KASHRUT: Meat and milk, the Minhaguim.

Today is the 5th day of Adar I, 5771

Besides the prohibition of eating together meat and dairy, our Rabbis indicated that it is necessary to wait between eating meat or a meat product and eating milk or a diary product.

The general Sephardic Minhag (tradition, custom) is to wait six hours between meat and dairy. This rule applies equally after eating red or white meat.

If necessary, one could be lenient with a child, especially an infant, and allow him or her to have milk or dairy one or two hours after eating meat (R. Obadia Yosef).

There are other Minhaguim (traditions) which indicate that the waiting period between meat and milk is 3 or 4 hours. This is mainly the Ashkenazi custom as well as the tradition of some families in our Mashadi community. The general rule in Minhaguim is that everyone should follow the custom of his parents and families, and also be respectful of other's Minhaguim.

On a similar note, the general Sephardic Minhag is not requiring a waiting period from dairy to meat. After eating dairy you 1. wash your hands, 2. wash your mouth or drink water or soda, and 3. eat a solid Parve food (such as bread or a fruit etc) before eating meat. Many families in our community, however, still hold the Minhag to wait three hours after eating dairy before eating meat, especially after eating hard cheese.

As we've already explained, everyone should keep and follow his or her own family Minhaguim.

Rabbi Yosef Bitton. YMJC | 130 Steamboat Rd. | Great Neck | NY | 11024

Meat and milk, the basics

Today is the 28th day of Shebat , 5771

The Torah forbids consuming meat with milk.

In the Book of Shemot (23, 19) the Torah says: "You shall not cook the calf in its mother milk".

The Rabbis explained that the prohibition to mix milk with meat does not refer exclusively to the cow's milk with her calf's meat, but to any meat of a mammal (cows, goats, sheep) with milk from any other Kosher mammal.

The Torah, explains Maimonides, brought the case of the calf and its mother's milk because that was the most common "meal" (a palatial meal, actually) done with milk and meat in Biblical times. The Torah presented that case as an illustration of the general rule, not as a specification.

The Rabbis extended the prohibition of milk and meat to any other 'meat', including bird's meat (chicken, turkey, duck) but they excluded fish (fish and meat belongs to a different category) and bird's eggs.

Why meat and milk is forbidden? There are some Mitzvoth (a.k.a. Chukim) for which the Torah does not bring any explicit reason. However, a Jew is not prevented from researching and finding numerous benefits behind the Mtizvot. For example, much has been said and written about the harms for digestion at the level of enzymes, if meat and milk are eaten together. A second more mystical approach indicates that meat and milk actually represent two different opposite states which should be kept apart: Milk represents life. Is taken from a living animal and gives life to the calf. While meat is part of a dead animal's body.

More about meat and milk, from
www.ou.org: http://www.ou.org/torah/article/mitzvah92

Rabbi Yosef Bitton. YMJC | 130 Steamboat Rd. | Great Neck | NY | 11024

Waiting between milk and meat

Today is the 5th of Shebat, 5770

As we explain last week, the general Sephardic Minhag is not to requiring a waiting period from dairy to meat, you’re just required to wash your hands, wash your mouth or drink water or soda, and eat a solid Parve food (such as bread or a fruit) before eating meat. However, many families of our community still hold the original Mashadi Minhag to wait from dairy three hours before eating meat, especially after eating hard cheese. As we’ve already explained, everyone should strictly keep and follow his or her own Minhaguim.

Obviously, every Kosher kitchen has to have a total separation between dairy and meat utensils, silverware etc. For Sephardim, glassware is an exception and technically, they could be used for meat or dairy, after washing them thoroughly, taking care that no residues or even particles of any food would be left over. It is always recommended to be more cautious and have a completely separate set -even of glassware- for meat and for milk.

If one has only one sink for meat and milk, one may wash immediately one type of dishes after the other, even with hot water, as long as one is using soap. (The soap renders any residues inedible).

In following weeks we will explain BH how to use the oven, the microwave and the dishwasher for meat and dairy products.

Milk after Meat

27 Shebat, 5770

Besides the prohibition of eating them together, our Rabbis indicated that it is necessary to wait between eating meat or a meat product and eating milk or a diary product.

The prevalent Sephardic Minhag is to wait six hours between meat and milk. The Rabbis gave different reasons for this prohibition, which equally applies after eating red or white meat.

There are other Minhaguim which indicate that the waiting period between meat and milk is 3 or 4 hours. This is mainly the Ashkenazi custom as well as the tradition of some families in our community. The general rule in Minhaguim is that everyone should follow the custom of his parents and families and also be respectful of other's Minhaguim.

If necessary, one could be lenient with a child, especially an infant, and allow him or her to have milk or dairy one or two hours after eating meat .

It is permissible to eat meat after eating a dairy product, with no waiting period. Yet, you are required to wash your hands, wash your mouth or drink water or soda, and eat a solid Parve food before eating meat.

Meat and dairy and the oven.

19th of Shebat, 5770

Using the same oven for meat and dairy

If one has only one oven for meat and milk, it is forbidden to bake at the same time in the same oven meat and dairy products. However, if one of the foods is completely covered -food on an aluminum tray well covered with aluminum foil, for example- then the covered food could be placed to warm or cooked in a meat or dairy oven.

That is why we can eat Kosher food that was cooked or warm up on the airplane’s kitchen, because the food is hermetically covered, preventing an exchange of taste between the Kosher food and possible particles of non Kosher food absorbed on a non Kosher oven’s walls.

The same rule would apply in a case that we have a non Kosher oven and we need to cook or warm up in it Kosher food: Using hermetic aluminum cover (Some rabbinical authorities require a double cover in all these cases).

In normal circumstances, when you need to use the same oven for meat and dairy you need to:
1. Clean the oven thoroughly
2. Leave it without use for twenty four hours
3. Leave the oven on maximum temperature for 1 hour. After this process the oven is considered Parve because all particles of meat or dairy taste absorbed on its wall, disintegrated after this process and it can be used for meat or milk.

Microwave and dishwasher for meat and dairy

MICROWAVE: There are different opinions among the rabbis, for using the same microwave for meat and dairy foods. According to one opinion, one could use one single  microwave for meat and dairy, sealing or covering the foods in such a way that the steam cannot escape. Plastic wrap or a cardboard box –depending on the type of food- might be used for this purpose. Another opinion is that between meat and dairy or vice versa, one should boil water until the microwave is filled with its steam, so that the vapor penetrates the walls of the microwave rendering it Parve and suitable to be used for meat or dairy.  Other rabbis would require a 24 hours waiting period -same as the oven- before boiling the water.

DISHWASHER: Rab Obadia Yosef, Shelita, allows using the same dishwasher for meat and dairy utensils, provided one is certain no substantial food particles –food residue that can migrate from one dish to another-would be present on the dishes/pots/pans. Other rabbis require running an empty cycle in between meat and dairy utensils, to clean the dishwasher of all food residues. They will also recommend to change the dishwasher racks between the cycles or to use some kind of an added base to cover the racks, because unlike an oven or a microwave, where only the absorbed vapor has to be eliminated, in the dishwasher tangible food residues might be present which makes its cleaning more difficult.

Should milk be Kosher certified?

Today is the 11^th of Tamuz, 5770

2000 years ago the rabbis of the Talmud forbade buying cow milk from a non-Jewish milkman. Why? Because the non Jewish milkman would have other animals than cows in his farm. At the time of collecting the milk he would normally mix it with camel milk, donkey milk, etc. which obviously aren't Kosher! The rabbis then forbade buying 'milk' from a gentile milkman unless the milking process was supervised by a Jew, making sure it is pure cow milk.

But, what happens today when the circumstances have changed? Should we still suspect that in today's food industry companies would mix cow milk with non Kosher milk?

There are three opinions on this issue and as we have explained, given two or more opinions everyone should follow his community Minhaguim.

Opinion # 1: the Rabbis made a decree and 'formal rabbinical decrees' must be derogated to run out. They don't expire by themselves, even when the circumstances have changed. Accordingly, milk has to be supervised.

Opinion # 2: The USDA inspection service serves the same role as the original 'Jewish supervisor', therefore any normal cow milk is permitted (R Moshe Feinstein z"l)

Opinion # 3: The Rabbis did not issue a 'formal decree' but a 'warning' (Rambam). Therefore, when circumstances change, the warning is not in effect anymore. The original warning assumed that the gentile milkman would have an extra profit from mixing milk (Chut haMeshulash). Today, non kosher milk would cost more than cow milk. No restrictions are necessary. Normal cow or goat milk is allowed.

What is a Minhag (tradition)?

Today is the 4th day of Tamuz, 5770

In virtually every Halakhic subject there are very often some controversies as to what the final application of the law is. The origin of these controversies is not the same for every case. Most of the time, they depend on different interpretations not of the Biblical commandment but of the Talmudic determinations.

Illustration: The Talmud said that between eating meat and dairy one should wait “from one meal to the next meal”. Most rabbis interpreted this Talmudic statement as related to ‘time’: after eating meat, one has to wait the ‘time’ that normally one waits from one meal to the next: 6 hours (Rashi, Rambam). Other rabbis interpreted ‘next meal’, literally: you cannot have meat and diary on the same meal, like beef and a dairy dessert, but you don’t need to wait full six hours (Tosafot).

In this context, Minhag means the interpretation each community follows in the case of Halakhic controversy. Both are totally valid, as they don’t refer to the core case (the prohibition of eating together meat and milk) but to the details of it.

In the area of Minhaguim, as long as a community follows a valid Halakhic opinion, even if it comes from a minority opinion, it is a valid Minhag.

EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW AND FOLLOW HIS OR HER COMMUNITY MINHAGUIM.

BH, in the next HOTD about Kashrut I will bring some examples of Minhaguim in this area.

By popular demand: link to reliable Kashrut symbols: . http://www.crcweb.org/agency_list.php.

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Making Kosher the grill and the oven

Today is the 7th of Yiar, 5770 (22 days of Omer. 3 weeks 1 day)

Last week we explained what happens with the food when we accidentally we cooked a meat food on a diary utensil or vice versa. Today we will see what we should do with the cookware.
As a general rule, most utensils or cookwares that were used with a prohibited food can become kosher again, but they need to undergo a process of “depuration/sterilization” to get rid of the absorbed particles of the forbidden food. Most people are familiar with the process called “Hagala” which basically means immersing a utensil in boiling water. For example, if one accidentally used a meat spoon to stir dairy food, the spoon needs to be immersed for a few seconds in boiling water.
There are some utensils that are not used with water or for “cooking”: for example, a grill or an oven. The food particles were absorbed there by direct fire or by heat; water therefore won’t be effective in getting the forbidden particles out…
So If one wants to make Kosher a non Kosher grill he needs to do a Libbun Chamur (heavy firing) which means, that the grill must be placed on the fire or heated with a torch until the metal changes its color to red/white.
A regular electric or gas oven needs Libbun Kal (heating) which consists on bringing the oven to its maximum temperature –the highest it might have reached when cooking the non Kosher food- for about half hour. The self cleaning function of most electric ovens is considered Libbun Kal.

What happens if one accidentally cooked a milk food on a meat pot?

30th of Nisan, 5770, ROSH CHODESH

Today is the 15tyhn day of the Omer (2 weeks,1 day)

If accidentally one cooked a milk food in a meat cookware sometimes the food is prohibited and sometimes is permitted.

If one for example fried a cheese omelet in a meat pan.

Case 1: if the pan was not clean and it had some visible leftover of meat, even though those were small leftovers, like meat fat etc, the omelet is forbidden because cheese got mixed with meat.

Case 2: if one fried the cheese omelet in a completely clean meat pan that was used with meat during the last 24 hours, the cheese omelet is forbidden because it absorbed the meat particles on the pan's walls.

Case 3: If the meat pan was not used with meat for the last 24 hours, and one accidentally made a cheese omelet in that pan, then the omelet is permitted. Because the Halakha considers that after 24 hours the meat particles absorbed in the pan's walls are decomposed (noten taam lifgam) and they are not considered meat anymore.

As for the cookware, in all cases, it requires Hag’ala (immersion in boiling water) or Libbun (firing) depending on the type of utensil. It will be explained BH in following Halakhot.

When a Parve food remains Parve

Today is the 12th of Shebat, 5770

If you cooked a Parve food together with meat or dairy, that Parve food becomes the same status as the food that was cooked next to.

However, if something Parve (rice, vegetables, fruits, drinks, or egg) was cooked in a meat pot, and that pot was completely clean of any food residues, there is no need to wait between eating that Parve food and eating a dairy product.

Moreover, according to the Sephardic Minhag, a Parve food that was cooked in a completely clean dairy or meat pot is considered Parve and it could be eaten with meat or with diary. (Please, read twice before applying!).

Illustration:

1. If you cook an egg on a completely clean pot that was previously used to cook meat, you could eat this egg with cheese, because the egg is still considered Parve.

2. If the egg was cooked in the same pot together with a piece of meat or with meat residues, that egg is considered “ meat” (BESARI) and to eat that egg, you have to wait 6 hours to eat dairy and obviously, it cannot be eaten with cheese.