Nancy Young wrote:
> God didn't say, don't drink milk with meat. If you really think
> that, I can't help you.

Well if you don't believe that we got the Torah from G-d I can't help you
either. But G-d told us via Moses at Sinai how to understand the written Torah
("the Bible") which is basically like rough notes that are pretty much
meaningless in many areas (or at least left up to one's imagination) without
the tradition from G-d as to how to understand what He gave us.

When you have something mentioned 3 times in the Torah, we don't say "now
isn't that funny G-d must have had a stutter". We apply the rules G-d told us
to apply in order to learn out His laws. It so happens that not to cook a kid
in it's mother's milk is mentioned 3 times and each mention is to learn out a
different aspect of the law (for the specifics you can begin with Mesches
Chullin). You want to leave what G-d wants up to human "logic", but we believe
G-d has given us everything needed short of a prophet in order to know
*exactly* what he wants (is it so strange that if G-d has expectations from
us, then he should not leave it up to the imagination as to what those
expectations are?).

If you have not investigated the basis by which we have come to the conclusion
that meat and milk are forbidden together then how can I respect you saying
"God didn't say, don't drink milk with meat." At least if you are coming from
a position of understanding where I and orthodox Jews are coming from then we
can agree to disagree, but you don't even want to understand the orthodox
perspective and where it is coming from **regardless of whether you accept it
or not**.

RANT:
BTW. In the case described in this thread which I responded to, the person
drinking the milk was not transgressing any biblical law anyway. But Rabinic
law came as a consequence of the Biblical prohibition. And of course Rabinic
law is a topic in and of itself as it is not a matter of a bunch of self
appointed "RAbbis" doing as they please (as some would love to believe to
possibly justify their negative attitude towards orthodox Jews), they also are
bound by guidelines passed down from G-d to Moses to the Prophets etc.
Education in Judaism has never been an elitist thing. All Jews at all times
are encouraged to learn the basis behind the Torah and that extends to Rabinic
laws and customs too. The "Rabbis" do not hide their rational or force it on
anyone. It is there for you to see and investigate. We believe that those that
are totally immersed in G-d's law each and every day are the most qualified to
understand and know what G-d wants of us. (BTW. this also goes for other
religions. If I want to know the perspective of Islam I'll ask one of their
clerics - not a University Professor or a journalist or some scholastic book).

regards,
Ben