Do you ever the have a problem where you interpret a law from the Torah differently than it traditionally is and you don't know if you should go with how you feel or what everyone agrees on? I've always seen the "Don't boil a calf in the milk of its mother" law as being part of the moral killing rules like use a sharp knife to kill an animal. In my mind it wouldn't be interpreted as don't mix dairy and meat. I don't want to follow a rule just because but I don't want to be wrong and alone in it
Hi there!
There are so many ways to interprate Jewish law. Although some traditional authorities might argue that there is only one way of understanding Jewish law, I absolutely disagree. Yes we have some hard lines, but there are too many weak lines that we must continue to have open dialogue about.
Before making any conclusions to what the text of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) says or doesn’t say, I suggest looking into the Jewish law associated with each of these laws. Actually, most of them were layed out in this past week’s Torah Portion (R’eih).
You might find some wisdom about the portion here. You can check out what the rabbis of the Talmud and beyond wrote about certain verses using Sepharia. Here is a list of food laws. When you click on each verse, a list of sources will appear on the right. Please note, if you click on an individual Hebrew word, the etimology of the word will appear. Clicking on the Engligh will make this feature work better.
I hope that this helps! If you have any further questions, please feel free to reach out!
PJ