering should suffice to inhibit the splattering of food and steam from being released, however, he adds that it is advisable to use separate plates for dairy than for meat.