[Avodah] Rav Melamed on Metal Pots

[Akiva Miller via Avodah]

R' Micha Berger wrote:
> And the routine use of soap to clean pots is also new.
I asked:
> How is that relevant?

and now R' Micha responds:

> Less remains in cracks. Thus, less beli'ah.
> And besides, one can make nosein ta'am lifgam arguments.
> I think the smoothness of rolled metal is a bigger issue than which
> metal we're using (cast iron vs stainless). And soap.

If we were talking about a b'dieved situation, where one already used a
keli for the other gender, then I would understand how these factors are
relevant, because the less mamashus is present, then the greater the chance
that we have shishim against it.

But I thought this conversation is about l'chatchilah, that Rav Melamed and
others feel that stainless steel should be interchangeable, the way some
act with glass. If so, then I repeat that I do not see how smoothness and
soap are relevant.

I perceive a logic problem in the line "Less remains in cracks. Thus, less
beli'ah." The word "less" usually means "smaller but non-zero", in other
words, there IS some mamashus present. But the word "beli'ah" refers
specifically to ta'am, and if any mamashus is present, then hagala is not
effective. And a mere washing would certainly be ineffective.

In other words: If you tell me that a certain material doesn't need to be
kashered because its nature is such that it doesn't absorb ta'am, then I
will wonder how you made that determination, but at least there's nothing
contradictory or otherwise illogical about the claim. But if you tell me
that a certain material doesn't need to be kashered because it is smooth
and can be cleaned easily, then you just aren't making sense: Cleaning the
mamashus from a keli does nothing to remove the beli'ah from it, and being
smooth simply means that it is easy to clean.

CONFESSION and REQUEST: I freely admit that I've never learned these
halachos deeply as they should be learned. This entire post is based on
this balabos's weak understanding. If you can correct any of the claims I
made above, please enlighten me.

Akiva Miller
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