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Why must we wait six hours between eating meat and dairy, but not vice versa?

  

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Rabbi Isser Weisberg: Welcome. I'll be with you in a moment...what's on your mind?

Rikkie: We cannot eat meat and dairy together

Rikkie: right?

Rabbi Isser Weisberg: right

Rikkie: Then why is it that if I eat dairy I can eat meat directly after it [Ed. note: as long as the person rinses his mouth and washes his hands between the two1 . It is, however customary to wait at least one half hour -- others wait a full hour -- after eating dairy before consuming a meat dish2 ]. but if I eat meat I cannot eat dairy after it [for six hours]3 .

Rabbi Isser Weisberg: because meat lingers on much longer in the mouth... the taste lasts longer

Rabbi Isser Weisberg: and also it gets stuck in the teeth4

Rikkie: But hard cheese also has a taste which lingers

Rabbi Isser Weisberg: hard aged cheeses also requirs a 6 hour wait5

Rikkie: Toda rabbi

Rabbi Isser Weisberg: be well

Rikkie: shalom

All names, places, and identifying information have been changed or deleted in order to protect the privacy of the questioners. In order to preserve authenticity, the chat sessions have been posted with a minimum of editing. Please excuse typographical errors, missing punctuation, and/or grammatical mistakes which naturally occur in the course of informal chat sessions.

Footnotes

  • 1. Shulchan Aruch Yoreh Deiah 89:2
  • 2. Zohar Mishpatim page 125 mentions that meat and dairy should not be eaten within the same meal and/or the same hour.
  • 3. Shulchan Aruch Yoreh Deiah 89:1
  • 4. See Taz 1 on Yoreh Deiah 89:1 who brings down both the opinion of Rashi (lingering taste) and the opinion of Rambam (stuck between the teeth), and says we are concerned about both of these factors.
  • 5. Rama Yoreh Deiah 89:2 and Taz 4 there

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