Can you have meat and fish on the same plate? A rabbi of an off shoot of orthodoxy in my town made a large contention of this matter. I was wondering if this is true to orthodoxy or maybe speculation. Thanks.
Answer:
According to a Talmudic tradition it is dangerous to eat meat and fish together, and therefore one must separate between them.
This is ruled by the Shulchan Aruch (173:2).
However, the Magen Avraham points out that today we do not find any danger in this combination, and that therefore one does not have to be so stringent in separating between meat and fish. Nonetheless, it is common custom to separate between the two (see for instance Aruch HaShulchan 173:2) and to refrain from eating them together.
Yet, this stringency applies to eating the two together, and not to having them on the same plate. The Taz (Yoreh De’ah 95:3) explains that the prohibition of eating a mixture of meat and fish applies only to eating actual meat and fish together, whereas the taste of meat alone (ta’am), which is transferred by their being on the same plate, does not render the food forbidden.
Still, the normal practice is to refrain from having them on the same plate, and even to drink between consuming fish and meat at the same meal.
Best wishes.
