(Exodus 23:19) prohibits: "You shall not cook a kid in its mother's milk." Rabbi Shimon asked why this prohibition is stated three times in the Torah — here, in (Exodus 34:26), and in (Deuteronomy 14:21).
His answer is elegant: the three repetitions correspond to the three covenants that God forged with Israel. The first covenant was made at Chorev (Sinai). The second was made in Arvoth Moav (the plains of Moab), as the Israelites prepared to enter the land. The third was made at Mount Gerizim and Mount Eival, during the blessings and curses ceremony after the conquest.
Each covenant was a complete and independent reaffirmation of Israel's obligations before God. And each one included the prohibition against cooking a kid in its mother's milk. The repetition is not redundant — it is structural. Every covenant renewal brought with it a fresh statement of this law.
Rabbi Shimon's teaching connects one of the most specific dietary laws to the broadest framework of Jewish theology — the covenant itself. The prohibition against mixing meat and milk is not a minor dietary detail. It is so fundamental that it was included in every major covenant between God and Israel. Three covenants, three statements. The Torah repeated it not because Israel might forget, but because each new covenant required its own complete articulation of the terms.