I know that Jewish people cannot eat milk and meat together, so how long do they have to wait before eating it? For example, if chicken is eaten for dinner, how long do they have to wait until drinking milk, for example?
allonyoav
Favorite Answer
It varies by community, the most common custom is 6 hours. 3 hours is a German custom and has become more common in many Modern orthodox communities. Dutch communities only wait 1 hour, but this is unique to them and should not be adopted unless you are dutch.
Note: Chicken is treated as meat. Yes, mi'd'oraiso it is not meat, but it has been treated as meat mi'd'rabban since pre-Talmudic times. The Halachah is that chicken is treated as meat. No Orthodox Jew anywhere in the world is going to eat chicken and milk together
divorah
Mark gave you the basic time breakdowns so I won't repeat that information. Here are a couple other points:
- Some hard cheese require a wait time of 3-6 hours before eating meat. These cheeses are normally labelled as such.
- In terms of kashrut, poultry is categorised as meat and cannot be combined with dairy.
- Some Sephardi communities do not combine fish with dairy either.
- While for most dairy there is no wait time necessary before eating meat, they still cannot be eaten at the same meal.
kaganate
The Halakha (law) is the space between two meals.
Different Jewish communities have several traditions based on the definition of a meal and the real time between two of them.
It is part of the Halakha to follow consistently the custom of the communitiy that you are part of.
The most common period is just a little over five hours.
The shortest period is kept by some communites in Holland - one hour. However - a person who keeps one hour must be careful to fully and carefuly separate the two meals.
Owl
Waiting Periods Between Meat & Dairy
The laws of kosher require that in addition to not eating them together, we wait a specified period of time between eating meat and eating dairy.
After eating dairy and before eating meat, eat something pareve, which does not stick to the palate. Then rinse your mouth, or take a drink, and wash your hands. In addition, many have the custom of waiting a certain period of time -- a half-hour or an hour. After eating certain hard cheeses, a six-hour waiting period is required (see Why the extended wait between eating "aged" cheese and meat?).
After eating meat foods, we wait six full hours before eating any dairy. The six-hour waiting period is standard for all Jews, except those groups which have halachically established other customs.
If a small piece of meat is discovered between the teeth, remove it and rinse the mouth, but an additional waiting period is not required (even if six hours have elapsed since eating meat). If even the smallest amount of food is chewed or swallowed, the full waiting period becomes necessary.
If food is tasted but immediately eliminated from the mouth before chewing or swallowing, then no waiting period is required. One should rinse the mouth well.
Meat and dairy foods may not be eaten at the same meal, even if they are in separate dishes and even if the waiting time elapses.
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/133896/jewish/Waiting-Periods-Between-Meat-Dairy.htm
Mark S, JPAA
The time varies depending upon one's community. Typically it's 6 hours. However, Dutch Jews wait only 1 hour while German Jews wait 3.