Chullin 114

Yesterday, the Gemara introduced a mishnah interrogating the Torah’s thrice-cited ban on cooking a calf in its mother’s milk, and from there, the Gemara extrapolated additional injunctions against cooking milk and meat together. Toward the end of today’s daf, the rabbis expand the discussion to include two additional prohibitions: consuming such a mixture and benefiting from it.

Rav Ashi says: From where is it derived that meat cooked in milk is prohibited for consumption? It is derived from a verse, as it is stated elsewhere: “You shall not eat any abominable thing” (Deuteronomy 14:3). This verse teaches that with regard to any practice that I have made abominable to you, the product is prohibited for consumption.

While it might seem logical that the prohibition on cooking meat in milk would also forbid eating the dish, Rav Ashi makes it explicit, labeling such a mixture “abominable” (in Hebrew, to’evah). The word “to’evah” shows up dozens of times throughout the Torah and is used to describe an action deemed particularly abhorrent, ranging from idolatry to sorcery and divination, from cheating people in business to certain sexual acts and more. Rav Ashi posits that when the Torah commands not to eat anything that is to’evah, it is referring to meat cooked in milk. 

From there, Rav Ashi moves along to prohibiting not only cooking and eating milk and meat together but also benefiting from it at all.

And I have derived only that meat cooked in milk is prohibited with regard to consumption; from where do I derive that it is also prohibited with regard to benefit? It is derived in accordance with the statement of Rabbi Abbahu, as Rabbi Abbahu says that Rabbi Elazar says: Wherever it is stated, “He shall not eat,” or “you,” in the singular “shall not eat,” or “you,” in the plural “shall not eat,” both a prohibition against eating and a prohibition against deriving benefit are indicated. 

Citing a tradition from Rabbi Abbahu in the name of Rabbi Elazar, Rav Ashi explains that anytime a prohibition is stated in all three ways — third person singular (s/he), second person singular (you), and second person plural (all of you) — this repetition indicates a prohibition both on eating and deriving benefit. Rav Ashi goes on to explain the only exception to this rule: when the verse specifically permits benefiting from a forbidden item, such as selling improperly slaughtered meat to a gentile. 

The later codes agree that the prohibition against cooking includes eating, and the prohibition against eating includes deriving benefit. Maimonides (Mishneh Torah, Negative Mitzvot 187) notes that the repetition of the commandment not to cook a kid in its mother’s milk teaches that all three actions (cooking, eating, benefiting) are prohibited. Maimonides further notes that eating is certainly implied by cooking, in the same way that forbidding sexual relations with one’s granddaughter (!) includes forbidding relations with one’s daughter, even if the Torah doesn’t state it explicitly (Mishneh Torah, Forbidden Foods 9:2).

Today, the prohibition against cooking and eating any mixture of meat and dairy is a standard tenet of kashrut. But what about things that might look like a mixture of meat and milk, but are in reality perfectly kosher, e.g., cooking a meat stew with a “cream” sauce made with almond milk? Can such a practice lead to marit ayin, the rabbinic principle of prohibiting practices that look forbidden? Amazingly, the codes go on to discuss … almond milk. 

Commenting on the Shulchan Arukh (Yoreh Deah 87:3), the Rema (Rabbi Moshe Isserles), writing in the 16th century, notes: “We make milk from almonds and place bird meat in it … but with meat from a domesticated animal, place almonds next to the milk, so that people don’t misunderstand.” In the absence of modern printed packaging noting that almond milk is pareve, Rabbi Isserles recommends putting actual almonds next to the “milk” so that people won’t be confused. In our own time, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the late Chief Sephardic Rabbi of Israel, ruled that since pareve substitutes are so ubiquitous, concerns of suspicion should not apply.

Read all of Chullin 114 on Sefaria.

This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on August 22, 2026. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.