Guide
Separation of Dairy and Meat in Ancient Rabbinic Texts
1st–7th Centuries
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Rabbinic law derives a prohibition against mixing meat and milk from the biblical prohibition of cooking a calf in its mother’s milk (Exodus 23:19; 34:26; Deuteronomy 14:21). The Mishnah and Tosefta list rabbinic rules related to the separation of dairy and meat, including which types of meat may not be eaten with or placed near dairy and how to assess the permissibility of a meat dish into which milk has fallen. The Babylonian Talmud then debates the status of potentially forbidden mixtures of meat and milk.
Related Primary Sources
Primary Source
The Mishnah on Separating Dairy and Meat
1. All meat is forbidden to be cooked in milk except for the meat of fish and grasshoppers. It is forbidden to put [any type of meat] on the table with cheese, except for the meat of fish and…
Primary Source
The Tosefta on Separating Dairy and Meat
A drop of milk that fell on a piece of meat [in a pot of stew]: R. Judah says: If there is enough [milk] to transmit taste to the piece of meat, [then it is forbidden]. The sages say: [If there is…
Primary Source
The Talmud on Separating Dairy and Meat
Abaye said: Even the taste [imparted by a forbidden substance] without the [forbidden] substance itself is forbidden on a biblical level. For if it should occur to you that [taste is only forbidden]…