Milk and meat

Eating milk and meat

What some say is a dietary rule, cited three times in the Torah, concerns the separation of meat and milk (or all dairy products) is that “You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk.” (Exodus 23:19 and Exodus 34:26 and Deuteronomy 14:21), but none of them seem to have any direct explanations. While this prohibition is interpreted in many different ways, it seems to be the one which the many of modern Jews want to obey.

The idea of boil a kid in its mother’s milk does not necessarily imply its modern interpretation, and it apparently according to some was not even known at the end of the Second Temple period(approximately 600 years (516 BCE–70 CE)). It seems to be firmly it was firmly established in the first centuries of the Common Era (CE). Some Jews practice this to distinguishes religiously observant Jews from the non-observant.

The meaning concerning prohibiting this combination of milk and meat has been suggested to be because there were other religions at that time that made similar ritual of sacrificing of a kid or lamb and then cooking them in the milk of their mothers, to either invoke signs or the ability to foretell the future or even to generate fertility.

There is the possibility that this is actually a dietary law that protects the Israelites from indigestion or some ill effect that may result from such ingestion of a milk and meat cuisine. But according to SunFed Ranch, "marinating beef in milk creates a lightly acidic bath for the meat, tenderizing it without breaking down its proteins too much. The calcium in the milk reacts with the enzymes in the meat to gently soften the proteins, facilitating another tenderizing process."

But many Jews do indeed eat milk and then meat no matter how much time has passed since they ate the dairy (although you are expected to clean your mouth with water first).

There’s a biblical teaching known as Shiluach haken (“sending of the nest”(שילוח הקן)). It is saying that we should chase away the mother bird before taking her eggs or her young. It is also taught that a blessing of a long life will be your reward if you protect her from mourning the loss.

This promise of a long life seems to be an echoing the idea of a long life if we honor our father and mother. Is there a connection?

A kabbalistic interpretation of the passages is that "life comes first in order regarding death". Milk is also first in your diet. They also see life as light or represented by the color white, which would include dairy so it would need to be eaten first, and meat second since it is representing death.

Is it about diet? Is it about avoiding cruelty? But are these verses merely metaphors and symbols of a deeper meaning and message? Both the boiling a kid in its own mothers milk and the Shiluach haken are believed prohibiting cruelty but so is unleaven bread if we want to understand leaven without unmooring the meaning intended by Moses.

"I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able." 1 Corinthians 3:2.

Religious Rabbis

Over the centuries rabbis have gradually built more restrictive around what they interpret as a commandment to ensure that no one might accidentally transgress what they interpret to be the Law. Many of what they thought were laws, commandments, and statutes or ordinances in the Torah may have been simply misinterpretations around which to create complicated rituals and ceremonies to distract or redirect the people from the real meaning intended by Moses and other Prophets.

Sheep recognize each other with their individual scent, both lamb and mother do this a hundred times a day and in pitch darkness. Even if you slip another lamb behind her at birth without her seeing she may detect that it is not her lamb. It has been suggested by shepherds in Israel that to boil a lamb in the milk of its own mother would be a lack of "sensitivity to the incredibly deep and close relations animals have with each other."

If the meaning of these three verses is about our lack of sensitivity for the mother to a lamb is really the point of God's statement through Moses it would certainly have to be a metaphor about our own lack of sensitivity and cruel hearts rather than merely a concern for the ewe's feelings.

The Bible does not say no work on the Sabbath but t o work first then take and earned rest. The rabbis decide you can't be throwing water on the ground, because it might cause a seed to sprout. Meanwhile they are greedy for benefit at the expense of their neighbor and children.

Cities of blood

Isaiah 9:20 And he shall snatch on the right hand, and be hungry; and he shall eat on the left hand, and they shall not be satisfied: they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm:

In reading Exodus 23:19 some will say that any mixture of meat and milk is forbidden, but others say the reason for this statement about not cooking a kid in its own mother's milk is because it is a form of cruelty.

11 Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing. 12 For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. 13 For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. 14 But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

Hebrews 5:11-14 I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.

1 Corinthians 3:2 Behold, therefore I will deliver thee to the men of the east for a possession, and they shall set their palaces in thee, and make their dwellings in thee: they shall eat thy fruit, and they shall drink thy milk.

Ezekiel 25:4 And he said unto her, Give me, I pray thee, a little water to drink; for I am thirsty. And she opened a bottle of milk, and gave him drink, and covered him.

Judges 4:19 And thou shalt have goats’ milk enough for thy food, for the food of thy household, and for the maintenance for thy maidens.

Proverbs 27:27

For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people that were men of war, which came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they obeyed not the voice of the Lord: unto whom the Lord sware that he would not shew them the land, which the Lord sware unto their fathers that he would give us, a land that floweth with milk and honey.

Joshua 5:6 For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.

Hebrews 5:13 Surely the churning of milk bringeth forth butter, and the wringing of the nose bringeth forth blood: so the forcing of wrath bringeth forth strife.

Proverbs 30:33 For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.

Hebrews 5:12 That I may perform the oath which I have sworn unto your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day. Then answered I, and said, So be it, O Lord.

Jeremiah 11:5 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

Matthew 4:4 And he took butter, and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat.

Genesis 18:8

Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.

Isaiah 55:1 And it shall be when the Lord shall bring thee into the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee, a land flowing with milk and honey, that thou shalt keep this service in this month.

Exodus 13:5 Thirty milch camels with their colts, forty kine, and ten bulls, twenty she asses, and ten foals.

Genesis 32:15 Ye shall not eat of anything that dieth of itself: thou shalt give it unto the stranger that is in thy gates, that he may eat it; or thou mayest sell it unto an alien: for thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk.

Deuteronomy 14:21 As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: 1 Peter 2:2

And the men did so; and took two milch kine, and tied them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home: 1 Samuel 6:10

12 For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. 13 For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. 14 But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. Hebrews 5:12-14

Now therefore make a new cart, and take two milch kine, on which there hath come no yoke, and tie the kine to the cart, and bring their calves home from them: 1 Samuel 6:7

12 For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. 13 For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. Hebrews 5:12-13

Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? 1 Corinthians 9:7