[Avodah] HaRav M Sternbuch - Why We Eat Dairy Shavuos

[Rabbi Meir G. Rabi]

Meat and Milk

Avraham Avinu entertained three angels masquerading as human visitors;
feeding them calf tongue [Rashi Gen. 18:7] cooked with milk. Although Rashi
explains that the dairy was served first as a filler until the meat was
ready, the Meshech Chochma, quoted by HaRav M Sternbuch [MoAdim Uzemanim Vol-4
Chapter-319] explains a Medrash that describes Avraham Avinu feeding the
angels actual Bassar BeChalav.

Avraham wished to honour his visitors and so he selected tongue for their
menu, which is a smooth, grainless cut, of very soft texture and besides,
there is only one in each calf thereby subtly informing his visitors that
he had slaughtered three calves, one for each visitor, in his enthusiasm to
spare no expense to please them.

We may also assert that driven by his desire to honour them, he cooked or
marinated the meat in sour milk or yoghurt as the lactic acid in fermented
dairy products, such as yogurt and buttermilk, unlike citric acids which
are prone to toughen meat, break the meat proteins softening the meat as
well as increase its water content.

According to our traditions, Avraham Avinu maintained all the laws of the
Torah and also all the Rabbinic enactments. Rashi, Genesis 26:5; Yevamos
21. Accordingly, Our Sages explain why Avraham did not offer the bread
[Rashi, Genesis 18:8; BMetzia 87] specially prepared for his guests; Sara
had miraculously rejuvenated and experienced “the ways of women”. She
became ritually unclean and thereby made the bread she was preparing for
the guests also unclean. Although neither Torah Law nor Rabbinic Law or
Tradition prohibits eating this bread, it is no more than a stringency
adopted by the very pious, nevertheless Avraham Avinu would not serve it to
his non Jewish guests - if Avraham Avinu would not eat it himself, he would
not serve it to others.

This explains why Avraham Avinu did not employ an alternative option. Torah
law does not prohibit cooking deer and giraffe [known as Chaya] with dairy.
Neither does the Torah prohibit cooking beef with milk of a deer or a
giraffe. Our Sages however, prohibited this, and as we explained, Avraham
Avinu was particular to keep even the strictures of the Sages.

Generations later, when Moshe Rabbenu ascended Mount Sinai to take the
Torah and bring it to The Nation, the angels gathered, protested, and
succeeded in preventing Moshe Rabbenu from delivering the Torah to The
Nation. However, emboldened by HKBH directing him to respond to the angels,
he quashed their objection by declaring that they had eaten meat cooked
with milk served to them by Avraham Avinu. That memory silenced the angels
and was the instrument through which we merited to receive HKBH's Torah.
And this, explains HaRav Moshe Sternbuch, is another reason why we eat
dairy during Shavuos.

There are 3 issues that require clarification:

Even if the angels sinned by eating flesh cooked with milk [seemingly the
plain meaning] how does that silence their protest?

Furthermore, it is not possible because:

Avraham Avinu obeyed all Mitzvos of the Torah, he did not cook meat with
milk.  [Rashi Bereishis 26:5, Yuma 28b] Whether this is to be taken
literally or only symbolically is not germane to our point and discussion -
the Halachic considerations that underpin this interpretation must conform
with Halachah.

Even if it was cooked inadvertently, he would not have offered it to the
visitors since no benefit may be derived from it.

Reb Meir Simcha of Dvinsk, in Meshech Chochmah, resolves all these problems
- the calves were not ordinary calves but Ben PeKuAh calves which may be
cooked with milk. The angels’ protests were silenced not because they had
transgressed a Halacha but because they were confident that they had NOT
transgressed the Law.

The episode and conversation would probably have gone something like this.
Avraham Avinu after welcoming them, arranges for them to wash and refresh
themselves and begs them, "Please make yourselves comfortable here in the
shade, I will soon be bringing you some delicious food. I have a special
surprise for you, we are preparing Tender Spring Calf marinated in yoghurt."

The visitors said, "Without meaning to be rude, sir, but we have special
diet restrictions. We only eat Kosher" Avraham Avinu says, "No problem, so
do I. We also only eat Kosher."

"But," they spluttered, "how can you then be serving meat cooked with
dairy? That is not Kosher."

"Ahhh, but this is not ordinary meat this is Ben PeKuAh."

"Well, in that case," they nodded their heads in eagerness, "we'll be
delighted to enjoy your hospitality."

Ben PeKuAh is the foetus found within a Kosher slaughtered cow sheep or
goat and as just noted it has some very special qualities.

Now here is the problem, or the solution, depending on which perspective
one takes. Only those who are Jewish can perform Kosher slaughter Shechita.
A perfectly executed cut performed by a non-J is not a Kosher slaughter.
The foetus found within such an animal cannot be a Ben PeKuAh. So, if the
angels suspected or were certain that Avraham was not Jewish, they could
not have accepted his hospitality. However, they did accept his hospitality
and they did eat the Tender Spring Calf marinated in yoghurt. So, they must
have accepted that Avraham Avinu was Jewish. In that case, Moshe Rabbenu
silences the angels protests quite simply, they have already conceded that
the Torah belongs to Avraham and his children.
And that was the winning argument put by Mosher Rabbenu.
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