If one
inadvertently spilled milk over a piece of meat cooking in a pot, we need to
establish the exact positioning of the meat before we can proceed:
1)
SUBMERGED;
If
the meat is submerged within the liquid in which it is cooking (even thought
the upper surface of the meat is exposed), we can consider EVERYTHING in the
pot to be a single entity to make up the SHISHIM (60) to nullify the effect of
the milk. This is because the heat from the cooking process causes the milk to
spread evenly throughout all the contents of the pot.[1]
The fact that the meat is submerged makes it an intrinsic part of the rest of
the pot.
2)
EXPOSED;
However,
if the piece of meat is exposed and is situated above the waterline of the pot
(say it is resting on top of another piece of meat that is half in and half out
of the cooking liquid), and as soon as the milk spills, one immediately and
actively pushes that piece of meat under the waterline (and keeps it submerged
for a while) – the same abovementioned law would apply and ALL the contents of
the pot would be considered one entity to make up the SHISHIM (60).
Another
solution that would achieve a similar result, would be to immediately place the
lid onto the pot. This would cause the entire pot to become a single closed
system, and thereby spread the milk evenly throughout (even though the meat
onto which the milk spilled is still
‘exposed’).
If
one did not think fast enough and immediately push the meat down or close the
lid, the spilled milk would remain ‘isolated’ within the exposed piece of meat,
and we would not be able to rely on the SHISHIM (60) principle[2].
The reason being that the exposed meat remains ‘detached’, and cannot merge
with the rest of the contents of the pot to create SHISHIM (60) to nullify the
milk. It therefore becomes a forbidden
entity of Basar BeChalav.
The
question now remains as what effect this exposed piece of meat has on the rest
of the pot.
Here
we have divided opinion:
1)
VIEW OF THE SHACH:
If
the meat in question is lean and non-fatty, then all the adjoining pieces of
meat it makes contact with, become forbidden up to KDEI NETILAH (2cm or ¾
inch). This means that we would have to remove 2cm or ¾ inch from the
supporting pieces of meat, and the rest of the contents are permissible.
The
reason for this is that lean meat cannot spread TA’AM (taste) up to more than KDEI
NETILAH (2cm or ¾ inch) into a neighbouring piece of meat.
If
the meat in question, however, is fatty, then the only remedy is to find
SHISHIM (60) in the rest of the pot. The reason for this is that fatty meat
does spread TA’AM (taste) throughout the entire contents of the pot.
2)
VIEW OF TAZ (AND MOST OTHER
POSKIM):
It
makes no difference whether the exposed meat is fatty or lean, it simply has to
be removed
from the pot, and everything else remaining is permissible.
The
reason is a fascinating one: If milk (which itself is considered ‘lean’) falls
onto a piece of meat, it remains ‘trapped’ within the meat and cannot be
transferred without ROTEV (liquid or gravy). Thus if it remains ‘dry’, as it
would be in this exposed piece of meat, it would never leave the meat to affect
the rest of the pot.
The
only TAAM (taste) that would transfer from this ‘dry’ piece of meat would be
the taste of the meat itself (as there still is much heat from the cooking
process). But that taste of meat, although emanating from a forbidden entity of
BASAR BeCHALAV, is still only considered to be a pure and singular taste of
meat alone.
This
is an amazing example of tastes ‘splitting up’ and reverting to independent states.
All because of the principle that milk (which is considered lean), cannot leave
the meat into which it became absorbed, without ROTEV (liquid).
This
can be compared to a garment of SHA’ATNEZ (a forbidden mixture of wool and
linen), where although it is a forbidden entity (like BASAR BeCHALAV), were the
threads of wool and linen to separate, each thread would revert back to its
original permissible state. (In a similar vein, the taste of meat, once
separated from the milk, reverts back to its original permissible state.)
Of
course the SHACH would disagree with this analysis, suggesting a different fundamental
understanding of the technical entity of BASAR BeCHALAV: It is not a MIXTURE of
milk and meat (that were the two to become separated as in our example, they would
revert back to their original permissible states), but rather it is a NEW ENTITY
of forbidden substance (and accordingly, the tastes can never be separated back
to permissible states).
In any
event, were our forbidden piece of exposed meat, to fall back into the pot, all
would agree that we would need SHISHIM (60) in the pot to nullify it.
[Daf 37, 38, 39
40, Seif 1-8]
[1] At
first glance, this may not seem to be beneficial, having milk spreading
throughout the meat contents. But it actually is, because now we can apply the
SHISHIM principle; that milk can be nullified by the meat, provided there is 60
times more meat against the volume of the milk.
[2]
Unless, of course, the exposed meat itself is large enough to be 60 times more
the volume of the milk, in which case it would nullify the spilled milk.
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