The Prohibition of Mixing Milk and Meat

(19) The choice first fruits of your soil you shall bring to the house of the LORD your God. You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.

(21) You shall not eat anything that has died a natural death; give it to the stranger in your community to eat, or you may sell it to a foreigner. For you are a people consecrated to the LORD your God. You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.

(4) [A mixture of] the meat of a permitted animal with the milk of a permitted animal is forbidden to cook and forbidden from benefit. [A mixture of] the meat of a permitted animal with the milk of a prohibited animal, [or] [a mixture] of the meat of a prohibited animal with the milk of a permitted animal is permissible to cook and permissible for benefit. Rabbi Akiva says, "Wild animals and birds are not [forbidden in mixtures with milk] from the Torah, as it says, 'You may not cook a kid in its mother's milk,' three times. It exempts the wild animal, the bird, and the prohibited domesticated animal." Rabbi Yose HaGelili says, "It is stated, 'You may not eat any nevelah [an improperly slaughtered animal of a permitted species],' (Deuteronomy 14:21) and it is stated, 'You may not cook a kid in its mother's milk,' (Ibid.). That which [may become] forbidden as nevelah is forbidden to cook with milk. A bird, which [may become] forbidden as a nevelah, one might think that it should be forbidden to cook with milk, [but] the Torah says, "In its mother's milk." This excludes a bird, which does not have mother's milk.

(Genesis 38:20) "Judah sent the kid [goat]

“You shall not cook a kid in its mother’s milk” (Exodus 23:19; Exodus 34:26; Deuteronomy 14:21).

(1) It is biblically forbidden either to cook or to eat meat with milk.— — Anyone who cooks both together [as little as] the size of an olive is to be lashed, as it is written: "You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk" (Exodus 23:19; 34:26; Deuteronomy 14:21). So too, anyone who eats of both the meat and the milk that have been cooked together, [even as little as] the size of an olive, is to be lashed, even if he has not done the cooking himself.

(2) The reason Scripture is silent, and does not explicitly prohibit the eating of meat with milk, is that it has already forbidden the cooking; that is to say, since the cooking of the meat-milk mixture is forbidden, it is needless to state that partaking of it is likewise forbidden. Similarly, Scripture is silent and does not explicitly prohibit taking one's own daughter to wife, having already prohibited the taking of one's granddaughter to wife.

(3) Biblically, only the meat of a clean animal with the milk of a clean animal is forbidden, as it is written: "You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk." The term kid includes the offspring of ox, sheep or goat, unless the text explicitly states "a kid from the flock of goats" (Genesis 38:17). The phrase "a kid in its mother's milk" is used only because Scripture speaks of something that actually happens. But if one cooks the meat of a clean animal with the milk of an unclean animal, or the meat of an unclean animal with the milk of a clean animal, he is permitted to do so and derive a benefit from it as well; punishment is incurred for eating it, but not by reason of its being a meat-milk mixture.

(4) So too, the meat of beast or bird cooked with the milk of beasts or cattle is biblically not prohibited from eating; hence, it is permissible to cook it and to derive a benefit from it. It is, however, prohibited from eating it on rabbinic grounds, so that the people may not reach out beyond what is permitted and transgress the biblical meat-milk prohibition by eating the meat of a clean animal with the milk of a clean animal, since the literal meaning of the verse is restricted to a kid in its mother's milk only. For this reason, the sages have prohibited all meat with milk.

(1) It is written in the Torah: "you will not cook a kid in the milk of its mother" three times (Exodus 23:19; Exodus 34:26; Deuteronomy 14:21); once for the prohibition of cooking, once for the prohibition of eating, and once for the prohibition of receiving benefit [from the cooked meat and milk products]. The prohibition of eating is presented in the language of cooking, to say that there is no prohibition from the Torah [in regard to meat and milk] unless it is in a manner of cooking, but rabbinically it [the mixture of meat and milk] is forbidden in every way. All meat and milk [mixtures] that are not forbidden from the Torah are permitted to benefit from.

(2) [The word] "kid", is not specific, it is the same rule with ox, sheep and goat. There is no difference if it is the milk of the mother, or of another [domesticated] animal. Rather, the verse refers to the common case.

(3) The law only applies with meat from a pure [kosher] animal and milk from a pure animal, but meat of a pure animal in milk that is impure, or meat from an impure animal in pure milk, is permitted to cook and benefit from. Meat of a wild animal and of fowl, even in milk which is pure, is permitted to cook and benefit from; and even eating is only prohibited rabbinically. Fish and grasshoppers are not prohibited [with milk] even rabbinically. We make milk from almonds and place bird meat in it, since [milk and bird meat] is only rabbinically [forbidden]. But with meat from a domesticated animal, place almonds next to the milk, so that people don't misunderstand. This is as we said above, in chapter 66.

(4) It is forbidden to cook [meat] with the milk of a woman, because of appearances. If woman's milk fell into [meat] food, it is nullified and there is no need to measure. It seems according to this, all the more so that it is forbidden to cook with impure milk or impure meat with pure milk, in the case of domesticated animals. But with rabbinical prohibited fowl, there is no need to be concerned.

(5) Eggs that are found inside chickens, if they are complete - i.e. they have white and yolk - even though that it is bound with sinews - indeed it is complete and it is permissible to eat it with milk. If the egg only has yolk, it is forbidden to cook with milk. If he eats the eggs alone, it is permissible to eat cheese or milk afterwards.

(6) A person who [Cooks meat and milk together by] smoking and or cooking in the hot springs of Tiberius does not receive lashes for transgressing a lav. Similarly,cooking meat in "mai chalav" (milk water) or chalav maisa ("dead milk") or chalav zachar or cooking blood and milk together is exempt (from lashes) and one who eats it [milk cooked with blood] does not receive lashes for [transgressing the lav of] meat and milk. REMA: Chalav zachar is not called milk at all and if it fell into a pot of meat it would not be forbidden. However [if ]chalav maisa or mai chalav [fell into a pot of meat] the food is forbidden because they are comparable to milk. It is even forbidden to cook [chalav maisa or mai chalav with meat] initially. There are those who say that it is forbidden to stoke the fire under the pot of a non-Jew because they use the same pot sometimes to cook milk and sometimes to cook meat. Therefore by stoking the fire under the non-Jew’s pot one may come to cook meat and milk [together]. Furthermore, one should not mix together the water that was used for washing milk dishes with water that was used to wash meat dishes and then give it to an animal because the water becomes forbidden for use. And furthermore, the container that is used to make shampoo should not be used [for anything else] because the ashes on the stove that are used to make shampoo are mixed with milk and meat. Therefore it is forbidden to use the pots that are usually on the stoves in the winter lodges because sometimes milk and meat splash on them from the cooking going on in the oven itself. After the fact, we do not worry about the above laws, and furthermore even initially they are only a chumra b’alma (stringency of the world). One who is lenient will not lose.

(7) One who cooks an embryo in milk is liable, and one who eats them cooked together is liable. But cooking the placenta, skin, tendons, bones, ikari karnaim (The part of the horn that is found below the skin) ,or soft hooves [in milk] is exempt [from the Torah] and one who eats them is exempt.

(8) There are those that say that the whey of the milk (meaning the milk that's extracted from the curdled cheese) is not included in [the category] of "milk water" and it is forbidden from the torah. Rather, this is what "milk water" is: after they make the cheese they cook the whey, and the foodstuff floats to the top, and the only thing that's left is mere water; this is what's called "milk water".

(9) Milk that was found in the stomach [of the animal] is not called milk, and it is permitted to cook meat in it, even in the liquidy part. And there are those that forbid it, and so is our custom.

(10) Milk that was found in the stomach [of the animal] from the outset one should not leave it in the stomach until the milk that's in the stomach cools off, but after the fact, there is nothing to worry about until it was salted in the stomach, or it stood in it for a full day, [then] it is forbidden to curdle milk with it. Rema: And if one did curdle milk with it, if it was liquidy, the entire cheese is forbidden unless there was sixty times the amount of [permitted] milk that one made curdled with against the forbidden [milk] from the stomach. And if there was sixty times the milk it is all permitted. And if the [milk in] the stomach was solidified, it does not forbid [the cheese] at all even if there wasn't sixty times the [permitted] milk against the [milk in] the stomach. And if the [milk in] the stomach was liquidy at first and became solidified, it has the law of liquidy [milk]. And there are those that are lenient in this matter, and in a case of monetary loss, there is room to be lenient. The skin of the stomach, sometimes they salt it and dry it out and it becomes like wood and they fill it with milk, [in this case the milk is] permitted, since after it was dried out it is like mere wood, and it has no moisture of the meat in it.

(11) If one curdled cheese in the skin of the kosher stomach, if there is the taste of meat in it, it is forbidden, and if not, it is permitted. But if one curdled in the skin of the stomach of an invalidly slaughtered animal or an invalid animal or a non-kosher animal, it is forbidden with any amount. Rema: Because something that's intrinsically forbidden, and one [used it] to curdle milk, even in a thousand parts it's not nullified. And this is precisely if there was nothing else that was used to curdle except the forbidden item, but if there was something else that is permitted that was used to curdle, then both this and that caused it [to curdle] and it would be permitted if there was sixty times [the permitted] against the forbidden.