Reasons for Not Cooking a Lamb in Its Mother’s Milk

Question

Why can’t you boil a lamb in its mother’s milk?

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Answers

  1. The Just Ask! - AskTheRabbi.org Team

    What is the rationale for the prohibition? There are a few answers to your question.

    1. It is related to prohibition against eating blood: “Do not eat the life with the flesh.” This mixture contributes to negative character traits. Pagans specifically mixed meat and milk in their rites, and we are ordered to distance ourselves from pagan practices. The pagans used it as a method of improving their crops. Kid lambs were cooked in their mothers’ milk as a “magical” formula, similar to the prohibition against mixing seeds, wool and linen etc.

    2. It is a moral lesson regarding gratitude to God.

    3. It is one of the Chukim, the statutes, that are beyond and not subject to human comprehension.

    4. It is due to sensitivity for the fact that meat comes from a dead animal, and a life-cycle needed to end to provide this food.

    Best wishes from the AskTheRabbi.org Team