Separating Meat And Dairy

Q

I have a question about Deuteronomy 14: 21. The last sentence says “You must not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk”. It’s a little random there at the end like that. Does this mean something else, or is it literal?

A

It sounds like an insignificant thing to us, almost as if the last sentence was placed there as an afterthought. But to the Jewish people this verse is very important, and is the basis for the separation of all meat and dairy in their diet, not just a young goat and it’s own mother’s milk. Some carry this to the extent of having two refrigerators for separate storage, and two sets of cooking and eating utensils to avoid any possibility of mixing the two.