Comp. Mishnah, Treatise Chullin, iii. 6.—The characteristics of the clean and the unclean cattle and beasts are given in the Pentateuch, but the characteristics of the clean or the unclean birds are not mentioned in the Law. Our Sages, however, declared every bird of prey—or every bird that seizes its food with its claws, and lifts it up from the ground before eating it (Rashi) to be an unclean bird; while all birds are clean that have a projecting claw (אצבע יתרה a claw longer than the rest) and a crop (זפק), and whose stomach has a membrane that can easily be peeled off (קרקבנו נקלף). Another rule is this: Birds that dwell and associate with unclean birds are unclean. “Not without reason does the starling go to the raven: they are of the same species” (Babyl. Talm., Chullin 65b). The sentence serves also as a moral lesson (ibid., Baba Kama 92a). At present, however, only those birds are killed for food which are known traditionally to have always been considered as “clean birds” (Maimonides, Mishneh-torah, Hilchoth maachaloth asuroth, i. 14–20; Tur Joredeah, chap. lxxxii.).
6. On Page 461—7.
Onkelos translates this commandment: לא תיכול בשר בחלב “Thou shalt not eat meat in milk,” in accordance with the Oral Law. The threefold repetition of the commandment forbidding [[466]]the seething of a kid in its mother’s milk is explained traditionally to indicate a threefold prohibition: that of boiling meat and milk together, that of eating such mixture, and that of deriving any benefit whatever from it (ואיסור, איסור אכילה, איסור בישול הנאה). In obedience to the principle, “Make a fence round the Law,” we abstain from milk or butter for some time after having partaken of meat.
7. On Page 461—4.
The honey of bees is an apparent exception from the rule that the products of the unclean animals are forbidden. The honey mentioned in the Bible is mostly the juice of fruit, especially of dates; but the honey of bees is also mentioned (Judges xiv. 8). It is assumed that honey does not contain any part of the bee itself, but is merely the juice of the flowers sucked and again discharged by the bees. (See Babyl. Talm., Bechoroth 7b; Maim., Mishneh-torah, Hil. maachaloth asuroth iii. 3.)
Note 8.
In addition to the things enumerated in this chapter as forbidden, there is the prohibition of “wine of libation” (יין נסך). Everything used in the worship of idols was condemned, and could not serve as food, drink, or any purpose; it was אסור בהנאה. Wine was frequently used by heathens in libations to their idols. The wine of a heathen was therefore always suspected of having been employed in idolatrous libations, and was consequently forbidden as יין נסך. Since, however, such libations have ceased this prohibition has also lapsed.
It has, however, not lapsed in its entirety. It is only the אסור הנאה that is no longer in force. The prohibition of using wine prepared by non-Jews (סתם יין) as a beverage still continues. This and similar prohibitions were intended as a barrier against the increase of mixed marriages among the Jews. (Comp. Babyl. Talm., Shabbath 17b.) [[467]]