What is the reason that orthodox jews can not eat meat and dairy together?

Answer 1

The first answer is pretty much correct, but I can expand upon it a bit. This law stems from "Do not cook a kid [goat] in its' mother's milk" (Exodus 23:19)." Cooking and eating meat together was also an idolatrous practice and, according to the Kabbalah, meat symbolizes death while milk symbolizes life. This is similar to the reasoning behind the tradition of having something bitter and something sweet with a meal, ie "take the bitter with the sweet."

This law not only means that you cannot mix meat and milk together, but you also must keep separate cooking dishes for meat items and milk items. Bread must contain neither meat nor milk, and be pareve, since bread usually accompanies any meal. One must also wait three hours between consumption of meat items and milk items.

Answer 2

Because of the Biblical injunction, "Thou shalt not seethe (boil) a kid in its mother's milk." Over the centuries, rabbis interpreted that to mean that dairy and meat dishes should not be eaten at the same time.

Answer 3

Alot of the biblical themed, thou shalts and shalt nots were deamed because of health reasons. Shell fish and pork were one of the major ones. Mostly because of the sickness they brought when not prepared properly. They also couldn't be kept well for any period of time.

Much like we know today you need to cook food well. Also you need to put it in the freezer while it is fresh to keep it for weeks on end then thaw, cook and serve... Was very hard to do this with Jesus's fridgidare, he rarely paid his electric bill and hardly washed his hands, with hot water when he cooked.

Answer 4

For the same reason some won't operate a light switch (although they are quite willing to have someone else do it)--heavy-handed, creative interpretation coupled with petrified inertia.