SC - Fleischig and Milchig

[Morgan Cain]

Jadwiga asked:

>>> Wasn't the only reason chicken is considered Fleishig
>>> because otherwise people would be confused? The base
>>> commandment is 'thou shalt not boil the kid in its
>>> mother's  milk' and chickens don't have milk!


I wasn't there at the time, so I don't know.  <S>

The specifics of which animals may or may not be considered kosher, and so on, are in the Talmud, not the Torah.  (For those of the Christian faith, what you call the Pentateuch is our Torah.)  As far as I can tell, and I am not a Talmudic scholar, chickens and other non-predatory birds are included as "fleishig" because they have blood, and because they are dead animals when we eat them while the milk comes from a living animal.  It is important to remember from where comes the food, and not mixing the dead and living is one way to do so.

This is also why animals that hunt or attack, such as birds of prey and fish of prey, are considered unkosher and forbidden.

For an interesting discussion on where the line is drawn among groups of animals, read http://www.ohr.edu/ask/ask166.htm#Q2 (Ask the Rabbi: "Fins on the Scale").  For an overview of Jewish Dietary Laws, read http://www.ohr.edu/ask/ask225.htm#Q1

                           ---= Morgan


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