The Prohibition of eating milk and meat

From a young age, parents raise their children to know that we cannot eat milk and meat together. If you grow up doing this it does not seem weird, but if you stop and think about what you are doing it seems very strange. Not only can you not eat them together, but you have to wait up to six hours in between eating them! This is not only waiting to eat dairy, the Zohar says you should also wait an hour to eat meat after you have eaten dairy. After the Maharam found cheese in his mouth six hours after eating it, some Ashkenazim even took on the custom to wait six hours to eat meat after eating hard cheese! Even if we taste a piece of meat and spit it out why must we still wait before eating dairy? Why do we have all these weird laws?

This mitzvah is found in the Torah in the phrase Do not cook a kid in its mother’s milk (codified in Rambam, Mishna Torah, Sefer Kedusha, Hilchot Ma’achalot Assurot, Chapter 9). This phrase is repeated three times: Exodus 23:19, Exodus 34:26, and Deuteronomy 14:21. A Talmud in Chulin say that every time the phrase repeats itself, it is giving us a different prohibition. The prohibitions are against eating, cooking, and benefiting from meat and milk.

The Torah is only talking about domestic, kosher animals. The Rabbis felt it would be best to add further restrictions as a safeguard. They added the prohibition against wild, non kosher animals as well. They also add the prohibition of eating milk with meat if they were both uncooked, which the Torah did not specifically state. The last thing the Rabbis add was the idea of waiting between eating meat and milk. The number of hours vary depending on where the family originated. The most common amount of time is six hours, but some people wait three. Why did the Rabbis add all these extra prohibitions? What is really so bad about eating milk and meat together?

These questions have been asked countless times. Although there is no answer given to us, many possible explanations have been given by Chachamim. Sefer HaChinuch says there are some things in this world that are forbidden for us to mix together. Just like we cannot mix wool and linen, we also cannot mix milk and meat. It is unnatural of them to be together. The Rambam takes a different approach. He explains that there was an ancient pagan ritual that involved cooking meat and milk. The prohibition for us eating meat and milk is to help distance us for that idol worship. The Sforno adds to this by saying that the pagan ritual was a blessing for plentiful crops or flocks. There are also some Kabbalistic Sources that explain that meat represents gevurah and milk represents chesed. These two opposing characteristic should not be mixed. There are many recent Rabbis who cite and agree with these explanations.

After researching this mitzvah, I have a deeper understanding about this prohibition. After wondering for years why I have to do this, even though it seems weird, I finally can comprehend why it is so bad.