Chullin 116: Cooking Fowl in Milk, Tolerance for Different Interpretations

In Chullin 114, we learn that we may not eat meat cooked in milk, we may not benefit from it, nor may we do that cooking.  Some rabbis believe that this is because of the three times that eating meat cooked in milk is prohibited in the Torah.  This is contrasted with other prohibitions where benefiting from the prohibited action after the fact is allowed: cooking on Shabbat, plowing with an ox and donkey together, planting diverse kinds, slaughtering a mother and its offspring on the same day, and failing to remove a mother bird from her nest before taking her eggs.  These are all justified with prooftexts.

The Mishna discusses which types of meat may be cooked with milk.  For example, Rabbi Akiva focuses on the "kid" in the prohibition and does not include fowl nor wild animals in the prohibition.  Rabbi Yosei HaGelili says that birds are excluded from the prohibition because fowl cannot be cooked in mothers milk that does not exist.  The Gemara suggests two interpretations.  Perhaps Rabbi Yosei HaGelili believes that wild animals are Biblically prohibited while Rabbi Akiva believes the prohibitions are rabbinical.  Second, perhaps Rabbi Akiva believes that wild animals and fowl are prohibited by the Sages, but that Rabbi Yosei HaGelili believes that fowl can be cooked with milk with no restrictions.

The Gemara related the story of Levi who was served a peacock's head cooked in milk by Joseph the bird hunter in Rabbi Yosei HaGelili's community. Levi said nothing.  Rabbi asked why Levi did not excommunicate them.  Levi responded that this was the place of Rabbi Yehuda ben Baraita who must have taught Rabbi Yosei HaGelili's ruling, even though that ruling was not generally accepted.

The Rivash shares that as strong as Levi and Rabbi's ruling was regarding cooking fowl in milk, they recognized two things:

• the community would likely continue their tradition, and
• the community may have been following a valid, but rejected position, and thus they should not be punished.

Steinsaltz notes that this is a critical lesson for today's Jewish communities, where so many different traditions have evolved over time in different communities.  There is no need to reject, rebuke or otherwise distance ourselves from each other based on different halachic interpretations.