(15) You shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread—eating unleavened bread for seven days as I have commanded you—at the set time in the month of Aviv, for in it you went forth from Egypt; and none shall appear before Me empty-handed; (16) and the Feast of the Harvest, of the first fruits of your work, of what you sow in the field; and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in the results of your work from the field. (17) Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Sovereign, the Eternal. (18) You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with anything leavened; and the fat of My festal offering shall not be left lying until morning. (19) The choice first fruits of your soil you shall bring to the house of the Eternal your God.
You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.
(22) You shall observe the Feast of Weeks, of the first fruits of the wheat harvest; and the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the year. (23) Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Sovereign Eternal, the God of Israel. (24) I will drive out nations from your path and enlarge your territory; no one will covet your land when you go up to appear before the Eternal your God three times a year. (25) You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with anything leavened; and the sacrifice of the Feast of Passover shall not be left lying until morning. (26) The choice first fruits of your soil you shall bring to the house of the Eternal your God.
You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.
(20) You may eat only clean winged creatures. (21) You shall not eat anything that has died a natural death; give it to the stranger in your community to eat, or you may sell it to a foreigner. For you are a people consecrated to the Eternal your God.
You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.
According to the plain meaning, the term “bishul” here means grow or complete, similar to its use [in the verse (Gen. 40:10)]: “its clusters ripened (הבשילו) into grapes.” This is what the verse is saying: do not allow [the kid] to grow up and be weaned from its mothers milk. [In other words, do not] wait until [the kid]’s mother grows it with her milk, rather bring it at the beginning. This fits with the context of the first part of the verse, “the choice first fruits of your soil [you shall bring].”
דבי רבי ישמעאל תנא (שמות כג, יט) לא תבשל גדי בחלב אמו ג' פעמים אחד לאיסור אכילה ואחד לאיסור הנאה ואחד לאיסור בשול
At the academy of Rabbi Yishmael it was taught: The Torah states 'You shall not cook a kid in its mother's milk' on three separate occasions (Exodus 23:19, Exodus 34:26, Deuteronomy 14:21). One forbids the consumption of a mixture of meat and milk, the other forbids the deriving of benefit from such a combination, and the third forbids cooking it.
…it was grossly improper that the substance which fed the living animal should be used to season and flavour the same after its death, and that while nature provided for its conservation by creating the stream of milk and ordaining that it should pass through the mother’s breasts as through conduits, the license of man should rise to such a height as to misuse what had sustained its life to destroy also the body which remains in existence.
If indeed anyone thinks good to boil flesh in milk, let him do so without cruelty and keeping clear of impiety. Everywhere there are herds of cattle innumerable, which are milked everyday by cowherds, goat-herds and shepherds, whose chief source of income as cattle rearers is milk, sometimes liquid and sometimes condensed and coagulated into cheese; and since milk is so abundant, the person who boils the flesh of lambs or kids or any other young animal in their mother’s milk, shows himself cruelly brutal in character and gelded of compassion, that most vital of emotions and most nearly akin to the rational soul.
(א) כָּל הַבָּשָׂר אָסוּר לְבַשֵּׁל בְּחָלָב, חוּץ מִבְּשַׂר דָּגִים וַחֲגָבִים. וְאָסוּר לְהַעֲלוֹתוֹ עִם הַגְּבִינָה עַל הַשֻּׁלְחָן, חוּץ מִבְּשַׂר דָּגִים וַחֲגָבִים. הַנּוֹדֵר מִן הַבָּשָׂר, מֻתָּר בִּבְשַׂר דָּגִים וַחֲגָבִים. הָעוֹף עוֹלֶה עִם הַגְּבִינָה עַל הַשֻּׁלְחָן וְאֵינוֹ נֶאֱכָל, דִּבְרֵי בֵית שַׁמַּאי. וּבֵית הִלֵּל אוֹמְרִים, לֹא עוֹלֶה וְלֹא נֶאֱכָל. אָמַר רַבִּי יוֹסֵי, זוֹ מִקֻּלֵּי בֵית שַׁמַּאי וּמֵחֻמְרֵי בֵית הִלֵּל. בְּאֵיזֶה שֻׁלְחָן אָמְרוּ, בַּשֻּׁלְחָן שֶׁאוֹכֵל עָלָיו. אֲבָל בַּשֻּׁלְחָן שֶׁסּוֹדֵר עָלָיו אֶת הַתַּבְשִׁיל, נוֹתֵן זֶה בְצַד זֶה וְאֵינוֹ חוֹשֵׁשׁ:
(1) It is prohibited to cook any meat in milk, except for the meat of fish and grasshoppers. And it is prohibited to place any meat together with cheese, on one table, except for the meat of fish and grasshoppers... The meat of birds may be placed with cheese on one table but may not be eaten together with it; this is the statement of Beit Shammai. And Beit Hillel say: It may neither be placed on one table nor be eaten with cheese.
With regard to which table are these laws stated? It is with regard to a table upon which one eats. But on a table upon which one prepares the cooked food, one may place this meat alongside that cheese or vice versa, and need not be concerned.
תנא אגרא חמוה דרבי אבא עוף וגבינה נאכלין באפיקורן הוא תני לה והוא אמר לה בלא נטילת ידים ובלא קינוח הפה...
גופא אמר רב חסדא אכל בשר אסור לאכול גבינה גבינה מותר לאכול בשר אמר ליה רב אחא בר יוסף לרב חסדא בשר שבין השינים מהו קרי עליה (במדבר יא, לג) הבשר עודנו בין שיניהם אמר מר עוקבא אנא להא מלתא חלא בר חמרא לגבי אבא דאילו אבא כי הוה אכיל בשרא האידנא לא הוה אכל גבינה עד למחר עד השתא ואילו אנא בהא סעודתא הוא דלא אכילנא לסעודתא אחריתא אכילנא
Agra, the father-in-law of R. Abba, recited: A fowl and cheese may be eaten without restriction.He recited it and he himself explained it thus: it means without washing the hands or cleaning the mouth [between the eating of the one and the other]...
The [above] text [stated]: ‘R. Hisda said: If a person ate flesh he is forbidden to eat [after it] cheese, if he ate cheese he is permitted to eat [after it] flesh’. R. Aha b. Joseph asked R. Hisda: What about the flesh that is between the teeth? — He quoted [in reply] the verse: While the flesh was yet between their teeth.
Mar ‘Ukba said: In this matter I am as vinegar is to wine compared with my father. For if my father were to eat flesh now he would not eat cheese until this very hour to-morrow, whereas I do not eat [cheese] in the same meal but I do eat it in my next meal.
(א) דין איסור שנתערב בהיתר ואופן ביטולו. ובו ט' סעיפים:
איסור שנתערב בהיתר מין בשאינו מינו כגון חלב שנתערב בבשר יטעמנו עובד כוכבים אם אומר שאין בו טעם חלב או שאומר שיש בו טעם אלא שהוא פגום מותר והוא שלא יהא סופו להשביח וצריך שלא ידע שסומכין עליו ואם אין שם עובד כוכבים לטועמו משערינן בס' וכן אם הוא מין במינו כיון דליכא למיקם אטעמא משערים בס' (ואין נוהגים עכשיו לסמוך אעובד כוכבים ומשערינן הכל בס') (באגור ותשובת מהר"מ פדואה סימן ע"ט ושאר אחרונים):
(1) A non-permissible [food item] that was mixed with a permissible item that is not of its type, for example prohibited fat that was mixed with meat, a non-Jew should taste it, if [the non-Jew] says that it has no fat taste or if he says that it has taste but the taste is "pagum" (somehow not good), permitted. And this is that it is not for the ends of improving. And it must be that [the non-Jew] doesn't know that he is being depended upon. And if there is not there a non-Jew to taste it, we measure it against 60. And likewise, if it is a [mixture of two things which are] of the same type, because one cannot really upon taste, it is measured against 60. {REMA: It is not done now to trust a non-Jew, and we measure against 60.}
100 years ago, the women in our family, the keepers of the kitchen, they decided if something was kosher. They knew the butcher, the cheese monger, the baker... As our food system developed into a global food system, a system where our food is often grown/raised, packaged and prepared, out of sight, certifying agencies became important in helping consumers make informed food choices... So what happens now that we are seeing a move back to smaller, locally-based food systems? For many, certified kosher has become the new standard of kosher. Can something be kosher without a hekhsher?
Impossible Foods, the plant-based meat company, is releasing a long-awaited new product — but unlike the wildly popular Impossible Burger, it won’t be certified kosher.
The largest and most influential certifier of kosher products in the world has declined to endorse Impossible Pork, even though nothing about its ingredients or preparation conflicts with Jewish dietary laws.
“The Impossible Pork, we didn’t give an ‘OU’ to it, not because it wasn’t kosher per se,” said Rabbi Menachem Genack, the CEO of the Orthodox Union’s kosher division. “It may indeed be completely in terms of its ingredients: If it’s completely plant-derived, it’s kosher. Just in terms of sensitivities to the consumer … it didn’t get it.”...
For Jews who keep kosher, the Impossible Burger has allowed some food experiences that would otherwise be off-limits due to the religious dietary prohibition against mixing milk and meat. For the last five years, Jews and kosher restaurants have been able to serve up cheese-topped chili, greasy cheeseburgers, and that quintessential American diner pairing: a hamburger with a milkshake.
“The Impossible Burger itself is a huge, huge success and people really, really like it,” Genack said. “It’s a really excellent, excellent product in every respect.”
But Genack said he and others at the OU recalled what happened when they once certified “bacon” that wasn’t made of pig.
“We still get deluged with calls from consumers who either don’t get it or they’re uncomfortable with it,” he said...
The OU certifies other products that might seem to conflict with Jewish dietary law, explaining on its website that “a fish sauce may display a picture of a non‐kosher fish, the OU may appear on artificial crab or pork, or there may be a recipe for a non‐kosher food item on the label.” It even certifies other products that aim to replicate the pork experience, such as Trader Joe’s “spicy porkless plant-based snack rinds.”
But ultimately agency officials decided that a product called “pork” just wouldn’t fly, Genack said.