OU KASHRUT RABBI EZRA FRIEDMAN PAGE BY Director, The Gustave & Carol Jacobs Center for Kashrut Education
Waiting After Hard Cheese Part 1
T
he average Jew is familiar with the halacha of waiting a period of time following the consumption of meat before eating dairy products. Less wellknown are cases where one must wait after consuming dairy before eating meat. The Talmud (Chulin 105a) explicitly states that meat may be consumed following dairy as long as one rinses his mouth in between. Based on this gemara, early authorities conclude that there is no obligation to wait a length of time between drinking a cup of milk and consuming meat (beef or chicken). Why would the order of eating change the need for waiting? The Rashba (Torat Habayit Ha’aroch 3:4) explains, based on the two following principle reasons, why we wait between meat and milk. One reason is that meat is hard, and generally gets stuck in one’s teeth for up to six hours. The other reason is because the flavor of meat is so strong that a meat “flavor” remains in one’s throat or pharynx for up to six hours. The Rashba 30
TORAH TIDBITS / TAZRIA METZORA 5780
claims that neither of these reasons relate to milk products, as the flavor is not strong and dairy products don’t normally get stuck in one’s teeth. However, Ashkenazi authorities mention that these two reasons exist when one eats hard cheese. The Maharam of Rothenburg (Responsa 6:15) recounts how once when he had eaten cheese, he later found the cheese stuck in his teeth, and from that moment on he made an oath that he would wait between cheese and meat as done between meat and milk. He explains that even though there is a prohibition to add on to rabbinic decrees in the area of meat and milk, one is allowed to be more stringent than the letter of the law because in the Talmud itself we find scholars who added stringencies for themselves. The Darkei Moshe (YD 89:2), as well as other authorities, explain that the Maharam had been eating hard cheese and not regular cheese. The Issur V’heter concludes that one should not eat meat after hard cheese based on the second reason: since hard cheese has a very potent and strong flavor, the taste remains for a number of hours. Both the Maharam and Issur V’heter acknowledge that the practice to wait is a stringency. Regardless, they claim that
