Infinite Wisdom
The Yated has an article this week on the subject of meat and fish. The opening reads:
The Sages of the Talmud, in their infinite wisdom, determined that eating meat and fish together is a sakanah, injurious to one’s health. Although medical science admits of no evidence that eating meat and fish together causes illness, we accept the Rabbis’ decree unequivocally, for we know that their pronouncement are sacrosanct, their knowledge being as close to Divine wisdom as is humanly attainable. Indeed there have been poskim, most notably the Magen Avraham, who have ruled that environmental conditions have changed so, that what once posed a danger no longer does and this prohibition no longer applies. But the vast majority of poskim disagree and the basic halachah forbids eating meat (including poultry) and fish together. This is surely the universal custom and should be strictly adhered to.
9 Comments:
Amazing, no mention whatsoever of the Geonim and Rambam who disagreed.
Chasam Sofer (yes, haRav Chadash Assue Min Hatorah himself!) agreed with the MA on this one.
"In their infinite wisdom"? Wow, if that doesn't cross a line, I'm not sure what does.
Surely after they passed their souls join with the godhead and thus become infinite in some sense. No?
I can personally attest that its definitely not universal.
R' Aharon Soloveitchik z"tl was asked this question 10-11 years ago. He replied (paraphrase): "Ask a gastrointerologist. If they say its not dangerous, then its ok"
Then again, that Yated got something wrong...
I looked through the source of this "prohibition" once. I think (Im going on memory now) its based on a gemara talking about dipping fish grilled in a pan used to grill meat in "coutach", which has a milk by-product in it, and saying that there is a problem with the fish even without dipping because of "Davar Acher". Rashi seems to be the only Rishon to comment (didnt do a complete search), and he says that it means "Tzaraas". I think thats important because no matter what your definition of "Tzaraas", it surely means some form of skin lesion. This means that you can't rationalize the fact that people eat "surf and turf" all the time with no ill effects by saying that it is some unquantifiable danger. Either you can see a skin lesion or you can't. And since no one in fact gets skin lesions from this, I think its safe to say that the "sakanah" does not exist.
Personally, I like to annoy people by putting a piece of fish and red meat on my fork at the same time and eating it at once. (BTW I am an MD).
Also, if Chazal really meant this to be taken with the force of a takanah or at least an "unbreakable minhag", you would think that there would be a whole section of shulchan aruch yoreh deah of multiple chapters dealing with how to treat mixing meat and fish, just like there is one for Ta'aruvot and one for mixing meat and milk. After all, this would be unique in that the two substances are both inherently permitted and the mixture is not prohibited from the Torah like meat and milk. One could argue that there is no need since the Shulchan Aruch already deals with rabbinically prohibited mixtures such as fowl and milk. However, at least that analogy should be made. Even then they are dissimilar enough to warrant some comment as there wouldnt be issues of prohibition of deriving benefit or just cooking.
You might want to check Yoreh De'ah 116:2-3...
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