Hagalas Keilim (Kashering Vessels) - Rabbi Binyomin Cohen shlita

00:02 Speaker 1 You’re listening to “Lema’an Yishme’u,” a podcast from Machon Halacha Chabad.

00:09 Speaker 2 Today we’ll learn the laws of kashering utensils. There’s a principle in halacha: “As it absorbs, so it releases.” In other words, a utensil releases what it absorbed in the same way it absorbed it. So if a utensil used for cooking, such as a pot, was used for non-kosher food, or previously belonged to a non-Jew, we kasher it through hagalah, with boiling water. We either boil water in the utensil or place the smaller utensil into a large pot of boiling water. That way, just as the utensil absorbed the forbidden food, it releases it. But with utensils used directly over a fire, such as skewers and other things used for roasting, absorption happens through the fire itself, not through boiling. So they are kashered with fire as well, through libun—direct contact with fire. This applies when we want to kasher something previously used for forbidden food or something that became non-kosher. For example, a meat utensil was mistakenly used with milk, or someone wants to kasher a utensil for Pesach because they’re missing a pot, a frying pan, or some other utensil from their Pesach set. The way it was used determines how it is kashered. That’s called “as it absorbs, so it releases”: the way it absorbed the forbidden food is the way it releases it. But there are several important points to note before kashering utensils through hagalah. First, the utensil must be clean, with no dirt or food residue on it, no grime at all. Kashering is done only when the utensil is completely clean, with no

02:57 Speaker 2 food residue on it and no dirt at all. Another point: hagalah must be done after twenty-four hours have passed since the utensil was used with the forbidden food. In other words, if a utensil was mistakenly used for meat after being used for milk, you can’t kasher it immediately; you have to wait twenty-four hours. This principle also guides how we kasher different utensils. Take forks and spoons used while eating. They aren’t generally used in a kli rishon, a cooking vessel, but sometimes the food on the plate is as hot as food in a kli rishon. That’s what’s called a davar gush, a solid piece of food—for example, a piece of hot potato, a hot hard-boiled egg, or a piece of meat. When we cut it with a fork or knife, the utensil has effectively come into contact with the heat of a kli rishon. So cutlery is also kashered through hagalah: by pouring water over it, placing it in a pot of boiling water, or pouring boiling water directly onto the cutlery. Not every utensil can be kashered. Earthenware cannot be kashered. If someone used an earthenware vessel for forbidden food, or received one from someone who doesn’t keep kosher, they cannot kasher it. They can use it for cold things, such as apples, citrus fruit, or pears. There’s no problem putting cold things in it, but they should not put anything hot in it, because earthenware cannot be kashered. What we can kasher are stainless-steel utensils, iron utensils, and the like. They can be kashered according to the principle we mentioned earlier: “As it absorbs, so it releases.” Another point to watch for: sometimes there’s a manufacturer’s sticker on a pot,

05:34 Speaker 2 and people don’t always remember to remove it. When we want to kasher a utensil through hagalah, it has to be free of all those stickers and anything else stuck to it. Even rust residue has to be cleaned off, particularly near the handles. Rust sometimes builds up there, and all of it has to be removed before kashering, because the utensil must be clean, with nothing on it when we kasher it. If we want to kasher an oven that was used throughout the year for Pesach, or an oven we received from someone whose standard of kashrus we don’t know, several steps are needed. First, clean the oven very thoroughly with a cleaning product, such as Sano oven cleaner, getting into the grooves and corners so that it’s completely clean. Once it’s completely clean, turn it on to a high heat for half an hour. The idea is that anything forbidden absorbed into the oven will be burned away by the heat. Again, here too we have to wait twenty-four hours after cooking the food that prompted us to kasher the oven. There is an opinion that says we must wait twenty-four hours after any cooking, even if the last thing cooked was pareve or something else that presents no problem. According to that opinion, nothing should be cooked or baked in the oven during the twenty-four hours before kashering it. That opinion was not accepted as halacha; it is a stringency. Anyone who wishes to be stringent is welcome to do so, but the halacha is that the twenty-four hours are counted from the time the oven was used for the food that prompted us to kasher it and that makes us want

08:13 Speaker 2 to kasher that oven. As for a hot plate used for chametz all year, sometimes something spills from a pot of cholent—wheat or other ingredients—and we want to kasher it for Pesach. Or perhaps someone received a hot plate from another person and doesn’t know how careful they were about kashrus. Again, the first thing to do is clean the hot plate on all sides and in all the crevices, and turn it on to a high heat for about half an hour. Better still, wrap it in aluminum foil as well. Once it’s wrapped, anything we put on it will rest on the foil rather than directly on the hot plate. That provides another layer of protection after kashering. Of course, we don’t pour boiling water on it. The water could reach the electrical wiring and damage the hot plate. Here the method of kashering is different: we clean it thoroughly and turn it on to a high heat. As for a refrigerator we want to prepare for Pesach, that’s easier because it’s used only for cold things. What we need to do is clean the refrigerator thoroughly, especially the grooves, the doors, and the magnetic seal where the door meets the refrigerator. Sometimes it’s shaped like an accordion, and bread crumbs or other bits of chametz can be hidden in its folds. So we have to clean it well, with water, soap, and the like. There’s no need for boiling water here; ordinary water is enough to clean all the places and corners where there might be dirt or chametz, if we’re preparing it for Pesach. Then rinse it thoroughly. And since it’s used only for cold things, there is no

10:42 Speaker 2 There is no need for anything beyond that here, just the cleaning. The cleaning must, of course, be thorough, getting into every hole and crevice, and you have to make sure it is now clean for Pesach. As for a gas stove used throughout the year, we need to distinguish between the burners, where the flames come out, and the grates—the metal pieces around the burners on which the pot, frying pan, or whatever we want to cook rests. After thoroughly cleaning the burners, we light the gas. If any remnants of non-kosher food or chametz from before Pesach are there, the flame burns away anything that stuck to the burners or got inside them. As for the grates, the metal pieces around the burners, there is no flame directly on them, but something boiling may have spilled onto them from a hot pot. They need libun. What is libun? Passing them through the fire. In other words, light one of the gas burners and pass those metal pieces, the grates, through the flame, so it burns away anything forbidden that may have stuck there. And, of course, if you can cover them with aluminum foil, that is even better. Then, even if something is there, the pot will not rest directly on the grate, because it is covered with aluminum foil. As for the countertop, we need to distinguish between two types of stone. There is a basic stone called Hebron stone, the kind used for gravestones, which you can pour boiling water on. It is fairly resistant to boiling water, so you do a regular hagalah on it, as you would for utensils. Then there is the stone more commonly used in recent years, called granite. It is more

13:27 Speaker 2 attractive, and it is also more delicate than the basic stone. If we pour boiling water on it, it may crack or be damaged. So here, instead of pouring boiling water on it, you should clean it thoroughly with soap and water. If possible, spread something over it, such as heavy-duty aluminum foil, so that whatever you later place on the countertop will not come into direct contact with it. There will be a barrier, such as aluminum foil. That is how you make that countertop fit for Pesach without having to pour boiling water on it, which could damage, break, or crack it. Say a person buys vegetables before Pesach and has some left over. May he use those vegetables on Pesach? If they were kept in the vegetable area, away from bread, there is no problem; he can wash them. Vegetables themselves are not chametz, and there is no problem using them after washing them. Of course, the washing should be done before Pesach. Before Pesach, even if there is a crumb of chametz or something else on them, we remove it, and there is no problem. During Pesach it is more of a problem, because chametz on Pesach is not nullified even in the smallest amount. So if a person buys quantities of fruit or vegetables before Pesach, it is advisable to keep them separately, in a protected place where they will not come into contact with chametz. That way, whatever remains can also be used during Pesach. As for faucets—the kitchen faucet, for example—since it is used throughout the year, including with chametz, it is advisable to pour boiling water over it from a kli rishon. After thoroughly cleaning it, of course, you pour boiling water over it. That is how faucets are made fit for Pesach, so they can be used

16:01 Speaker 2 on Pesach. Likewise, if we move into a home and do not know who lived there before, and we want to make the kitchen kosher, we pour boiling water over the... over the faucet in the same way. Here it is easier, because a faucet is generally not like a pot that is actually used for food. Rather, you open it and use the water that comes out. But sometimes hot water is used too, and that is considered a connection. In halachah it is called nitzok: a direct connection between the faucet and the vessel from which, or into which, we are pouring water. So that is how these items are made fit for use. If a person has a silver kiddush cup that he has used all year and wants to use on Pesach, although the cup is used only for wine—and almost all wines are kosher for Pesach throughout the year—since it stood together with bread and challah on the table, we also make the cup fit for Pesach with boiling water. Then it can be used on Pesach. Of course, if a person can afford a separate kiddush cup for Pesach, how good and pleasant that is. He has a special cup for Pesach and a special cup for the rest of the year, and he does not need to use his year-round cup on Pesach. As for a gold ring that a woman wears on her finger, sometimes she makes dough and kneads it without always removing her rings first. That means she may knead with the ring on, and the dough contains leaven. Leaven is what causes the dough to rise—what we call yeast today. So boiling water must also be poured over that ring, because it may have come into contact with the dough. If

18:42 Speaker 2 the woman keeps the ring on, it comes into contact with the dough, so the ring also needs to be made fit for Pesach. As for bottles for small children and babies: since they cost relatively little and are not expensive, it is not worth getting into how to make them fit for Pesach. Instead, buy new ones and mark them “Pesach.” Then the same baby bottles can be used from year to year, without having to make them fit for Pesach every year. There will be bottles specifically for Pesach. Especially since the cost is very, very low, it is worthwhile to have such bottles for Pesach. This is particularly so because during the year people often put chametz cereal in them, or formula mixed with various grains or things that are outright chametz. It is not worth making something fit for Pesach when you can easily obtain a separate one for Pesach. Of course, if a person can use separate utensils for everything on Pesach, he deserves a blessing. He puts the chametz utensils in the cupboard and takes out the Pesach utensils. Even the atmosphere is different—a Yom Tov atmosphere, with Yom Tov utensils. That is much better than having to make every single item fit for Pesach. But of course, halachically, it is possible to do so, as we explained. Just as utensils can be made kosher after absorbing a forbidden substance, they can also be made fit for Pesach after absorbing chametz. Still, whatever one can avoid using is, of course, better left unused in favor of things reserved exclusively for Pesach. That is certainly the best approach from the outset: for a person to make the effort, buy Pesach utensils once, and then take out and use those same utensils each Pesach, without needing to make his year-round utensils fit for Pesach. Although we saw that there is an opinion that chanan applies to other forbidden foods too, not only to meat and milk, we do not say chanan with regard to the pot itself. Therefore, for example, a utensil

21:33 Speaker 2 that became forbidden by absorbing a prohibited substance: if food was cooked in a pot and it later became clear that the food was not kosher, we do not need sixty times the volume of the entire pot, only sixty times the amount of the forbidden substance absorbed in the pot. We do not say chanan about the utensil itself, only about the food itself. As we saw, there is a dispute about whether that applies only to meat and milk or also to other forbidden foods. But again, it applies only to the food itself, not to the pot or the utensil. With a utensil that became forbidden through absorption, we do not say chanan about the pot, and we need sixty times only the amount of the forbidden substance. In general, when a pot or any other utensil needs hagalah, you must wait twenty-four hours after cooking in it before doing the hagalah. Even if water or other liquids, soup or milk, were heated in that pot—even water that became forbidden through meat and milk or by absorbing a prohibited substance—you must wait twenty-four hours before making the utensil fit for use. Of course, you must also clean it and make sure there is no residue, dirt, manufacturer’s label, or anything similar on it. But even after removing all the labels, dirt, and anything else on the pot, you must wait twenty-four hours before doing hagalah, before making that pot fit for use. This applies even if what was heated in it was ordinary water, not water that absorbed a forbidden substance. Suppose a pot absorbed a forbidden substance and water was later heated in it to make coffee or tea. From the outset, you should wait twenty-four hours even from when the water was heated, although the water contained nothing forbidden in itself, only what had been absorbed in the pot. But where a loss would be incurred, one may be lenient and count twenty-four hours from when the forbidden food itself was cooked, rather than from when the water was heated. For example, if we need the pot for Shabbos

24:09 Speaker 2 For example, we need to cook in the pot for Shabbos, and if we wait until twenty-four hours have passed since the water was cooked in it, we won’t have time to use it for Shabbos. In that case, we can be lenient and rely on the fact that twenty-four hours have passed since the forbidden food was cooked in the pot; we don’t need to wait twenty-four hours from when the water was cooked. But again, this leniency applies only where there would be a loss. What counts as a loss depends on the person asking and the circumstances. Something that constitutes a loss for one person may not constitute a loss for another. The Rabbi being asked has to examine the case and decide whether it really involves a loss or whether one can be stringent. A pot in which meat with standard kosher certification—not a more stringent certification—was cooked does not become forbidden. After cleaning it, one may use it to cook meat with a more stringent certification. Certainly, if twenty-four hours have passed, there is no problem. We need to kasher a pot by hagalah only if something forbidden was cooked in it. If what was cooked in it was permitted, it can be cleaned thoroughly and then used for food meeting a more stringent kosher standard. Another example: Someone hears Kiddush from another person but does not rely on the kosher certification of the wine used for Kiddush. Can he fulfill his obligation to hear Kiddush? The answer is yes. He fulfills his obligation even though he himself would not make Kiddush over that type of wine. Since the person making Kiddush does rely on that certification and does make Kiddush over that wine, the listener fulfills his obligation and does not have to taste

26:54 Speaker 2 the wine. The Alter Rebbe writes that tasting the wine is an expression of cherishing the mitzvah, but it is not required by the letter of the law. So if he has a reason not to taste it, he need not do so. By hearing Kiddush, he fulfills his obligation even if he himself would not make Kiddush over that wine. Of course, if he does rely on the certification, it is a mitzvah to taste the wine. This is called cherishing the mitzvah, and one should make an effort to taste the wine of the person who made Kiddush. If there are many people and it isn’t possible to pass the wine around to everyone, a person can pour a little wine into his own cup while Kiddush is being made and drink that wine afterward. He does not have to drink specifically from the wine over which Kiddush was made, though if it is easy to do so, it is preferable to taste that wine. When we speak about a meat pot or pan in which milk was accidentally cooked, and we say that it needs hagalah and then returns to being a meat pot, there are a few points to know. First, hagalah must be done after twenty-four hours have passed since the milk was cooked. It cannot be done within those twenty-four hours. Of course, the pot must also be cleaned and so on. Once twenty-four hours have passed and the hagalah is done, the pot returns to its previous status as a meat pot. This is something done as a one-time measure. In other words, we accidentally cooked something dairy in a meat pot, so we kasher it by hagalah and it becomes a meat pot again. But we cannot do this regularly—take a meat pot, cook milk in it, and kasher it by hagalah for meat. Then

29:12 Speaker 2 cook milk in it again, doing hagalah each time we switch between meat and milk. We don’t do that. If it happened by mistake, we do hagalah, but we don’t deliberately use the same pot sometimes for meat and sometimes for milk, with hagalah in between. It is only done when something happened by mistake. For example, someone receives pots as a gift from relatives or friends and does not know exactly how they were used—whether for meat or dairy. He does hagalah, and afterward decides that from then on a given pot will be for meat or for dairy. Here the hagalah is done because of uncertainty: he does not know what was used in the pots or how they were used. But one should not deliberately use the same pot sometimes for meat and sometimes for dairy. Hagalah is done when I want to designate it as a meat pot from now on because I don’t know how it was used before, or because I mistakenly cooked milk in a meat pot or meat in a dairy pot. Because of that mistake, I do hagalah and restore the pot to its previous status. Or, if it is a pot I received, I decide whether it will be a meat pot or a dairy pot from now on. I don’t deliberately use it for both, alternating between them. It is either for meat or for dairy. Suppose someone receives a pot or other utensils from a relative or friend. He knows the pot is a meat pot, but he does not know how carefully kashrus was observed there. That is, they did not cook meat and milk in it, but they may have cooked meat whose kosher status is questionable. He needs to do hagalah, and the pot remains a meat pot. That hagalah essentially

31:26 Speaker 2 addresses any residue or absorbed taste that may have come from the meat whose kosher status is in doubt. But if he knows for certain that the pot was used only for kosher meat, then by the letter of the law he does not even need to do hagalah. He may do so if he wants to be stringent, but when he knows it was used for kosher meat, he can designate the pot for meat and use it without any problem. That is unless, as we said, he is concerned that it may have been used for non-kosher food, or for meat and milk together. That is a different matter. But as long as it was used only for meat, it retains its status as a meat pot. He may use it for meat and, by the letter of the law, it does not even require hagalah.