Meat and Milk Forbidden to Eat and to Benefit From Everywhere

Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 359:2

Curated by Arthur·Told by Maggid·

Another interpretation: one statement teaches that the law applies both in the Land and outside the Land; one that it applies while the Temple stands; and one that it applies when the Temple does not stand. For since it says "the choicest first fruits of your soil," we might have heard only that where first fruits apply, meat-and-milk applies, but where first fruits do not apply we would not have heard. Therefore Scripture teaches, "You shall not eat any carcass," and it says, "You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk": just as the law of a carcass applies in the Land and outside it, while the Temple stands and when it does not, so too meat-and-milk applies everywhere. Rabbi Akiva says: Why is it stated in three places? To exclude an unclean animal, to exclude a wild animal, to exclude fowl. Rabbi Yose the Galilean says: It is said, "You shall not eat any carcass," and it is said, "You shall not boil a kid": that which is forbidden as a carcass is forbidden to cook in milk; fowl, which is forbidden as a carcass, one might think is forbidden to cook in milk, but Scripture teaches "in its mother's milk," excluding fowl, which has no mother's milk. "You shall not boil a kid." From this I know only that it is forbidden to cook. From where that it is forbidden to eat? You say: an inference from minor to major. If the Passover offering, which has no prohibition of cooking, has a prohibition of eating, then meat-and-milk, which has a prohibition of cooking, surely has a prohibition of eating. The argument is refuted and rebuilt through the sinew of the thigh, a carcass, fat and blood, until Scripture teaches, "you shall not eat it," to include meat-and-milk as forbidden to eat. And from "you shall not eat the life with the flesh" (Deuteronomy 12:23), Issi brings meat-and-milk as forbidden to eat. From this I know only that it is forbidden to eat. From where that it is forbidden to benefit from? You say: an inference from minor to major. If fruit of the first three years (orlah), in which no transgression was committed, is forbidden to benefit from, then meat-and-milk, in which a transgression was committed, surely is forbidden to benefit from. Leavened bread on Passover and the mixed seeds of the vineyard prove the point, until Rabbi teaches from "or sell it to a foreigner… you shall not boil" (Deuteronomy 14:21) that at the moment you might sell it, you may neither cook it nor sell it — so we learn it is forbidden to benefit from. "You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk." From this I know only its mother's milk; from where its sister's? An inference from minor to major. And the milk of itself with its own flesh, and goat's milk with sheep — each is derived by inference. The same applies to cattle; and why did Scripture speak of a kid? Because the milk is abundant in its mother. Rabbi says: "its mother" is stated here and "its mother" is stated elsewhere (regarding ox, lamb, and goat); just as there it speaks of ox, lamb, and goat, so here. "You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk" — meat-and-milk you may not cook, but not the other forbidden things of the Torah. And from "the house of the LORD your God you shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk" we learn it applies even to consecrated animals.

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