In this perek (chapter), we'll talk about the laws of meat and milk. The Torah says, “Not allowed to cook a goat in its mother's milk.” It says this three times in the Torah. One time forbids cooking meat and milk together. Another time forbids eating milk and meat that was cooked together. And the third time forbids having any benefit from meat and milk that was cooked together. When it comes to just eating meat and milk that was not cooked together, the only time it becomes biblical, de'oraita, is when it's cooked together.
Here the Mishnah will elaborate on what's considered to be meat for this halacha (Jewish law). The Mishnah says, “Not allowed to cook or eat any kind of meat with milk,” besides the meat of fish and grasshoppers. Fish and grasshoppers are not considered to be meat in this regard, and kosher fish and kosher grasshoppers are allowed to be cooked and eaten with milk. All other types of meat are forbidden. But there is a distinction: some types of meat are forbidden biblically, and others only on a rabbinic level. We'll elaborate on that in the continuation of the perek.
Whatever is asur (forbidden) on the de'oraita level is also asur to cook and benefit from. But meat—for example, chicken—is forbidden on a rabbinic level. You're allowed to cook it for other purposes if you're not eating it, and you're allowed to benefit from it as well. Chachamim (the Sages) made a decree only on the eating of whatever is asur to be put together with milk on a rabbinic level. It's also rabbinically forbidden to put any meat with cheese or any other type of milk on the same table, because what may happen is that a person may drop the cheese into a pot of meat on the table. He'll have a problem when he's cooking the cheese together with the meat, which is an issur de'oraita, biblical prohibition.
The exception to the rule would be the meat of fish and the meat of grasshoppers. Those you're allowed to put on the table with cheese. There would be no problem whatsoever. This seems to be extra, superfluous, not a needed part of the Mishnah, because we know we're even allowed to eat the meat of grasshoppers or fish with milk. So what's the point of this? Chachamim tell us that what we're learning from here is that these are the only two exceptions. In other words, even meat that is prohibited on a rabbinic level, like chicken, is not allowed to be put on the same table as milk.
You're not allowed to do that. If I put chicken and milk on the same table, I may end up putting meat—a hot pot of meat—on the same table as cheese or another type of milk. They may end up falling into each other and getting cooked. The reason we're specifying only basar dagim ve-chagavim, fish and grasshoppers, is to show that only those two are allowed, le'afukei (to exclude) a type that's asur mi'de'rabbanan (on a rabbinic level), like chicken.
Another law about fish and grasshoppers, which are not considered to be meat: if somebody takes a swear, they vow not to benefit from meat, they're allowed to eat fish and grasshoppers because they're not considered to be meat.
The Mishnah resumes its discussion about meat and cheese being put on one table. We'll elaborate on what we said before and say that it's not the muskam (agreed-upon) opinion. Not every opinion says you cannot put any type of meat on the same table as cheese; there is some machloket (disagreement) about what is not allowed to be put on that table.
The meat of a bird, like a chicken, is allowed to be put on the table with cheese. It's only not allowed to be eaten together with cheese. This is the opinion of Beit Shammai, as opposed to what we said earlier in the Mishnah, which is going to be Beit Hillel's opinion: you're not allowed to put cheese together with chicken on the table. It's not allowed to be put on the table with cheese, like we said earlier. What we said earlier was the opinion of Beit Hillel, and it's not allowed to be eaten together. You cannot have chicken together with cheese.
This is one of the unique situations where Beit Shammai is more lenient than Beit Hillel. Usually it's the opposite. Usually Beit Hillel is the one who is meikil—Hill, lenient—and Beit Shammai is the machmir (stringent). In this situation, Beit Hillel says you're not allowed to have chicken on the same table as cheese, while Beit Shammai says you are allowed to. So this is one of the unique scenarios where they flip how they normally act.
We'll now develop a detailed understanding of what we mentioned earlier about the table. At what table did we forbid the meat and the cheese from being together? Only on a table that a person eats on. But on a table where a person is arranging the food—he's on the island in his kitchen trying to arrange everything—that is permissible, because he puts the meat on one side and the cheese on the other side, and he doesn't have to be concerned that they're going to be mixed. At a table that a person eats from, he's moving the food around. He's reaching for it. He's putting it on a fork. There's a lot of movement, and that's where there's a chashash. So we're nervous that the food may become mixed together with a hot piece of meat, and it's going to become cooked. But in a situation where the person's arranging it before being served, we're not nervous, and you're allowed to put the meat and cheese together on this type of table as long as they're not touching each other.