[Avodah] Ways to find non-meat or non-milk

[Micha Berger via Avodah]

>From the founder of Machon Zomer, RYRosen, on possible ways to eat
kosher meat and milk together without violating basar bechalav.

-micha

Shabbat B'Shabbato
Translated by Moshe Goldberg

Point Of View
Bit of Reality from Sinai
Rabbi Yisrael Rosen
Dean of the Zomet Institute

"This teaches you that scripture, the Mishna, halacha, tosefta, hagadda,
and whatever a veteran scholar will teach in the future already exists,
and it was all given as halacha to Moshe at Sinai" [Kohellet Rabba 1].
...
Recipes with Meat and Milk

In honor of the holiday, we have pieced together for you, from the
newest volume, some juicy samples of dairy halachot, as is fitting
for the holiday of Shavuot, in order to fulfill the verse, "Honey and
milk are under your tongue" [Shir Hashirim 4:11]. We will capture your
interest for halachic sophistication by offering you, from this new
volume of Techumin, a serving of meat cooked in milk (yes, you read that
right!). Compare this to Rav Nachman, who gave his wife an udder soaked
in milk in order to satisfy her desire to taste a combination of milk
and meat (Chulin 109b). And what is our enticing menu item that fits
this requirement? See below...

(1) "Ben Pekua" -- It is an accepted halacha (admittedly quite odd)
that if a cow is slaughtered in the eighth month of her pregnancy and
the calf is found to be alive, it is called a "Ben Pekua" and there is
no need to slaughter it. It can be eaten in any manner, including even
taking off a limb while it is still alive (Shulchan Aruch Yoreh Dei'ah
13), even many years later, and there is no need to check if it has
one of the faults that would render a normal animal unkosher. And now,
here is the most surprising part: The offspring of a male and female
"Ben Pekua" (both of the "parents must be of this type) will never
require kosher slaughtering either, and this includes all subsequent
generations. (However, if only one parent is a "Ben Pekua," the offspring
cannot be made kosher, even by slaughtering!)

Rabbi Meir Rabi from Australia published a dramatic article where he
claims that by definition a Ben Pekua is not cattle (but is rather the
same as fish), and therefore not only is there no need to remove the veins
in the hind quarter, one is even permitted to cook it and eat it together
with milk! To come to this conclusion, the rabbi bases his ruling on a
Torah insight by the Meshech Chochma, that our Patriarch Avraham served
his guests, the angels, "a calf (literally, the son of cattle, or a ben
pekua!) that was tender and good," from the womb of a pregnant cow, and he
gave them "butter and milk, and the calf" [Bereishit 18:8]. Rabbi Rabi
went further, and acted on his ruling. Using this method he created male
and female "sheep" and grew flocks from them, and he now has a culinary
and halachic declaration -- these animals do not need to be slaughtered,
their veins do not have to be removed, their fat is not prohibited -- 
and the rabbi has a long list of other benefits.

However, modern rabbis do not accept this idea! In the new volume of
Techumin, Rabbi Zev Vitman, the rabbi of Tenuvah (which sells milk, meat,
and fish) vigorously opposes the novel ruling. Aside from the release
from the requirement of ritual slaughtering (which is carried over from
the mother or the grandmother of the calf), Rabbi Vitman disagrees with
(almost) all the other conclusions. He finds no justification for defining
the Ben Pekua as a "new and separate species." In addition, in volume 19
of Techumin, sixteen years ago, Sephardi Chief Rabbi Bakshi-Doron rejected
a similar proposal that was sent to him by meat farmers on the Golan,
fearing that it would lead to serious problems. Other prominent rabbis,
such as Rabbi Shmuel Vazner and Rabbi Asher Weiss, warned against getting
involved in this sophisticated and complex halachic problem.

(2) We are thus left to search elsewhere for a combination of meat and
milk: meat that has been cloned from stem cells! In a previous volume,
Rev Tvi Reizman (a well-known businessman from Los Angeles who is also
a Torah scholar well versed in matters of halacha and actuality) writes
about an "artificial hamburger" which was created two years ago. This
is produced from artificial meat made from stem cells of a cow which was
not slaughtered or which was declared unkosher ("tereifa"). In principle,
he concludes that clone meat is not real meat, and that it can therefore
be cooked and eaten with milk! (The summary of the article includes many
details which will not be repeated here. For example, the problem of
appearances can be solved by proper packaging and declarations, as is
done for soya milk.)

However, my friends, I doubt that you should rush out after the holiday
to search for an "artificial hamburger," in order to season it with honey
and dip it in milk. Rabbi Yaacov Ariel opposes the idea in the new volume
of Techumin. He concludes that such artificial meat can only be produced
from a kosher animal, and that then "it will be considered meat for
all intents and purposes, including the matter of cooking with milk."

So, in the end we are left with the solution in the Talmud: Does anybody
want some milk-saturated udders?