Milk and Meat
 
Moshe Ben-Chaim
 
 
Question: When you say kosher observance does this mean you have two dishwashers and two sets of dishes and two ovens?
 
Mesora: We don't mix meat and milk, be it the food, or the dishes - having separate dishes is simply a protective law against actually mixing the two foods.
 
The foods have no inherent problem if they are mixed, but not mixing meat and milk is based on one of the most basic principles in Judaism, that is, the abolition of anything idolatrous. Since Judaism has at its core the concept of monotheism, the concept of stone idols is ridiculous, and patently against any reason. All matter was created, so matter itself cannot have power over other things, as Something external to itself brought it into existence. Its very existence was willed by God, as well as all its properties. God therefore is the only being Who can alter natural laws.
 
There were many idolatrous nations from times beginning until now, and Judaism has many laws opposing such false notions. One of their practices was to cook a calf in its mother milk, as they felt there was some mystical synergy achieved thereby. Similarly, they would sit around pots of blood - believing that the slain animal's spirit would somehow enter them or benefit them. To counter these practices, the Jewish law includes prohibition from mixing milk and meat, and eating anything with blood in it, unless it was salted properly to extract the blood.
 
Prohibitions as these therefore serve to raise our awareness of corrupt ideas. As all laws aim at the education and benefit of man - a thinking being - and increasing his perception of what truth is, we therefore must know what is fallacy, and steer clear.


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