Chullin 113

Three times in the Torah – Exodus 23:19, Exodus 34:26, and Deuteronomy 14:21 – we are instructed, “You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.” This might feel like overkill, but today, we learn about the impact of this thrice-repeated commandment.

Let’s start off with the full mishnah:

It is prohibited to cook the meat of a kosher animal in the milk of any kosher animal, not merely the milk of its mother, and deriving benefit from that mixture is prohibited. It is permitted to cook the meat of a kosher animal in the milk of a non-kosher animal, or the meat of a non-kosher animal in the milk of a kosher animal, and deriving benefit from that mixture is permitted.
 
First, the mishnah states that the prohibition on mixing milk and meat doesn’t apply only to the specific kid and its particular mother’s milk, repeating what was stated back on Chullin 103.  Moreover, as later codes note, the ban applies to cooking, eating and benefiting from any such mixture, although you can cook and derive benefit from a non-kosher animal’s meat in a kosher animal’s milk, and vice versa
How do we get this broad application of the word “kid”?

Rabbi Elazar said: The verse states: “And Judah sent the kid of the goats” (Genesis 38:20). One may infer that here, since this verse specifies that it is referring to a kid of the goats, consequently, anywhere the word “kid” is stated without specification, it means even a cow or a ewe. Accordingly, the prohibition of meat cooked in milk applies to all kosher domesticated animals.

The verse from Genesis specifies that Judah sent “the kid of the goats.” According to the Gemara, the specification that it’s “of the goats” means that “kid” can refer to the offspring of any domesticated kosher animal, like a goat, sheep, cow, or ox. As such, the three-fold ban on boiling a kid in its mother’s milk applies across the board.

This take isn’t without concerns:

But why not derive from that verse that, in general, every instance of the word “kid” is referring to a goat, including the prohibition of meat cooked in milk? The Gemara answers: This cannot be, as another verse is written: “And the skins of the kids of the goats” (Genesis 27:16). This indicates that only here they are kids of the goats, but anywhere the word “kid” is stated without specification, it means even a cow or a ewe.

The Gemara brings a second biblical prooftext to show that when the Tanakh references a baby goat, it specifies “goat” to avoid confusion with other kosher domesticated animals. But there’s a complication:

But let us derive from this verse as well that, on the contrary, the word “kid” is always referring to a goat. The Gemara explains: These two examples are two verses that come as one, and any two verses that come as one do not teach their common element to other cases.

Understanding this requires appreciating a bit of halakhic hermeneutics. There’s a principle of interpretation called binyan av. In short, when a rule applies to a word or phrase in one context, it applies to other mentions of that word or phrase. Here, the “kid” in both situations is a goat – could it be that it teaches us that a kid is always a goat?

Nope:

The Gemara asks: This works out well according to the one who says this principle that two verses that come as one do not teach their common element to other cases, but according to the one who says that two verses that come as one do teach their common element to other cases, what is there to say? The Gemara answers: Two exclusions are written, as both of the verses cited use the term “the goats.” The verses could have stated simply: Goats, but state “the goats.”

There’s a limitation to applying binyan av: If there’s more than one verse that teaches the same point, you can’t generalize to other situations. Here, if these two verses from Genesis teach the same point – that “kid” has a meaning beyond goats – then it’s limited to these two contexts.
  
For those who don’t hold by this limitation, there’s an alternate explanation for why a kid can be something other than a goat: Both of the verses refer to “the goats.” As such, the “kid of the goats” — with the definite article “the” — refers to this specific situation and lacks broader implications.

Read all of Chullin 113 on Sefaria.

This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on August 21, 2026. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.