Eighteen Treatises from the Mishna, by D. A. Sola and M. J. Raphall, [1843], at sacred-texts.com

CHAPTER VIII.

§ 1. It is prohibited to boil any kind of flesh 1 in milk, except that of locusts 2 and fish; neither may meat and cheese be brought to

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table together, except locusts and fish. A person who vowed not to eat meat, may eat locusts and fish. Fowl and cheese may, according to Beth Shammai, be brought to table together, but may not be eaten together; but, according to Beth Hillel, they may neither be brought to table nor be eaten together. R. José saith, "This is one of the cases in which Beth Shammai decide in a less rigid manner than Beth Hillel." 3 What kind of table is here alluded to? The table on which the person is eating; but on the table on which food is prepared [a dresser], both kinds may without apprehension be placed near to each other.

§ 2. Meat and cheese may be wrapped up together in one cloth, if they do not touch each other [i.e. are placed in contact]. Rabbon Simeon ben Gamaliel saith, "Two guests [at an inn or ordinary] may without apprehension eat at the same table, one of them meat, and the other cheese."

§ 3. When a drop of milk fell upon a piece of meat [in a pan], all the meat therein is prohibited if it could have communicated its flavor to the meat; 4 but if the contents of the pot had been immediately stirred together [after the milk fell into it]: if it imparted its flavor to the whole, the contents of the pot are prohibited. The udder [of a cow or goat, &c.] must be torn, and the milk be pressed out of it; but if it had not been torn, the person who eats it has not transgressed; the heart must also be torn and the blood pressed out. If it had not been torn, the person who eats it thus has not transgressed; 5 and he who has fowl and cheese brought to table together has not transgressed the negative commandment.

§ 4. It is prohibited to boil [in milk] or to derive any benefit from the flesh of a clean animal which was boiled in milk of a clean animal, but it is permitted to boil and to reap advantage of flesh of a clean animal boiled in the milk of an unclean one, or, of the flesh of an unclean animal boiled in the milk of a clean one. R. Akivah saith,

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[paragraph continues] "Wild animals and fowl are not specified in the law [as subject to this prohibition]; for it is said, 'Thou shalt not boil a kid in its mother's milk,' but this precept was mentioned three times, 6 to include wild animals, fowl, and unclean animals. R. José the Galilean saith, "It is said [Deut. xiv. 21], 'Thou shalt not eat of any thing that dieth of itself' [Nebelah], and it is added immediately, 'Thou shalt not boil a kid in its mother's milk.' Consequently, those animals only which are prohibited as Nebelah may not be boiled in milk, and as it might be supposed that since a fowl may become prohibited as Nebelah, it would therefore be prohibited to boil it in milk, the Scripture uses the expression, 'in its mother's milk,' to except fowl, to which that expression cannot apply." 7

§ 5. It is prohibited to use the curdled milk in the maw of an animal slaughtered by a non-Israelite, which is Nebelah. When a person put milk in the interior membrane of the maw 8 of a Cashér killed animal; 9 if the milk can impart a flavor to it, it is prohibited. The milk in the maw of a Cashér animal, which sucked from one that is Terefá, is prohibited; but the milk of a Terefá, which sucked from a Cashér animal, may be used, because the milk remains gathered [enclosed] in the intestines. 10

§ 6. Several laws are more rigid in respect to the prohibition of eating suet [‏חלב‎] than they are in that against eating blood, and some, again, which relate to this latter prohibition, are more severe than those in respect to the first mentioned. More severe in respect to suet, inasmuch as a trespass [‏מעילה‎] may be thereby incurred, as also the guilt of having brought an abominable [i.e. unfit] sacrifice [‏פגול‎], and having eaten of what remained 11 [‏נותר‎], and became unclean, which is not the case in respect to the blood. Some laws are more severe as regards blood, since this prohibition applies to the blood of domestic and wild animals, and also to fowl, whether they are of a clean or unclean species, but that against eating suet applies to clean animals exclusively.

Footnotes

344:1 This term includes the flesh of cattle and venison, and also of fowl; the prohibition of the two first is derived from the Law, that of the last-mentioned is of Rabbinical origin.

344:2 Some species of locusts are even at this day used as a common article of food p. 345 in some countries of the east. The species here particularly alluded to is of the cucullated or hooded species, and is called "Locusta minor flavicans Chagab edulis," i.e. the lesser yellowish locust, or edible Chagab.—(Scheuchzer, Physica Sacra.)

345:3 The contrary is generally the case, Beth Hillel being mostly less rigid in their decisions than Beth Shammai.

345:4 This is the case when the piece of meat does not exceed sixty times the size or proportion of the drop of milk.

345:5 In the Talmud, Treatise ‏כריתות‎, this is explained as limited to a fowl's heart only.

346:6 Exodus xxiii. 19; ibid. xxxiv. 26; and Deut. xiv. 21.

346:7 Hebrew, "which have no mothers milk." The Halacha or Rabbinical decision is, however, according to R. Akivah.

346:8 Which is flesh.

346:9 To convert it into runnet to make cheese.

346:10 And does not mix with the juices, &c., of the animal that is Terefá.

346:11 That is, if eaten or kept on the third day since the animal was sacrificed. (See Leviticus xix. 5, 6, &c.)