proclaiming the gospel to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Shalom and welcome to the Everlasting Nation, a radio ministry of International Board of Jewish Missions. This is Mark Oshman with the International Board of Jewish Missions, bringing you another broadcast about Jewish life. We've been looking at various aspects of Jewish dietary laws. Observant Jews will not eat milk and meat dishes at the same meal. They base their practice on this verse, quote, thou shalt not see the kid in his mother's milk, unquote. That prohibition appeared three times within the first five books of the Bible, in Exodus chapter 23, Exodus chapter 34, and Deuteronomy chapter 14. Jewish law categorizes food into one of three categories, dairy, such as milk or cheese, meat, such as beef, and parva, such as fish or vegetables. These definitions extend to other consumable byproducts as well. For instance, Jewish law classifies animal fat as a meat product. Orthodox Jews believe that at Mount Sinai, God gave Moses an unwritten legal code known as the Aura Law. These sets of regulations for the observant Jew have the same weight of authority as the written law which Moses received at that time. According to Aura Law, a Jew could not consume meat products and milk products at the same meal. Later Jewish writers enjoined the consumption of poultry and milk together. However, no injunction existed against combining parva or neutral foods with milk or meat products. Indeed, one of the well-known Jewish dietary staples is bagels covered with cream cheese and lox or smoked salmon. The rabbinical contributors to the Talmud gave no reason for prohibiting the consumption of meat and milk dishes together. Moses Maimonides, a medieval Jewish commentator, opined that this regulation related to an attempt to combat idolatry. An archaeological excavation in Ugarit, an ancient Middle Eastern culture, might support Maimonides' claim. A text found in the ruins of that area revealed the existence of a Canaanite ritual that involved boiling a young goat in its mother's milk. Perhaps the trifle prohibition against that practice reflected the prevalence of the Canaanite religious practice at that time. A period of time must elapse between eating dairy products and meat products. When an observant Jew eats beef, for example, he must wait between three to six hours before he can have any dairy product. If he consumes a dairy product first, however, he need only to rinse his mouth, wait for approximately half an hour, and eat something regarded as parva, or neutral, something such as bread, before he can eat some meat product. Furthermore, some rabbis have argued that young children and nursing mothers need not abide by such restrictions. The difference between consuming meat products and milk products together also extended to pots and pans, as well as to eating utensils. Thus, a Jewish family who observes this law might have at least two separate sets of plates, pots, spoons, forks, and knives. Other households might choose to wait for a 24-hour period before cooking meat in a pot previously used to prepare dairy products, and vice versa. Classifying products into milk, meat, and parva helps the observant Jew retain a degree of ceremonial purity in his diet. These laws are still observed amongst observant Jews today because of their origins, both in the Bible and in rabbinical commentary. You've been listening to The Everlasting Nation, a ministry of International Board of Jewish Missions. For more information, you can contact us at 423-876-8150 or go online to ibjm.org. Until next time, may God bless and shalom.