Eating Meat After Dairy
אכילת בשר אחר חלב
Since the Sages forbade eating meat with milk even when they were not cooked together, one who eats dairy foods and then wants to eat meat must remove the remnants of dairy from his mouth by kinu’aḥ (cleaning) and hadaḥa (rinsing) of the mouth, and only afterward may he eat meat. Kinu’aḥ is done by eating a firm food, such as bread or fruit, and hadaḥa is done by drinking. However, one may not clean the mouth by eating flour, dates, or leafy vegetables, because they stick to the teeth and do not properly clean away the remnants of the previous food (Ḥullin 104b; SA YD 89:2). Brushing one’s teeth and rinsing the mouth in the usual manner are effective in place of kinu’aḥ and hadaḥa, and are even preferable to them, since they clean the dairy remnants from the mouth more thoroughly.
In addition to cleaning and rinsing the mouth, before eating meat one must look at his fingers, and if dairy grease is stuck to them, he should wash them (Ḥullin ibid.; SA YD ibid.).¹
When one wishes to switch from dairy foods to meat foods in the middle of a meal, as many do on Shavu’ot, in addition to cleaning and rinsing the mouth and checking the fingers, one should clear away the dairy foods and their utensils and clean the table or change the tablecloth, and only then serve the meat (Peninei Halakha: Festivals 13:14).²
Notes (2)
- The purpose of kinu’aḥ and hadaḥa is to remove remnants of dairy and its taste that cling to the mouth, gums, and teeth. Le-khatḥila, one should chew the food well and move the drink throughout the mouth, as implied by the wording of SA 89:2: “And he should clean his mouth well with it.” However, even ordinary eating and drinking fulfill kinu’aḥ and hadaḥa. Some say that one must swallow the food and drink in order to clean the throat (Pri To’ar 7). According to most poskim, one need not swallow (Rambam, Hilkhot Ma’akhalot Assurot 9:26; Pri Megadim; Yad Yehuda), since the main thing is to clean the area of the gums. That is why flour and dates are not effective. Therefore, instead of cleaning and rinsing, one may brush his teeth with a toothbrush and rinse his mouth. This is preferable to cleaning and rinsing with foods, because when possible, it is better not to use foods for the purpose of cleaning and scouring; moreover, it is not in keeping with human dignity to eat for any purpose other than health and enjoyment. One does not clean the mouth with vegetables (Ḥullin 105a), meaning leafy vegetables that stick to the gums (Issur Ve-heter He-arukh 40:8).
SA 89:2 rules, following Rambam, Ramban, and Ran, that the law of kinu’aḥ and hadaḥa applies only between dairy and the meat of a behema or ḥaya (domesticated or wild animal), but not for poultry. However, many are accustomed to be stringent with poultry as well; this is how Yad Yehuda explains Rema, and so writes Knesset Ha-gedola, Shulḥan Gavo’ah, Zivḥei Tzedek, and Ben Ish Ḥai (Year II, Shelaḥ 14). Although one who wishes to be lenient may do so, le-khatḥila it is good not to multiply distinctions but rather to equate the laws of poultry with those of animals, and that is how I wrote it above without qualification. - Some are scrupulous to recite a berakha aḥarona and wait an hour between eating dairy and meat, so that eating the meat will be considered an entirely separate eating (Shelah and Pri Ḥadash 89:6, based on Zohar II 125a). In practice, however, one need not be stringent about this; immediately after eating dairy one may clean and rinse his mouth, check his hands, and eat meat, as stated in SA 89:2, MB 494:16, and the vast majority of poskim. The same law applies after yellow cheese (below, section 6). If an hour has passed between eating the dairy and the meat, one need not clean and rinse the mouth or check the fingers, since presumably the dairy remnants have dissolved and disappeared. Some say this is the law even after half an hour. One who feels that even after an hour dairy remnants still remain in his mouth should clean and rinse his mouth before eating meat.