[Avodah] Rav Melamed on Metal Pots

Eli Turkel via Avodah avodah at lists.aishdas.org
Tue Sep 13 04:33:54 PDT 2016


Having summarized the article in BDD I will now summarize the earlier
article in Techumim. Since there is a great overlap between the two
hopefully this will be shorter.

The first section is a discussion whether "hechsher keilim" is based on
physical evidence or is an abstract concept. For example the laws of Tumah
are clearly spiritual and not physical. Going to a mikveh does not do
anything physical. Their claim is that hechsher keilim is a physical
phenomena. Their main proof that for a mixture of meat and milk one relies
on the taste of a kefelia (either expert or regular nonJew). Another proof
is that one can use a cold milchig dish for cold meat (Rama doesn't allow
but only because of possible problems). The third proof is from the
experiment of Ameimar (Pesachim 30b) In particular the Or-Zarua states that
hagalah and libun are not gezerot but rather they expel the issur.

So they conclude that as long as the absorption/expelling is small enough
it has no halakhic significance. They then discuss the halacha of
"ein mevatlim issur lechatchila"

They conclude with various quotes from RSZA (not in print) that agrees that
one can rely on the experiments when there are other reasons for a kulah.
He further is quoted as saying that a Sanhedrin could change these halachot
but changing them now would undermine every woman's kosher kitchen.

They then sen letters to several known poskim.
R Lior and R. Rabinovich are willing to accept that modern pots do not
absorb or expel (more than minimally).  However, they both distinguish
between lechachila and bi-deved.  Basically both allow use the same pots
for milchig and fleishig lechachila because it would create many confusions.

R Ariel points out that the Rama does not allow using glass for both
milchig and fleishig even though glass does not absorb. This is because
glass is made from sand and so is similar to cheres even though it doesn't
absorb. Therefore all metals are in one category and we don't examine
inter-category. Creating new categories will only confuse everyone (not
clear what he says about plastics) . R Asher Weiss just states
categorically that we follow our minhagim and chas veshalom to change whole
sections of the SA. Finally R. Arusi agrees that the basis on
hechsher keilim is physical, absorption and expelling nevertheless the
halacha does distinguish between thick and thin pots and so all metal and
glass vessels need hechsher and this is "like" (ke-ein) a gezera from the
Torah since the Torah prohibited  expelling a taste of issur even though we
don't have a ke-zayit within 3 eggs.

-- 
Eli Turkel
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/avodah-aishdas.org/attachments/20160913/30cf6678/attachment-0008.html>


More information about the Avodah mailing list