What’s the Truth about . . . Waiting Between Meat and Dairy?
Misconception: The reason for waiting between eating meat and eating dairy is to allow the meat to be digested before eating dairy. Over the years, differing views regarding the digestive process led to the development of various waiting periods ranging from one to six hours.
Fact: There are two principal reasons suggested for the required interval, neither relating to digestion. The one-hour and six-hour customs, the main practices, stem from two divergent views of how to understand the primary Talmudic source mandating a wait.
Background: One of the hallmarks of a kosher kitchen and kosher diet is the absolute separation of meat and dairy,1 which includes a mandatory waiting period between eating meat and the subsequent consumption of milk or dairy products.
Despite the outsized role that separation of milk and meat plays in kashrut observance, the only mention of it in the Torah are the three half-sentences (Shemot 23:19; Shemot 34:26; Devarim 14:21) where the Torah adjures: “Lo tevashel gedi bachalev imo—Do not cook a kid in its mother’s milk.”2 From the triple repetition, the Gemara (Chullin 115b) derives3 that there are three prohibitions—not only is cooking (the literal meaning of the words) meat and milk together prohibited, but so is eating or benefiting from a cooked mixture. Biblically, the prohibition applies only to kosher “domesticated” (beheimah) animals (Shulchan Aruch, YD 87:3).
To safeguard against this prohibition, various rabbinic enactments were promulgated.4 These include not eating uncooked meat and milk together; diners eating meat and those eating dairy not dining at the same table (YD 88:2); and not kneading dough with milk lest one accidentally eat the dairy bread with meat (YD 97:1).5 Another decree is the requirement that after eating any meat, one must wait before eating or drinking dairy products (Rambam, Ma’achalot Assurot 9:28; Shulchan Aruch, YD 89:1).
The Gemara records (Chullin 105a): “Rav Chisda said: If one ate meat, he may not [immediately] eat dairy, but one who ate dairy may eat meat [afterward].”6 The Gemara then quotes Mar Ukva as saying that in this regard he is like “vinegar, the son of wine” compared to his father because his father, after eating meat, would not eat cheese for twenty-four hours, while he, Mar Ukva, would not eat dairy in the same meal but would wait “l’seudata achrita—for a different meal.”7
The obligation to wait between meat and dairy derives from this unchallenged statement of Mar Ukva. But there are two open questions: 1. the Gemara did not give the reason for the wait, and 2. Mar Ukva’s statement regarding the length of the wait time is unclear.
Why the Wait
The Rishonim offer two basic reasons for the waiting period.8 According to Rashi (Chullin 105a, s.v. assur), after eating meat there is residual fat that adheres to the palate and back of the throat that continues to exude meat taste for some time. If one were to eat dairy during this time, this “taste” would cause it to be like eating meat and milk together. According to this theory, after the required waiting period, this residue has dissipated. Rambam (Ma’achalot Assurot 9:28) explains that the waiting is due to the possibility of actual pieces of meat being stuck between the teeth, but he says that if they remain after the required waiting period, they are considered inconsequential.9
These two different explanations carry practical implications (see, e.g., Tur, YD 89). These include chewing meat for a baby but not swallowing it (Rambam: need to wait; Rashi: no need) and finding meat between the teeth after the waiting period (Rambam: no problem; Rashi: problem). The current practice is to accept both positions (Shulchan Aruch, YD 89:1) and thus wait in both those cases and remove any found pieces.10 Peri Megadim (Mishbetzot Zahav 89:1) explains that this is not a contradiction, as both reasons can be true. He further says that if one chewed pareve food that absorbed fleishig taste but had no actual meat (e.g., potato from cholent), neither reason applies, but nonetheless the custom is to wait.11 Aruch HaShulchan (YD 89:14) says that after merely tasting (without chewing) a fleishig dish (e.g., chicken soup), it is not necessary to wait six hours; although, it is required to clean out one’s mouth by eating a piece of food (e.g., crackers) and taking a drink.
After eating pareve food cooked in a meat pot (with no meat), there is no need to wait (Rema, YD 89:3), nor must one wait after eating real meat in order to eat pareve food cooked in a milk pot (Shu”t Tuv Ta’am Voda’at 3:183).12
How Long the Wait
Mar Ukva’s statement mandated a wait “between meals,” but what exactly that cryptic phrase means is unclear. Tosafot (Chullin 105a, s.v. l’seudata) understood it to mean simply one cannot consume meat and dairy in the same meal, but there’s no specific waiting time. As long as one clears the table and ends the meat meal by bentching, dairy may be eaten in the ensuing meal. This understanding—that another meal simply means another meal with no waiting—is shared by the Mordechai (Chullin 105a) and Hagahot Maimoniyot in the name of the Ravyah.
Rambam (Ma’achalot Assurot 9:28) understood that Mar Ukva was saying that one must wait the typical time between meals, which Rambam defines as “kemo sheish sha’ot—approximately six hours.”13 The Meiri on Chullin (105a) says the waiting period is “no less than the time between meals, which is six hours or close to it,” while in Magen Avot (9; p. 58 in 5718 ed.) the Meiri says that one must wait “six hours or five, the time between meals.” The Rif, the Rosh (Chullin 105a), the Rashba (ibid.), and the Ba’al HaIttur all understand Mar Ukva’s statement to be referring to the standard interval between meals.
The Shulchan Aruch (YD 89:1) follows the opinion that requires a six-hour wait. The Rema (YD 89:1) cites the opinion of Tosafot that there is no need to wait, and dairy may be eaten as soon as the table is cleared, the meal ended by bentching, and one’s mouth is rinsed and cleaned. The Rema then adds that the custom is to be machmir and also wait an hour. This is the practice to this day among Ashkenazic Dutch Jews.14 It is important to note that the Rema did not end with that ruling but rather concludes that some are meticulous to wait six hours, which, he says, is the proper thing to do.
One and six hours are the only options mentioned by the Shulchan Aruch and the Rema. Over the generations, other customs have emerged. German Jews (Yekkes) have a custom of waiting three hours. This practice does not align with either basic interpretation of Mar Ukva’s statement. There is no early clear source for this practice,15 and many of the great rabbis who served in Germany advised keeping six hours. For example, Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (Chorev, chap. 68) wrote: “six hours is recommended.”16 A suggested origin is that they understood Mar Ukva like Rambam, but unlike Peri Megadim (MZ 89:1) who says that six hours means a quarter of the day,17 they understood it as six sha’ot zemaniot, seasonally adjusted hours (Peri Chadash cited in Pitchei Teshuvah 89 and Badei HaShulchan 89:6). In the winter, the six seasonally adjusted hours (the time between meals) is shorter, and they applied that same shorter span even in the summer.18 Alternatively, they may have held like Tosafot with no requirement for any specific interval but waited three hours as a chumrah.
Another practice is to wait somewhat less than six hours, either “into the sixth hour” or five and a half hours. It is not clear when this custom developed, but it is attributed to the language used by Rambam and the Meiri. Of course, it’s worth noting that those sources were written well before precise timekeeping was the norm. Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach is quoted (Moriah, Tevet 5756, p. 79) as saying that the proper custom is six full hours. Nevertheless, he says, those who wait “into the sixth hour” can justify this practice based on the wording of the Rambam, giving it a halachic basis. Rabbi Ovadia Yosef (Yabia Omer 1, YD 4:13) wrote similarly about waiting “into the sixth hour.”19
The prevailing view is that six full hours is the proper custom.20 Rabbi Menashe Klein (Mishneh Halachot 16:9) writes that a person should adopt the six-hour practice even if his family custom is to wait only three—it is not considered a rejection of the community’s tradition. Mishneh Halachot (5:97:3) also rejects waiting “into the sixth hour” and requires a full six hours. Avnei Yashfeh (5:101:4) is equally explicit: anything less than six full hours is unacceptable. He notes that, despite rumors that Rabbi Aharon Kotler permitted five and a half hours, the tradition is clear, and Rabbi Shmuel Wosner concurs that one should observe the full six hours.
Many classic sources are unequivocal about waiting six full hours. The Maharshal (Yam Shel Shlomo, Chullin, chap. 8:9; quoted in Shach 89:8 and Taz, YD 89:2) uses strong language when he says that anyone with a “rei’ach (scent) of Torah” should wait six hours after meat or fowl. The Peri Megadim (Siftei Da’at 89:8) writes that the halachah is six hours and one should not be “poretz geder—break the fence.” Me’am Loez (Shemot 23:19) writes: “after eating meat, one must wait at least six full hours before eating dairy . . . the period of six hours is the same both in the summer when the days are long and in the winter when the days are short.” Similarly, the Aruch HaShulchan (YD 89:7) notes that the universal custom is to wait six hours, and “chalilah to deviate from it.” The Ohr HaChaim (Peri To’ar 89:5) adds that one may not rely on any leniency to shorten the time, since the majority of early and later authorities require the full six hours.
Who Must Wait?
The required wait is a rabbinic decree, and authorities were therefore willing to grant dispensations. Thus, if even a mildly sick person is in need of milk for medical reasons, Chochmat Adam (40:13) and Aruch HaShulchan (YD 89:7) are lenient down to an hour, and Shevet HaLevi (2:32), based on the Chatam Sofer, rules similarly, as does Rabbi Ovadia Yosef (Yechaveh Da’at 4:41).
Regarding children, Be’er Moshe (8:36) writes that until age three there is no need to wait at all (although the child’s mouth should not have meat in it at the time he is given dairy). After age three, the child should slowly be trained to wait, depending on his age and needs. Teshuvot V’Hanhagot (1:435) advises beginning training as soon as the child is able to understand, so that by age five or six he is waiting three hours, and by age nine or ten he is waiting the full six hours. Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky (Emet L’Yaakov, YD 89, n. 36) held that it is unnecessary for a child under six to wait, and that pregnant and nursing women who have a need may wait only one hour. Rabbi Ovadia Yosef (Yabia Omer 3, YD 3:7) clarifies that this leniency applies only to necessary food, not to items such as chocolate.
Digestion Anyway
Despite the lack of discussion about digestion in the classical sources, there are those who believe that waiting between meat and milk is related to digestion. My family has a tradition that my great-grandmother, Chava Silverman, decided in her old age that her digestive system had slowed down and waiting six hours was insufficient and so she began waiting twenty-four hours.21 She was born in Slonim, in Western Belarus, and moved to the US after she was married in the 1920s and was likely unaware of Mar Ukva’s statement (Chullin 105a) regarding his father waiting twenty-four hours between meat and milk. She simply felt it was the proper thing to do and thus adopted it.
In the classical sources about waiting between meat and milk, there is no indication that the waiting time is connected to digestion. The misconception may stem from the frequent use of the word for digestion, ikul, in these discussions—not in the sense of food being digested, but rather in reference to the meat in the mouth breaking down. For example, Chochmat Adam (40:12), when explaining Rashi’s reason, writes that the meat continues to exude taste until the end of the waiting period, at which point it disintegrates. The term used for this disintegration is ikul.
Digestion is discussed in connection with a different halachah—the latest time for reciting Birkat Hamazon (Shulchan Aruch, OC 184:5)—where it is equated with the period during which one remains fully satiated. Kaf HaChaim (OC 184:28) cites doctors who give the average time for digestion as six hours, while other sources provide different figures.
A few later sources did introduce digestion into the meat/milk discussion. For example, Rabbi Yonatan Eybeschutz (Peleiti 89:3) connects the waiting time between meat and milk to the digestion times mentioned in the Birkat Hamazon discussion. Some then took this further, arguing that since the wait is tied to digestion—and sleep speeds digestion (so they thought)—sleep could shorten the required wait (see, e.g., Rabbi Avraham Pietrokovski, Piskei Teshuvah 3:285). This view is strongly rejected by most authorities (see, e.g., Shu”t Beit Avi 3, YD 108; Teshuvot V’Hanhagot 1:431).
In the twenty-first century, most of the actions that ensure the food we eat is kosher happen without the consumer’s conscious awareness. Whether it’s checking that an animal is not a treifah, salting meat to remove blood, lighting a fire so food is not bishul akum, or separating terumot and ma’asrot, the consumer neither performs these actions nor usually knows who did them or when. One of the few areas of kashrut that the consumer is keenly aware of is the careful separation of meat and dairy, including the six-hour wait between eating meat and then dairy. This attention to products, dishes, food preparation, and timing creates an opportunity to reflect on all the other aspects of kashrut—and on the fact that, as Jews, we subordinate even our most basic needs, such as eating, to the will of the Creator.
Notes
1. This separation has long been a distinguishing feature. For many centuries, Karaites were referred to by Rabbinates (rabbinic leadership at the time) as “eaters of meat and milk” because they rejected the rabbinic interpretation of this Biblical rule. See Marina Rustow, Heresy and the Politics of Community: The Jews of the Fatimid Caliphate (New York, 2008), chap. 8.
2. The manner in which the Torah expresses these prohibitions is unusual. SeeChatam Sofer to Chullin 108b for possible explanations of what can be derived from the specific language.
3. The Ba’al HaTurim(Devarim 14:21) finds a numerical hint for this derashah: the gematrias of “lo tevashel—do not cook” (763) and “issur achilah u’bishul v’hana’ah—prohibition of eating and cooking and benefiting” (764) are equal (to within 1).
4. The Ran (Chullin 32b in Rif pages; cf. Chochmat Adam 40:11) suggests that Chazal enacted stringencies regarding the prohibition of meat and milk, because each is independently permitted and therefore people do not instinctively recoil from them. This is similar to the stringencies regarding chametz on Pesach, since it is permitted the rest of the year.
5. There are specific exceptions to this rule.
6. After eating dairy there is no waiting requirement, but there is a need to dokinuach, “taste removal,” accomplished by eating a solid bland food such as bread or a cracker; rechitzah, washing (the hands); and hadachah, rinsing (of the mouth) with a liquid such as water or wine (YD 89:2). Rema (89:2) adds a requirement to wait a period of time after eating cheese, or specifically “hard” (aged) cheese.
7. An important lesson can be derived from Mar Ukva’s statement and behavior. While he viewed his father’s practice as laudatory, he did not adopt it. Why?Mesillat Yesharim (chap. 14, B’chelkei Haprishut) and Eglei Tal (Rabbi Yehoshua Yosef Preil, 5659, ma’amar 1, 13a) explain that a chumrah may not be right for everyone. Rather, only one on a certain level should adopt specific practices. Mar Ukva, knowing himself, understood that unlike his father, in this regard, it was more appropriate for him to follow the basic halachah.
The Meiri (Shabbat 56a) notes that in general a child should follow his father’s pious practices (cf. Pesachim 50b with commentaries; Chavot Yair 126; Pitchei Teshuvah, YD 214:5). Similarly, Rabbi David Friedman of Karlin, in the first footnote to his Kuntres HaMinhagim in Shu”t She’eilot David, points out that generally a custom adopted by someone obligates his children. Mar Ukva’s father must have accepted this as a personal stringency that was not intended to be binding on his son (cf. Chayei Adam 27:11 and Iggerot Moshe 3, OC 64).
Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky used this gemara to explain a custom not to eat dairy on Friday (Making of a Godol, p. 135; see footnotes there for other explanations).
8. See summaries inTur, YD 89; Taz 89:1; Shach 89:2; and Badei HaShulchan 89:1.
9. According to Rashi, pieces of meat found in the teeth after six hours are still of significance. Thus, such pieces must be removed, although no additional waiting is required (Rema, YD 89:1; Aruch Hashulchan, YD 89:5; Shach, YD 89:2).
10. See also Kaf HaChaim, YD 89:4, and Rabbi Akiva Eiger, YD 89, s.v. achar.
11. Rabbi Moshe Feinstein (Iggerot Moshe, YD 2:26) says that since after swallowing fleishig vitamins neither reason applies and it is not a usual way to eat, there is no need to wait.
12. After eating pareve food cooked together with meat, according to the Shulchan Aruch (YD 89:3) there is no need to wait, but while the Rema agrees in principle, he says the proper thing to do is to follow the custom and wait.
13. Two (not three) daily mealswasthe norm—see, e.g., Pe’ah 8:7 and Sukkah 2:6. The Gra (Shulchan Aruch, YD 89:2) points to Shabbat 10a as a source that six hours was the standard interval between meals in the Talmudic period.
14. Dutch Rabbi Raphael Evers (Shu”t V’Shav V’Rafa 3:114) justifies the practice but notes that Dutch rabbinic families waited six hours.
15. The one source often cited is Issur V’Heter (39; p. 3b in 1882 ed.) attributed to the fourteenth-century Rabbeinu Yerucham. The problem is that Rabbeinu Yerucham in his classic Toldot Adam V’Chavah (Netiv 15) writes six hours. Rabbi Asher Weiss (Shu”t Minchat Asher 1:42:2) notes the contradiction and observes that this statement in Issur V’Heter is not cited by subsequent posekim. He thinks it is a printing error.
16. Despite the tenuous origins of this practice, it is reported (Shorshei Minhag Ashkenaz, vol. 1, introduction, n. 8) that Rabbi Elazar Shach told someone to maintain his three-hour family custom and not switch to six hours.
17. A logical assumption, given that the issue relates to the time it takes the food in the mouth to halachically decay, a process that seemingly would not vary seasonally.
18. This suggestion is mentioned by Darkei Teshuvah, YD 89:6, in the name of eighteenth-century Italian Rabbi David Pardo (Mizmor L’David, Hilchot Basar V’Chalav, p. 61a) who concludes “v’yesh lahem ketzat al mah lismoch” (note that he says “ketzat”). For a detailed explanation of the three-hour custom, see Rabbi Yosef Yisrael Grossman (Mesorah [published by the OU] 8, Nissan 5753, pp. 75–77; and 14, Tishrei 5758, pp. 84–86), who builds his case based on the shortest day in Kafri, near Baghdad, where Mar Ukva lived, and on the Talmudic evidence of the eating habits of talmidei chachamim.
19. Nishmat Avraham,YD 89:1, n. 1, says that Rabbi Chaim Brisker deduced from Rambam that one need only wait “into the fifth hour.”
20. Aruch HaShulchan, YD 89:4, says there must be six hours from the end of the meat meal until the start of the dairy meal, not between the meat and dairy. Others disagree and count from the cessation of eating meat, even if the meal is extended (Rivevot Ephraim 5:513 and Badei HaShulchan 89:1, p. 50, Bi’urim, s.v. she’yishaheh). The latter is the accepted practice.
21. Forvarious reasons, there are those who adopted the practice of Mar Ukva’s father. Shu”t Mekadesh Yisrael (Rabbi Y.D. Harfenes; Chag HaShavuot, 84 [p. 377 in 5782 ed.]) reports that Rabbi Simcha Bunim of Otwock waited a full twenty-four hours between meat and dairy. Darkei Teshuvah (YD 89:1:6) rules that just as the basic halachah requires a full six hours, those who practice like Mar Ukva’s father must wait the full twenty-four hours.
Rabbi Dr. Ari Z. Zivotofsky is a professor of neuroscience at Bar-Ilan University in Israel.