Meat and milk - בשר בחלב
Prohibition of Meat and Milk: Its Origins in the Text
The Torah states “do not cook a kid in its mother's milk.” What does this phrase mean, and how did it develop into the prohibition of mixing meat and milk?
Published: January 23, 2014
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Last Updated: September 7, 2026
m. Hullin 8:4; b. Hullin 113a
m. Hullin 8:4; b. Hullin 104a
For a detailed discussion of the development of these laws, see David Kraemer, Jewish Eating and Identity through the Ages, Routledge Advances in Sociology 29 (New York: Routledge, 2007), chapter 4.
At one point, the great scholar of Western Semitic, H.L. Ginsberg, believed that evidence for such a practice had been found in a Ugaritic tablet. However, the tablet is broken and even the reconstruction of the words suggests something entirely different such as, “don’t put coriander in milk” or something along those lines. For more on this see, Jacob Milgrom, “‘You Shall Not Boil a Kid in Its Mother’s Milk,’” Bible Review (1985): 48-55; Jeremy Rosen, “Accepting Torah through the Prism of Chaos Theory,” TheTorah (2014).
The main difference between 34 and 23 is that instead of “festal offering” it says “Pesach sacrifice.” Many academic scholars believe that this section of ch. 34 was copied from ch. 23.
My thanks to Professors Marty Lockshin, Sara Japhet, and Isaac Gottlieb, who helped me parse this difficult phrase.
This sub-section is an update to the article, added in 2022. For more on Anan’s view here, and the Karaite response, see Daniel J. Lasker, “Biblical Exegesis as a Source of Jewish Pluralism: The Case of the Karaites,” TheTorah (2017).
Despite the fact that the context fits the classical translation (boiling a kid in its mother’s milk) better, the phrase still fits poorly into the overall verse.
For a detailed (and very persuasive) analysis of how D reworked the Covenant Collection, see Bernard M. Levenson, Deuteronomy and the Hermeneutics of Legal Innovation (Oxford University Press, 1998). John Van Seters is the famous exception; see John Van Seters, A Law for the Diaspora: Revision in the Study of the Covenant Code (Oxford University Press, 2003). Much of Levenson’s book is meant as a critique of (an earlier iteration of) Van Seters’ position.
Much of my thinking here comes from a conversation I had with my MA advisor, Prof. Mordechai Cogan, over a decade ago.
See Michael Fishbane, Biblical Interpretation in Ancient Israel (Oxford University Press, 1987).
For other suggested interpretations of the verses, see Jack M. Sasson, “Ritual Wisdom? On ‘Seething a Kid in Its Mother’s Milk,’” in Kein Land für sich allein: Studien zum Kulturkontakt in Kanaan: Israel/Palästina und Ebirnâri für Manfred Weippert zum 65. Geburtstag, ed. Ulrich Hübner and Ernst Axel Knauf, OBO 186 (Freiburg: Universitätsverlag; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2002), 295–308; Alan Cooper, “Once Again Seething a Kid in Its Mother’s Milk,” Jewish Studies, an Internet Journal (2012): 109–143; Stephan Schorsch “‘A Young Goat in Its Mother’s Milk’? Understanding an Ancient Prohibition,” Vetus Testamentum 60 (2010): 116–130; idem, “Do Not Cook a Kid Still Suckling Its Mother’s Milk,” TheTorah (2022).
