Reasons for Not Cooking a Lamb in Its Mother’s Milk
Question
Lost your password? Please enter your email address. You will receive a link and will create a new password via email.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.Morbi adipiscing gravdio, sit amet suscipit risus ultrices eu.Fusce viverra neque at purus laoreet consequa.Vivamus vulputate posuere nisl quis consequat.
Answers
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