THE RABBIS AND CHESEBURGERS

RABBI RIFAT SONSINO, PH.D

According to the ancient Rabbis, a Jew cannot eat something like a cheeseburger. Why? It is based on a biblical law that states “You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk (ba-halev imo)” (Deut. 14: 21). The law is repeated in Ex. 23:19 and 34:26 but not in the list of prohibited food items in Lev. 11. Furthermore, the text is not clear, and no rationale is given. Biblical scholars have not found any written document about this topic in any of the writings of the ancient Near East. 

According to Maimonides, a famous Jewish philosopher and legal scholar who lived in the medieval times , this prohibition is based on a pagan custom (Guide, 3:48). Some modern critics think that the law shows sensitivity towards mothers. Others , reading helev (“fat”) instead of halav (“milk”), argue that the law prohibits boiling a kid in its mother’s fat, thus avoiding the economic loss of slaughtering two animals, one of which could still bear more young kids. Mendelssohn (d. 1786), the German Jewish philosopher,  simply gives up and writes, “The benefit arising from the many inexplicable laws of God is in their practice, and not in the understanding of their motives.”

 The ancient Rabbis forbade mixing meat and milk based on this law. In fact, the Mishnah, a second cent. CE text of Jewish law, clearly states, ““Every kind of flesh (of cattle, wild beast and fowl) is prohibited to cook in milk” (Hullin, 8:1, Neusner). They also add that in order to eat dairy products one must wait 6 hours after eating meat. But, according to many rabbinic sources, after eating cheese one can eat meat immediately thereafter. In other words, no cheeseburgers! That understanding is confirmed by Onkelos (2^nd cent CE) who, in his Aramaic translation of the Pentateuch, clearly writes, “you shall not eat meat and milk." Similarly, The Aramaic Targum Jonathan (perhaps 4th cent. CE) states, "no mixing meat and milk."

Christianity abrogated the Jewish dietary laws. In fact, in the Epistle of Barnabas (2^nd cent CE), the author tells us that the Torah’s dietary laws are symbolic   and are not meant to be literally observed. 

Islam has food that is either halal (“lawful”) or haram (“unlawful”), and that includes alcohol, pork and animals that died due to illness.

In Judaism, Orthodox and Conservative Jews observe the rabbinic dietary laws and do not mix meat and milk products. Most Reform Jews do not, arguing as they did in the Pittsburgh platform of 1885, that “all such Mosaic and rabbinical laws as regulate diet, priestly purity and dress originated in ages and under the influence of ideas entirely foreign to our present mental and spiritual state.”. 

In my case, I do eat crustaceans like shrimp but refuse to eat any pork products.