Milk and meat do not mix in Jewish law, so why does Abraham in the Sedra
entertain the Angels with such a combination?
Some point out that the butter and the milk were presented
first before the calf. Others suggest that he placed all the foods before them,
allowing them to select their own choice. Furthermore, by “standing over them”,
Abraham acted as a Shomer to ensure no wrong was done.It was the Talmudic sage, Mar Ukba, who required us to wait
an interval between one meal and the next, between eating meaty and milky foods.
Which begs the question, how long is such an interval?
Maimonides, in whose time only two meals a day were eaten,
suggests six hours. Many people, both Sephardim and Ashkenazim, adopt his view
or its variation of waiting five and a bit hours [into the sixth hour].Jews in Germany and France adopted their customary waiting
time between meals of three hours, and this is widespread practice in Britain
and the United States.
The Sephardi Jews of Holland understood Mar Ukba to mean
the termination of one meal before the next, and not a waiting time, and
therefore wait one hour. Whichever custom one follows, the same waiting interval
is observed when eating meat followed by hard cheese [i.e., more than 6 months
old].No explanation is offered by the Torah for this law. It
certainly has no hygienic basis as has been suggested by some.
Rabbi S.R.Hirsch however, places the Law at the very
pinnacle of Jewish symbolism. Meat and Milk belong to that category of Laws such
as the prohibition of cross-breeding animals or mixed sowing of seeds, which
requires us to preserve the eternal law of the species established by G-d at the
Creation. The Law of meat and milk therefore teaches the Jew to live by his own
Law of the species, namely, the Torah.
