According to the April 1, 2006 WT, Questions From Readers. It is wrong, unnatural even, to boil your kid (goat) in it's own mothers milk. This is according to the mosaic law, which is no longer the law we live by, but it's principles stand. So, next time your gonna cook up your little billy goat, better not boil it in it's mothers milk.
Don't boil your kid in it's mothers milk
by lost_light06 11 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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anewme
Im not sure what the old testament reasoning is on this. Perhaps it is a perversion of the intended use of the milk of the mammary glands which are designed to give life to its young and not death.
I dont know.
This will interest you maybe. One day I was perusing a law code book and found a law that stated "no one may euthenize baby kittens or pups in the same box at the same time with their mother."
It is considered cruel and inhumane treatment of animals and a disregard for their feelings.
I wept a little when I read that.
I thought it was a beautiful law full of sensitivity.
Perhaps the mosaic law about mothers milk is similar? -
El Kabong
I don't think our Billigoat (Andi) would like to be boiled in any way.
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unclebruce
Im not sure what the old testament reasoning is on this. Perhaps it is a perversion of the intended use of the milk of the mammary glands which are designed to give life to its young and not death
This was a very popular dish in the middle-east at that time and may well be today. Amongst who I can't remember - Bedouin types perhaps? I am not sure of 'Moses' (a title of high office rather than a name) prohibition either. Most of the ten commandments have been traced back to the Egyptian Military code. I guess this command may have come from there as well. I read somewhere that this is the most repeated command to Israel. I think some home work is in order.
unclebruce
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peacefulpete
There have been many attempts both ancient and modern to explain the passage as having some lofty ethical or symbolic meaning. Really its not that deep. The context is about cutting down the Asheras and give Yahweh the credit for the land's fertility. The rite of boiling a new kid in milk was a religious rite in worship of the goddess. So saying don't do it simply meant don't do it.
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funkyderek
This law is actually the last of the Ten Commandments - the ones given in Exodus 34, not the laws given in Exodus 20 that most people mistakenly believe to be the Ten Commandments.
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Scully
This passage is the basis of part of the Kosher dietary restrictions.
In Orthodox and some Conservative Jewish homes, the separation of dairy and meat products goes so far as requiring two sets of dishes, pots, pans, utensils and cutlery - one for preparing and serving and eating meat, the other for preparing and serving and eating dairy.
The two food items can not be eaten together at the same meal - it would render otherwise Kosher foods to be trafe or "unclean". So that means no cheese burgers. No pizza (unless it's just a cheese pizza or a vegetarian pizza). No meat lasagna. Depending on what a family's practices are, you have to wait a certain amount of time (as little as one hour, or as much as six hours) after eating meat before you can eat dairy food and vice versa.
Not exactly the kind of lifestyle I would choose to adopt.
Scully (of the everything-is-better-with-cheese class)
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Brigid
Here's the Orthodox Jewish POV. They still follow all 613 commandments (except for the sacrifice stuff, but if the Temple is ever rebuilt in Jerusalem, they do hope to return to the priestly system).
It's true that this was a rite to the Mother Goddess of the land that they were conquering and therefore, was unkosher spiritually. Now, it is more of an abomination (very akin to Anewme's explanation) to boil and eat an offspring in the milk that it was fed off of. It also goes back to not mixing life with death--a very Jewish theme.
~Brigid
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ballistic
Surely boiling kids is just not on by anyone's standards!
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LDH
What Scully said.