Here's. Why Jews Do Not Mix Meat and Milk

By ARTHUR WEYNE

subtlest, most.exquisite, most faith-
fully-meaningful practices and dis-
tinctions in the extensive gamut of
One of the most puzzling aspects Jewish discipline.
of Jewish life and practice is a diS-
For the regulations which in-
cipline which, I venture to say, struct the prohibition against mix-
has yielded the least satisfying, ing milk and meat form and consti-
the most barren soil for rationaliza- tute a perfect epitome of ancient
tion. interpretations, explanations, Judaism's cherishment of life—and
and speculations. This is the classic the sunrise-beauty of that outlook.
• • •
Jewish dietary stricture against eat-
ing milk products and meat prod-
Is this Jewish reverence of life
ucts at thd. same sitting.
as clearly depicted as I have repre-
It is an injunction which stipu- sented it? "Choose life, that thou
lates not only that a Jew may not mayest live, thou and thy seed,"
eat milk and meat together, but we are enjoined in Deuteronomy,
that he must separate the consump- Chapter 30, verse 19. Psalms (10.4)
tion of meat frbm that of milk with exhorts us to "bless the Lord . . .
a six-hour wait. s After milk; how- Who redeemth thy life from the
ever, he need not wait more than pit." Job observes. "All that a man
two hours. (In some quarters of hath will he give for his life" (2.4).
Europe, the time-separations were And Ecclesiastes, the wise old ad-
venturers whose cynicism manages
shorter.)
Our learned authorities are at a to exude-a nursery freshness, made
loss to account for the circum- an end-all distinction between life
stances that brought about this ir- and death with his disturbing, "A
reconcilable divorce of milk and living dog is better than a dead
meat. Bible scholars cite the bibli- lion" (9.4). In Leviticus we find
al verse, "Thou shalt not seeth a what is possibly the most forbid-
kid in its mother's milk" as author- ding caution of all: "Thou shalt not
ity for the structure. But even let they heed spill to the ground."
Is the Aewish abhorrence of
though this injunction appears
three times in the Bible—Exodus death as ,unniistable as I assert it
23.19, Ex. 34.26, and Deuteronomy is? Verse I, Chapter 21, of Leviti-
14.21—and is regarded as the 92nd cus, enjoins the priest against de-
of the 613 Commandments con- filing himself "for the dead among,
tained in the Bible—it bears little his people" (except for his immedi-
logic-relationship to what is one of ate kin). Numbers 19.11 says, "He
the most baffling, but also one of that toucheth the dead, even any
the most enduring, disciplines of man's dead boy, shall be unclean
seven days." Two verses further we
daily Jewish life.
read. "Whosoever toucheth the
* * *
Today, alas,' it is a discipline dead, and purifieth not himself—he
infinitely more disdained then hon- hath defiled the tabernacle of the
ored. Many bland. and hilarious dis- Lord—that soul shall be cut off
tortions of kashruth observance from Israel." A contemporary schol-
have gone into the making of this ar adds. "Contact with the dead is
ignorance. But oddly, neither the not required for defilement—mere
votive and unswerving observers of presence under the same roof is
the Jewish dietary disciplines nor sufficient." The conclusion, then, is
the emancipated violators, thereof plain: contact with a corpse—with
have made the faintest contribu- death—is the primary source of
tion to an understanding of what ritual impurity. • •
is. in this writer's view. one of the
Hebraic veneration of life could
be given greater and more sweep-
ing sanctification than in the depth
and the vastness of the gulf that
could be dug between life and
lifelessness. To call life sublime
and death a defilement is to show
the Giver of life the ultimate ap-
preciation for His gift.
And yet death was a face of life,
flowing from it. Life dissolved in
death and man learned to bow his
head. murmurring, "The Lord
giveth. the Lord taketh away;
blessed be the Name of the Lord."
At death. the beneficences life had
yielded ceased, yet death itself
brought bequests.
Best Wishes
For the Israelites the sanctifica-
tion of' life applied to all living
to the
things, including the animal sources
of food.
Jewish
Cattle. in life. yield up milk; the
array of dairy products is the cow's
Community
gift to man while it is yet alive.
for the
In death. it yields up meat.
To mix milk and meat, then.
New Year!
ewould be to mix life and death—
to' sanctify the glory of life with
abomination of death. It was un-
thinkable.
Why a half-day's wait after meat
consumption before milk was per-
mitted? And why only a fraction
of time for the reverse?
Here it becomes a solidly prag-
matic matter. The cow had lived
before it had died; there the food-
yield of its life came before than of
its death. The logic is based on a
kind of chronology of the law of
fl'ont the Makers of
life. It is a discipline almost cos-
mic in its sensitivity. Test it as
yoti may, the theory stands up.
First, eat the food products yielded
in life; then, after a decent, formal
interval, the food made possible
by death. After consumption of
meat, however, a long pause before
eating the products of life.

(Copyright, 1964, Jewish Telegraphic
Agency. Inc.)

QUAKER
MAID

ice Cream

and Frozen

Desserts

What ' about fish — why is it
parve?
Because fish offer us no "double"
contribution. The fish yields food
only after its life has been taken.
And what' about egg? Why is it
parve and not dairy—it was given
in life?
My supposition here is that the
egg - for - consumption represents a
blurring of life and ;death—and

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
36 Friday, September 4, 1964

abortion of the life within it to
make it fit for consumption. For
the slain chicken is fleischig
(meat)—like the slaughtered cat-
tle.
The same reasoning—a "single"
yield—would make all edibles that
grow on trees, bushes, or in fields
parve.
* *
One note remains now to be
sounded: the significance of Kash-
ruth.
To many Jews in our day the
diseipline of Kashruth observance
is an antique, if not atavistic sys-
tem. They feel there are no longer
any' needs that it fills and that, at
many points, it is quite "unkeep-
able" in the complex of contem-
porary conditions. In the simple.
monolithic life of the ghetto, the
nonobserver might argue, the Jew
would have had to make an effort
to violate kashruth; today. circum-
stances are in roughshod conflict
with kashruth observance. Besides,
it might be added as a clinching
argument. hasn't modern hygiene
administered the coup de grace to
kashruth?'
A rebuttal is, of course. no part
of this presentation; it will have
to be left for another time. It need
only be said that, whatever kash-
ruth was before the Torah was
bestowed on us, that holy code
gave kashruth a keenly spiritual
raison d'etre. The conscientious
practice and observance of kash-
ruth fulfilled Torah purpose; to
make us a people consecreated to
holiness, a people apart, distingu-
ished from all others by "outward
rites which in themselves helped
constitute holiness."
The daily diet intimately affect-
man's whole being, the laws of
kashruth served as that "outward
consecration" expressing an inner
sanctity, and thus it infused the
infant nation with an awareness of
its mission in history—to be a na-
tion of priests. Kashruth served as
a "conditioner. - preparing the Is-
raelites to dedicate th calves to
the ways God—through Mos —was
to teach them, as individual and
as a nation.
• * *
From the time of the earliest dis-
persion until the mid-nineteenth
century( or from Babylon to the
mass immigrations to America)
kashruth, for the individual Jew,

'was an intimate ritual of beauty, servance, with a view to discover-
delicacy, meaning, and joyous com- ing how we can give it community-
mitment; more, it served as a fine wide resuscitation and thus recap-
badge of Jewish identification and ture the sacred and sublime dis-
spiritual alertness. Dr. J. H. Hertz, tinctiveness we have all but for-
the late Chief Rabbi of the British feited.
Empire, has said that "the dietary
laws have proved an important fac-
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Indeed, in this day of disintegrat-
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every meal we eat, we ratify an
PRACTICAL
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HOME BUILDERS
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UN 4-8272
MR. HAINES
the entire matter of kashruth ob-

.

Governor George

and Lenore

ROMNEY

wish you all a Happy Rosh Hashanah

and spiritually rededicated New Year

Make Your Heritage
Your Joy In Life

At this time of. our standing at the threshold of the New Year 5725, I bring to
your attention the distressing fact that in spite of the many thousands of organizations
acting in the interest of promoting Jewish life, the very existence of our great and sacred
heritage is being threatened by the constant increase of intermarriage and final assimilation.

It is time to wake up and sincerely realize that it con happen to your own son or
daughter. There will be no justification in blaming the Hebrew school or the synagogue
where you belong. When your son or daughter confronts you with that kind of nachos,
because your home contains little or nothing of Jewish customs and observances which
through the centuries made the Jew and his home a fortress ogainst assimilation,

It is TIME to ACT.

Grace your doorposts with a mexurzah.

Honor the Sabbath day and keep it holy.

Do your shopping before the weekend.

Let the Sabbath be visible in your home.

Light the Sabbath candles on Friday at dusk.

Bring th family together for the traditional Sabbath meals with kiddush, etc.
Attend sery

Keep a kosher home; it is easy of the present time to do so, and by doing so you will
honor your parents so that they can participate and socialize with you.

Give your or your neighbor's child a complete Jewish education. Send him or her tod

o yeshiva where. he can learn what it means to be a Jew, where he con acquire a knowledge

of our sacred heritage and be proud of it.

your own effort,

fl

A survey in 1954 showed that of the 3 per cent of the Jewish population, 29 per cent
of the scientists were Jewish. You, too, should leave a good inheritance and pass on the
heritage to your offspring. You . were born a Jew, and you will die a Jew. Let the between-
years of life be Jewish as well.

41

A reminder that your success has come
but is definitely from your Jewish heritage:

to you not only from

Try to help establish and• support a kosher restaurant.
Get a Jewish paper to know about matters Jewish.

Rabbis, promote Jewish life; once and for all, stop attending Jewish functions

in non-kosher places.

Make Torah study at least on Saturday afternoons.

May you be inscribed in the book of life and may the New Year
ultimate redemption to Israel and peace to all mankind.

bring

the

&zriel Weissman