Parashat Mishpatim - no cheeseburgers for me!

Words of Torah
Parashat Mishpatim
Exodus 21:1-24:18

"Thou shalt not boil a baby goat in its mother's milk."

~~Exodus 23:19

This week's Torah portion is a little out of character compared to the story-telling nature of the rest of the Book of Exodus.  This week's parshah (portion) is more of a long list of mishpatim (decrees) on how we are to live our lives.  In fact, this week we read 53 of the 613 total mitzvot...although even this isn't the most mitzvoth in any one parshah.

Even so, it is the above brief sentence that I believe has brought me to where I am today.  It is this compact statement that has been interpreted by the rabbis for many centuries as the prohibition from eating meat and milk together that has been my driving force into Jewish education...so no cheeseburgers for me!

When I was a young child it baffled me that the rabbis used the rationale and clearly obvious prohibition as a statement of ethical behavior (don't milk a goat and then kill it's baby and cook these two items together), yet, did not extrapolate this exact theory for doing likewise with chicken???  Have you ever had a schnitzel (fried chicken breast that was dipped in eggs and coated with bread crumbs)?  I DON'T GET IT???  If it would have only applied to goat's meat and goat's milk I probably would have stopped there.  But turning it into no cheese of any kind with no meat (and now no poultry) of any kind seems disingenuous to the intent of the mitzvah.

As a child I asked my rabbi about this and got some complicated round about non answer that left me scratching my head and feeling like the idiot that ultimately got kicked out of my Hebrew school.  Actually, my parents were politely asked to not have me return, but either way I never went back soon after voicing this confusion.

Is an egg not a by product of a hen?  Is a chicken breast not the previously living offspring of another hen?  So why are they not prohibited to be used together???  

Again, please don't get me wrong.  I am not looking for any more laws of kashrut to prohibit my love of eating.  What I am searching for is to better understand the duality of these two experiences.  

Now, maybe I'm not destined to solve this dilemma in this lifetime.  Maybe for me, asking the question, and ultimately becoming a professional Jewish educator committed to getting my students to ask their own driving questions is my purpose in this life.  But if there is anyone out there that has any perspective on why these two are not the same, I would be forever grateful!

PS using the old "chicken is poultry" and therefore exempt from this category of "meat" doesn't fly since the rabbis bundled chicken with meat from a "no meat and milk" perspective...last time I checked chicken parm was still a no go.