[Avodah] induction cooking

[Zev Sero]

Micha Berger wrote:
> On Fri, Sep 26, 2008 at 02:19:31AM +0000, kennethgmiller at juno.com wrote:
> : If I understand you correctly, you would not require a blech on a hot
> : plate or crock pot, because no flame is visible in those devices.
> 
> I was saying more that I don't understand why we require a blech. (As
> opposed to a declaration.) Given that pre-modern poseqim write, as RZS
> said, that it's either or, why does the SSK and R' Eider require covering
> the controls when one can't see a flame? Shouldn't the crockpot hiding
> from me the glow of its coils, or the induction plate avoiding glow
> altogether, be just as good as if there was a flame and I covered it
> and NOT the controls?

Because AIUI ketimah is not about making the flame invisible, but about
deliberately taking an act that slows the cooking from its usual rate,
thus demonstrating a lack of interest in getting it cooked quickly.
Using a crock pot that *always* hides its coils, or an induction plate
that has no flame in the first place, doesn't do that.  So you have no
ketimah; which leaves us with gerifah, which can be achieved by covering
the knobs (or by removing them altogether, if you want a more literal
correspondence).

-- 
Zev Sero               Something has gone seriously awry with this Court's
zev at sero.name          interpretation of the Constitution.
                       	                          - Clarence Thomas