Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe Podcast Collection

00:03 - Intro (Announcement)
You're listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of Torch in Houston, Texas. This is the Everyday Judaism Podcast.

00:12 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
All right, good morning everybody. Welcome back to the beautiful Torch Center on this magnificent Sunday morning. Wow, the weather in Houston. Those of you who are not in Houston are just missing out. This is what we live in Houston for, right. It's like the weather right now. It's just amazing, absolutely amazing. So while there's snowstorms elsewhere, while there's sleet storms elsewhere, it's like you come here and it's like 70 degrees. It's just like wow, okay. Either way, my dear friends, it is so wonderful to be here this Sunday morning and to study together another chapter of Kitzah Shulchan Aruch, of the abridged code of Jewish law. We are beginning Simmon Lamed Zion, simmon 37.

01:00
It's the laws of immersing utensils. So the general background to this okay, when the Jewish people conquered Midian and they took their spoils, god says before you use their pots and pans, you need to kosher them. Because they had non-kosher foods, you need to kosher them. You need to, as well, dip them into a mikvah to make them holy. Now and now, a Jew can use them. Okay, it's very important. So this is a biblical command that all metal pots and pans need before a Jew uses them. If they're made by a non-Jew, they're manufactured by a non-Jew, they need to be dipped in a mikvah. Okay, the mikvah has to be a mikvah that is kosher for a woman to use after she's been anidah, okay. So it's not like we mentioned previously about a mikvah, that a man could use a pool and things like that, right, this is not the same. This needs to be a. It's a biblical commandment that utensils made out of metal, before a Jew uses them, if they were manufactured by a non-Jew, they need to be dipped into a mikvah. Now, what's about glass? What's about wood? What's about earthenware? That we're going to discuss as well.

02:21
Let's begin with halacha number one, seif one. When someone purchases utensils whose function relates to a meal, meaning it's a utensil that's used for food from an idolater and he's using the term idolater as any non-Jew even if they are new utensils, and there's no concern that they were used for non-kosher food if they are made of any type of metal and glass now we're adding glass to this because glass is a rabbinic obligation he is forbidden to use them for any food purpose, even for cold foods, until he immerses them in a spring or in a mikvah, a ritual bath that is valid for the immersion of a woman who is an edda. This immersion is required so that the utensil will emerge thereby from the spiritual impurity of having been owned by an idolater and enter into the holiness of being owned by a Jew. Okay, so this is you have to purify the utensil so that now it could be used in a Jewish home. Before the immersion, one must recite a blessing. When immersing one utensil, one recites one individual, and when it's multiple, dishes it needs to be, or utensils it needs to be, which is plural.

04:00
Halacha number two, and we're going to have time for questions. We have the Ask Away episode coming shortly after we conclude this simmon. It's not a very long simmon, but we're going to ask away, so write your questions down, those of you online. You're welcome to send them to us at askawayattorchweborg, askawayattorchweborg, and we would love to address your questions. And we want to thank our listener, benjamin from New York, who sent us 18 questions last week. I think we had a great time. We had a blast responding to those questions and we look forward to more questions from our listeners.

04:40
Halacha 2 Keivan shehakelim tzvim tefillah dafka, since utensils require immersion, specifically in a place that is valid for immersion of a woman. Therefore, one must be careful shelo lahat bilim ben haris not to immerse them in a river when they are swollen from rain or melting snow. This is very common before Pesach, when the rivers are overflowing and people immerse utensils there. However, it is not a proper practice and the halacha here applies specifically to items that are manufactured by a non-Jew, made by a non-Jew. If they're manufactured by a Jewish company, even if the workers are non-Jewish, it's considered okay and they do not need to be immersed.

05:47
Now, what do you do with utensils? This is going to be a question. I'm sure it's going to come up a lot Like the sandwich makers, utensils that have electrical components. We'll get to it. We'll deal with it later. It's not so simple because if you immerse those devices into the mikvah, it's going to kill the device, like I recently bought a frother A frother and it says very clearly there's a sticker right there on the bottom do not immerse in water, Do not. Do not use this in the dishwasher, do not use it in like. It's very explicit. You're going to put it in a mikvah. It's going to ruin it. So we have to have a solution to that. We'll talk about that soon.

06:33
Halacha number three Kol Eitz, kol Kli Eitz, einon, tzrichen Tzvila. Wooden utensils do not require immersion immersion. And if they have iron hoops or iron handles attached to them, they do require immersion, but without a blessing. Any earthenware utensil does not require immersion. However, if they're coated only on the inside with lead glaze, okay, this is very common, we do have glaze. They are required for immersion without a blessing, as well as a porcelain dish.

07:24
Okay, so there is a dispute whether or not earthenware today needs to have, like you know, if you do those, not china, but if you have those other types of plates like the ceramic right. So they're made out of ceramic but they have this glaze. So there are many opinions that say that that coating obligates it now to to uh immersion and others that say that it doesn't need. So I would recommend that every person uh advise, with their local bona fide rabbinic council uh to seek to seek a halachic ruling regarding each specific item, because there are some that are glazed and you can see the glaze is like a shiny glaze. Some that are not. They are. There's just something to like. I don't know why they do it, maybe to give it a nicer finish, I don't know. But again, it should be.

08:22
Porcelain utensils do not require immersion but, as with earthenware, if the inside was coated with a material that requires immersion, they are to be immersed without a blessing. Here too, if they were coated, both in the inside and on the outside, with a substance that would require immersion, a blessing must be recited upon immersing them. Okay, so again, we still have to see in practicality each dish that we have today whether or not. So glass, all glass, needs to. It's actually an interesting task because you need to make sure that the entire vessel is in the water. Now, if you take a cup and you put the cup into the water, you're going to have a pocket without water in it, right? So you have to turn the cup upside down so that, now it you know, this is the basic physics of how it right. So you put the cup in now it's filled with water, basic physics of how it right. So you put the cup in, now it's filled with water.

09:25
I've seen people, you know, try to dip their new coffee mug. Right, it's made out of metal and they put it in and then you put it face down. It's not getting water in the entire vessel. So you got to make sure you scoop it, then you leave it. At some point you let go of it and you catch it. It has to be for one moment. It's got to be completely immersed in the water.

09:49
I've had experiences at times where sometimes it's either a heavy dish or a delicate something delicate, and you let go of it and it falls out of your hand and it's broken on the bottom of the mikvah floor. I've had glass and then you've got a bigger problem because it's broken on the bottom of the mikvah floor. Uh, I've had glass and then you've got a bigger problem because it's a mikvah that's used by people and you need to now make sure that you don't have any glass shards in there. It's a, it's a very. That's why many, many communities, as we do in houston, have separate mikvahs for just utensils. That's why many have that, to ensure that such mistakes don't happen Again.

10:27
This is many, many years ago, but anytime you buy new dishes, it requires immersion in water in a mikveh. If it's an old, a used utensil which was used by an Adalater in a manner that would require it and render it fit for kosher use by either Hagola, which is purging with hot water, or with Libu and with fire purging, which we're going to get to discussing exactly what that is. But just to give you an understanding okay, any vessel that absorbs flavor kosher, not kosher milk meat okay, in order for a Jew to use, it needs to have a cleansing. Okay, what does that mean? Let's say you find this really, really nice pot, that you want to start making your chicken soup for Shabbos in that pot. You buy it from a non-Jew. The non-Jew used it for his pork chops. The non-Jew used it for whatever it was okay.

11:34
So now, how do you use it? It's not kosher, so you have to kosher it. How do you kosher it? There's two ways to kosher it. Either with a well, depending on what item it is. But let's say you buy a barbecue grill. Barbecue grill is the same thing. You buy a barbecue grill online from eBay or something, and it was used, so you got to clean it. How are you going to kosher it so that now you can put your kosher barbecue meats on those gr and making sure that the whole thing? So there's a process. We're going to talk about the full process, but basically there are two ways to kasha something.

12:11
Either you immerse it in boiling hot water. So I'll give you a quick example. I am, I told you. You know, this is not a secret I'm left-handed in both hands in the kitchen. Okay, I'm also like I don't know what dishes, what, what, what. So I've unfortunately trafed up several things in my kitchen and my wife is like you know, just go, okay. Okay, just tell me what you need, I'll get it for you. So, for example, recently my wife asked me for some delicious chicken soup. So I took the ladle that I thought was the flashic one and it wasn't. And now that ladle is flashic. So in order to unflashicify it okay, that's a new word In order to unflashic it, I need to immerse it in boiling water.

13:01
So what do you do? You fill up a big pot with water, you put it on the highest to get it to bubble. Once it's bubbling, that's the point that it will nullify all the flavor that's in it. Okay, and it has to be a metal. If it's a metal ladle, or if it's a metal spoon or fork or knife, then if it's plastic, you can't kosher it. Get a new one, you can't kosher it. You can keep it for flash sticks, but you can't. So that's what needs to be done.

13:28
We have a bag when something becomes by mistake, if one of the children take out. They take the fleshy spoon for milk, something. They take a milk and only if it's hot. Again, it has to be hot because the transfer of flavor is with heat. So it's a mistake. What do you do? We put it in the bag and we kosher them all together when there's a critical mass. I got to do each one. It's a process, right. So either way, and after you take it out of the hot water, you rinse it in cold or you dip it in cold water and then it is koshered and it is like a brand new utensil. So you can technically take all of your meat dishes or your dairy dishes and change them over to the other just by dipping them into that water. And it's got to be a full immersion. So you put it right in.

14:24
Now, when do people do this most frequently? People most frequently do this for Pesach only. You do this for Pesach. Pesach, if you want to use your year-round dishes I'm not talking about dishes, but utensils you want to use it for Pesach. So you have to do Ha'agolah, you have to use this, and they have. Torch did it for years, for decades. Torch did it.

14:51
Now the HKA does it and the HKA basically puts together an entire team. There's someone who will make sure that it's clean, inspect it, make sure that it's got to be fully clean. It cannot have been used for 24 hours. So you can't just oh, made a mistake, boom, drop it in the hot water. It doesn't work. You got to wait 24 hours and then you can do that. Also, yeah, you have to ensure that there's nothing attached to it, like if there's no, no, no grease or nothing like that, it has to be really, really, really clean. Then they'll take it, they'll dip it in. After they dip it in to the hot water, they will then put it into cold water and then it's yours to go and it's now neutral.

15:33
So you can now make that dairy, you can make it meat, you can make it parav. Whatever you decide, parav is not meat, not milk, it's in between and and. Yeah, so that's the process and that's the two different types of kashering that are now for your, for your, countertops. We kasher our countertops before Pesach. So you can do it in a number of ways, as long as you get it to a temperature where it burns out any flavor that's there, that would be in the countertop or anything that's in there. So you can either do it with a steamer, you can do it with an iron, you can do it with hot water, whichever one works for you. You can either do it with a steamer, you can do it with an iron, you can do it with hot water. All right, whichever one works for you, you can. You can do uh, and that applies on the countertops, that applies on the backsplash, that applies on uh, on anything that uh that has absorbed.

16:24
Now there's certain things that cannot be koshered. Okay, we'll get to this. So one must first render it fit for kosher use and then immerse it, okay. So if you're buying a set of a barbecue grill from a non-Jew, you first have to kosher it and then you have to put it into the mikvah. You don't do it right. First you have to kosher it and make sure that it's able to be used for kosher use, and then you take it to the mikvah and immerse the grates. Okay, you don't take the whole barbecue grill right, just the part that's actually coming in contact with the food, which are the grates. Okay, halacha, number five, imshal osachar klima akum.

17:09
If one borrowed or rented a utensil from an idolater, it does not require immersion. So you're renting pots and pans from a rental thing for an event, right? So that would not require an immersion. If one borrows or rents utensils made by an adulterer from a Jewish shopkeeper, they require immersion without reciting a blessing, and the shopkeeper should inform whoever will later purchase the utensil that it had been immersed previously, in order that the purchaser not immerse it a second time with a blessing, because now, if the item had been already dipped in the mikvah with a blessing, it doesn't need to be immersed again with a blessing, Because now, if the item had been already dipped in the mikvah with a blessing, it doesn't need to be immersed again with a blessing. Now, the second person who recites it with a blessing is saying a blessing that's not needed and that would be a violation of an unnecessary blessing.

18:07
Okay, halacha number six, yisro la machzik huteh she'oysin sham kliz chokhes. If a Jew has a factory in which glass utensils are manufactured, ve'apolem heim enam yehudim, and the workers are non-Jews, hakelem she'nasim sham atzvich mitvila b'lo bracha, the utensils that are manufactured there require immersion without reciting a blessing. Now, this is specifically regarding glass, and some authorities hold that, since the workers acquire a degree of ownership in the utensils due to the improvements that he contributes to them. Accordingly, the utensils require immersion. Others hold that the utensils remain under the complete ownership of the Jewish proprietor of the factory and therefore do not require immersion. The utensil must therefore be immersed, but a blessing should not be recited. In modern factories, utensils are usually not made individually by a worker, but by machine, are usually not made individually by a worker, but by machine. In addition, the workers are not paid for each individual utensil made, but by the day or week. Rabbi Feinstein therefore holds that in this case, it is not required to immerse those utensils.

19:27
Okay, yisrael shonos en kesef o sha'ar minei matachos le'uman akum. So a Jew goes to a craftsman and he says here's my metal, here's my silver, and I want you to make something out of it. And the craftsman is an idolater, a non-Jew, she yasalokli. He asks him to make a utensil for him. I want you to make a you know, a spatula. I want you to make a ladle. I want you to make a goblet, whatever it may be. He wants him to make it for it. Oshi takin lo klish ayinakov. Or if he wants him to repair a utensil that has been cracked or has had a hole.

20:08
V'lohoi, yamachzik, revias, and the vessel on its own would not hold a measurement. The is about three ounces, between three and five ounces upon completion. The utensil also requires immersion, but without a blessing meaning, because now you made it back into a vessel, so now it's a new vessel. It would require another immersion. Okay, just a few more.

20:34
Halachas, halacha, number eight, ein tzarich tevila. There is no need to immerse all utensils that come into contact with any food Ela kli, she mishtamshin, ba'ol machal rather only utensils that is used for food that is ready to be eaten immediately. B'li shum, tikonacher, without any further preparation. Those require immersion. However, the iron utensils with which the unbaked matzos are prepared and with which the dough is cut, and the needle with which stuffed birds are sewn before being cooked, and the like. They do not require immersion, why? Because they're not dealing with the final product of the food, but the slaughtering knife and the knife that is used for skinning animals, since such a knife could be used for preparing food, and similarly, the trays upon which unbaked matzos are placed during preparation.

21:40
Tzrichen, tzvilab, elo Bracha. They require immersion, but without a blessing. A dryfus, shema Amidon, olav HaSektero, a tripod upon which the pot is placed while cooking. So they used to make these like little tripods and they would put the pot on it and they would have the fire beneath it. So what do you do with those, since the food does not actually come in contact with it? Ein Tzuchet Fil does not require immersion at all, does not require immersion at all. Aval shapud, shalmateches shitzol and olav basar. However, the iron spit upon which the meat is roasted so if you go to an Israeli restaurant they'll have sometimes like a shish kebab, right, so they'll have it on a metal that is roasting the meat or chicken that requires immersion with a blessing. Why, again, it's actually coming in direct contact with the final product.

22:45
Some authorities say that large glass utensils jugs and bottles that you do not drink from them. You don't drink from them, but they just hold it. Think of like a jug or one of those pitchers, right, you don't use them directly, it goes into your cup and then you drink it, so it's a secondary. So there are some who say that, since you pour them into the cups, they're not considered utensils that pertain to the meal and do not require immersion. And there are those who say that it does require immersion. The proper thing is to dip it, indeed, but without a blessing. Okay, rechaim shel pilpulin, tzorich tvile mitoch ha'matochos. A pepper mill requires immersion because of the metal blades. Aval ha'tachton, sh'mekabel es ha'tavlin. However, the lower section, the receptacle which receives the ground spice, kevin shuhu shel etz ein tzarech tevilo, since it's made out of wood, it does not require immersion.

23:59
Ve'rechaim shel kaveh, a coffee grinder, should be immersed without reciting a blessing. So if you have a coffee grinder this could be a question, sometimes you have you can go to Costco, for example, if you buy beans coffee beans they have a coffee grinder there for you to use. It may be questionable whether or not you can use it. Now, it's not owned by a Jew all right, it's not made by a Jew generally. So does it fall into the category that you're borrowing somebody's utensil for your beans? Okay, this is something that we can look into a little bit later.

24:38
A coffee grinder, like the slaughtering knife, is mostly used for unfinished food, as the coffee must be cooked after it is ground. Nevertheless, since the grinder is occasionally used for other foods that can be eaten immediately after grinding, it requires immersion. So if someone the question will come up, I'm sure well, I only use it for grinding coffee. So now, what right? So if it's indeed strictly only used for grinding coffee, like you do have in a Costco, it's possible that we should not need to immerse it. And if they're not going to immerse it, which they're not going to, then we probably should not be grinding our beans there.

25:25
Okay, halacha, number 10. Just three more halachas, I believe. Yeah, four more halachas. Tzvichim la-hashgiyach kodem ha-tvilash yihyeh ha-klinaki.

25:35
We must take care that the vessel, before immersion, be completely clean. V'lo y'alav shum lichluch hay chaluda Shouldn't have any dirt, shouldn't have any rust. Ach roshim chudah. If there's just a remaining mark of the rust and it's been removed, or there's a mere blackness on whatever this is, it's, you know, an old pot. Whatever it is, it's fine.

26:05
Shedar Kobakach Ve'ein Makbidon Olov. If it is normal and you're not objected to that coloring, to that miscoloring enomazic, it does not interfere with the immersion and it is fine. Now, stickers that you have underneath the bottom of glasses when you buy a new glass. It'll be like a manufacturing sticker or a price sticker that's got to be taken off. That would be considered an interference between the water and the or a barrier between the water and the object and the vessel. You only need to dip it one time. It needs to be completely immersed in the water. A vessel that has a handle, it needs to be submerged with the handle. So the whole thing's got to be underwater. You can't have half of it in, half of it out and then you'll turn it over and do the other side. The whole thing's got to be in.

27:13
If a person who is immersing the utensil and holding it in his hand See, he says, instead of letting go and sometimes losing some, he says dip letting go and sometimes losing some he says dip your hand in first into the mikvah and then you can hold on to it. You first dip your hand into the water where he will immerse the utensil. And he should not grasp the utensil with force, but rather with an average grip, a loose grip. Elo b'dibuk beinoni. With a loose grip. Ve'im tovlon al yedei ma'a shekoshrin es ha'kli bechevel.

27:49
Similarly, if one is immersing by the means of a rope tied to the utensil, tsichim la'ashgih she'a'kesh a'rofuy she'yuchlu ha'mayim lovo b'chol makom ha'kli. So if, let's say, you're on a bridge and you're going to be letting it down now into the bayou or whatever it is that is beneath, you know, the water beneath bayou might not be a good option, but let's say you're letting your new pot in. You have to make sure that, yes, you can tie a knot, but you make sure it's a loose knot so the water can get in. If it's tied too tight, the water's not going to get into that area. Halacha, number 11.

28:30
If you're immersing vessels, utensils that have a narrow opening, he must take care to ensure that they remain in the water until they become filled with all the water. It is necessary they remain in the water until they become filled with all the water. Ki tzrichin she'yavo ha'mayim alakli mibifnim umi bachutz. It is necessary for the water to cover the entire surface of the utensil, both the inside and the outside. Katon, a boy who is less than 13 years old, and Ketana, a girl who is lower than the age less than the age of 12 years old, einam ne'emonim al-tfilas ke'elam, are not trusted regarding the immersion of utensils. So it's best for someone who is above the age of 13, for boys, and above the age of 12 for girls to fulfill this mitzvah.

29:15
Oster lahat bil klib es-Shabbos v'yomtov. It is prohibited to immerse utensils on Shabbos and on Yom Tov and or on Yom Tov. And if someone forgot to immerse utensils before Shabbos and Yom Tov, then there's a solution to this. You give it as a gift to a non-Jew it belongs to the non-Jew and then borrow it back from him and now, since it's his item, not your item, you can use it. You can borrow from a non-Jew. Remember we said that, which would now answer our question regarding the Costco item, the Costco grinder that since it belongs to a non-Jew, it would be fine to use it.

29:58
If the utensil that was not immersed before Shabbos can be used to bring water, then if it is placed, it is in a place that one may carry on Shabbos. He may draw water with it yishav bo'mayim v'yehuvieh u'lebay, so immersing it totally in the water and bringing it home. Thus it, in effect, was also being immersed. Let's say you're taking your new jug, that you're going to bring water to your house, which people once needed to do. They didn't have faucets, they didn't have spring water coming out of their fridge or whatever. It is the reverse osmosis. This is a luxury that we have today. It used to be. You had to go out and get from the well, whatever. So let's say you get your new pitcher. Now you realize oh yeah, I didn't tavel it, I didn't dip it in the mikvah before Shabbos I can't do that right, but because you're in the process of just taking water for what you need at home, now it's going to be immersed in the mikvah. It's fine, okay, so you got a two-four there. It's permitted because it does not appear as though he is immersing it for halachic reasons and he should not recite over this immersion of the vessel.

31:19
Now there's another thing of. There are some opinions that hold that if you are using the utensil only once, it's not being reused, so then it doesn't require being dipped in a mikvah at all. So what does that mean? So, for example, aluminum pans, you could reuse it. Some people reuse it, most people don't, though. So there's actually there are kosher brands of silver foil, silver pans, silver foil pans, the recyclable pans that are made from a Jewish company, and it'll have engraved in the bottom of the silver foil pan, those 9x13 pans, or whatever they are, it'll say Ein Tsarach Tzvilet does not need to be immersed because it's a Jewish company and Jewish company, jewish-owned, and therefore it does not need to be. And even if there are non-Jewish workers there, that is fine, all right.

32:28
I hope this wasn't too confusing. I know that you have questions, so now we're going to have Ask Away number 22 to deal with all of your questions. My dear friends those of you online thank you so much for joining us. We're going to be going live again in a minute with our Everyday Judaism, episode 22 of the Ask Away series. My dear friends, have a lovely week. Thank you so much for joining us.

32:50 - Intro (Announcement)
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