Refer to this question regarding whether an adult is allowed to drink human breast milk.
While there is controversy about the health benefits of drinking breast milk, some doctors recommend it for cancer patients or those with digestive or nutritional problems. (See here.) Why would breast milk be considered pareve, while milk from kosher animals is considered dairy?
The halacha of a human being is considered separate from the halachos of animals. Thus, animal milk from a kosher animal is dairy, while milk that is not kosher would not have the extra restrictions of dairy (since it is not kosher anyway). However, human beings are not considered in the laws of animal food. It appears that the definition of dairy is milk from a kosher animal, which does not apply to a human being. The main halachos of this are mesorah from
לא תבשל גדי בחלב אמו
Breast Milk: Just Like Honey From a Bee?
By way of explanation, one contemporary rabbi compares mother’s milk to honey—as a similarly exceptional case of kosher food derived from a non-kosher animal.
That is, bee honey is explicitly shown as kosher, since Yonasan ate it. Breast milk is explicitly shown as being given to Yitzchak, Moshe, and Shmuel which implicitly shows that is is kosher in that the Tanach references it as a normal food. This is the case even though the source is not a kosher animal. We also see that an infant should not nurse from a woman who has eaten non-kosher food if it can be avoided.
Thus, Is Breast Milk Pareve? points out that it is pareve, while not giving the specific reason. However, the cooking of meat in it is asur because of mar'is ayin.
It is forbidden to cook meat in breast milk (Shulchan Aruch YD 87:4). Your baby need not wait between eating meat and nursing.
While Rambam Ma'achalot Assurot - 3:2 says it is permitted, he does not go into the reason it is pareve.
Human milk is permitted to be eaten,3 although the meat of a human is forbidden to be eaten. We have already explained4 that it is forbidden by virtue of a positive commandment.5
3. I.e., even by an adult. Note, however, Halachah 4.
4. Chapter 2, Halachah 3.
5. Thus it does not contradict the general principle mentioned in the previous halachah.
Additionally we don’t find (other than the story of Moses – which I’ll mention soon) that there is a prohibition to drink milk from a non-Jew. Milk is a separate entity in itself, which is permitted by the Torah when coming from a human female, whether Jewish or non-Jewish. It can be compared to honey which is not considered non-kosher, even though it’s coming from a non-Kosher insect, the bee.
However, on a more esoteric level, our Rabbis tell us that what a person eats affects his soul. We know that the quality of a mother’s milk is influenced by what she eats; therefore it follows that if she ingested non-Kosher food, traces of that would come into the milk. Therefore, although in terms of Jewish law there is nothing wrong with giving the baby donor-milk from a breast milk bank, if it would be convenient, and there would be a donor available who keeps Kosher who would be happy to pump some milk for the baby (e.g. a sister or close friend), this would be preferable.
לא תבשל גדי בחלב אמו" Huh? What does it even mean to be a mesorah from a verse? Is it an Oral tradition, or understood from a verse? Do you mean that an Oral tradition interprets the verse? How do you know that this detail is part of the Oral Tradition?
– mevaqesh Oct 27 '17 at 13:57In regard to the reason breast milk is considered pareve.
Min Ha'Torah it is clear that other than milk or meat from Goats and the like(Domestic Animals)no milk or meat is subject to these laws.
The Chachomim added certain milks and meats to be subject to these laws Mi'Drabbanan.
Consumption of human milk is something done only for explicit reasons such as a baby who has got nothing else or the sick who is in need of this milk.Now,we find in Hilchos Yom Kippur Siman 718' that there are differing opinions whether or not a person who has got to eat on that day should make Kiddush. The reasoning of those that do not require Kiddush is since the Chachamim weren't mesakein a kiddush for those remote cases.
We find all over in Shas that by a milsa d'lo shechiaca the Chachamim did not put their rule as in Gemarah Gittin where the Gemarah says that in a case such as two people bringing a Get since it is a remote case the Chachamim did not place the Halach of Befony Nichtav(even though if they would keep things the way they are it would naturally be subject to it).
So too here Chachamim weren't mesakein a Halacha of Bossor Be'Cholov when it applies in seldom cases only.
