Back to Question of the Week Back to Archives Q: How come it is okay to have unkosher stuff in the Torah, but not now? For example, when Abraham greets the three guests [Genesis 18:1-8], he gives them milk, then serves them meat with it. Joe
		A: Well, Joe, there is a traditional explanation for the specific example you bring (Abraham's seeming violation of the traditional prohibition of mixing meat and milk), but you raise some larger questions. First, the traditional explanation: Don't get so excited! First he gave them milk. Then he cleared the dishes, maybe they shmoozed a little, and then he gave them the meat. This is perfectly allowable according to the laws of kashrut, which allow one to eat meat very soon after eating milk. But hidden in both the question and the answer are issues of history and authority--what does it mean for a Jew to say "it's okay to do x?" Historically, we know that actually, the Torah only says not to "seethe a kid in its mother's milk;" it doesn't say anything about not mixing meat and milk. The later rabbis, though, considered not only the text of the Torah, but the following centuries of tradition, commentary and legal interpretation to be authoritative--to define what's "okay." So by the first half a millenium of the Common Era, it was not okay to mix meat and milk. They didn't just say, though, "now we do something different." They understood their practices as the organic growth of the living tree of Torah, which they called a "tree of life." So they found ways of reading their practices backwards into the Torah, for example by giving explanations such as the above explanation of Abraham's behaviour. Where does that leave a Jew at the end of the twentieth century? The question assumes that it's not okay now to mix meat and milk. But, while I personally don't, a majority of Jews do! What is our current authority? This is a much bigger question, obviously, than can be answered in a brief Reb-on-the-Web column. I would say, though, that an authentic Jewish practice, whether conforming or differing from the practice of our ancestors, is one that can be understood as a fruit of the ever-living tree of Torah. It is one that grows out of learning, out of the great Jewish tradition of argument "for the sake of heaven," and out of "reading back" our own situation into Torah so that we may grow through the dialogue with Abraham, with Sarah, and, we hope, with the visiting angels. I conclude with the actual story of the how there came to be a prohibition against mixing meat and milk: God: Thou shalt not seethe a kid in its mother's milk. Moses: You mean we should not mix meat and milk? God: THOU SHALT NOT SEETHE A KID IN ITS MOTHERS MILK! Moses: You mean we should wait three hours between meat and milk? God: THOU SHALT NOT SEETHE A KID IN ITS MOTHER'S MILK! Moses: You mean we should have two complete sets of dishes? God: Okay, have it your way. written by Rabbi Jeremy Schwartz
		last update: August 1999 Got a question for Reb on the Web? Visit our Archived Questions SHOOT*! ("SHOOT" is the Hebrew acronym for SHe'elot OOTeshuvot (Questions and Answers), the centuries-old dialogue between Jews and their rabbis.)

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