April 23, 2007

Yes, No or Maybe- footnote

Picture me waking up in the middle of the night a couple of days after I kashered my kitchen. I am in a panic, running into the kitchen... checking for hechshered dish soap.

I think my online research was being processed in my sleep or something, but it only occured to me to check this *after* I kashered my kitchen (the process I haven't yet covered in my blog...we're still on "Yes, No and Maybe"...but it's coming)

Thankfully, both Cascade and Palmolive were hechschered. I mention this here, because I think it should have been part of my "Yes, No and Maybe" process, and not my "Omygoodness... Omygoodness... Did I... Did I?" process.

Can you imagine kashering your entire kitchen only to discover you were soaking your dishes in soap made from pig intestines?

6 comments:

spotter said...

Even if you did, it wouldn't be a problem. It's probably something that shouldn't be done with concsious thought, but if done after the fact, no rabbi would say its not kosher.

why? Because soap is "disgusting" and something that is disgusting has no effect on kashrut of a vessel.

cwexl said...

How is soap is disgusting? I thought soap was sort of the crime fighter of disgusting things?

But I am also interested in the concept that disgusting things don't have any effect on the kashrut of a vessel.

Is this because by "disgusting" they are differentiating between something too repugnant to eat?

Anonymous said...

Yes, it's disgusting in the sense that you definitely wouldn't want to eat it, and nobody would think of it as food.

spotter said...

Kashrut of vessels is about "Taam" (flavor). It's about the ability of the vessel to impart a "positive" flavor into the food. What this means is complicated :).

For this case, if something is disgusting, it can't impart a positive flavor, and hence has no kashrut ramifications.

For instance, imagine you have a hot water pot, and a bug falls in it and gets cooked. The bug is considered something "disgusting". Now an entire bug is also "assur" (not allowed) to be eaten (and an entire creature can't be batel (nullified). So what does one do , simply remove the bug. Any "taam" imparted on the vessel is considered "pagum" (disgusting) and is therefore inconsiquential.

what things are considered "disgusting" is also a complicated issue. Also, just because something is considered "disgusting" doesn't mean one can do it "l'chatchila" (literally "before the fact") but that if it happened it's ok b'diavad ("after the fact"). If one did something on purpose that is only ok "b'diavad", its not ok for that person to use it in many situations, but it would be ok for others.

Anonymous said...

Religion can be counterintuitive at times...

I don't think it's the religion that's counterintuitive nearly as often as some of it's practitioners. (although some laws are baffling at times) :)

Orthonomics said...

I saw your blog through your sister's blog and am looking through the posts.

Take a look at kosherquest.org. The Rabbi who writes the website is a very respected authority and he puts up a list of products for which you need NO heksher. Dish soap is one of those products, although most brand name dish soap has one anyways. There are many other products that don't need certification and if you print the list and put it in your purse you will have piece of mind.

Goodluck. :) And great blog.