SUPPLEMENT TO ISSUE 25 תמוז תשע"ב / JULY 2012 PSAKIM FROM RAV BELSKY – וכשר הדבר heard from Rav פסקי הלכה The following collection of kashrus-related Belsky, were distributed as a daily email from March 5 - June 21, .for Rav Belsky’s health זכות as a ,2012 To highlight the broad range of contributors, each author’s style and spellings were preserved. BASAR B’CHALAV Cheeseburger with Pareve Cheese Aged Cheese Submitted by: Rabbi Dovid Cohen Submitted by: Rabbi Dovid Cohen Someone who serves almond milk The Ashkenazic minhag is that at a meat meal must put some after eating “hard cheese” one almonds on the table as a heker should wait 6 hours before eating that the milk is pareve. Rav Belsky meat, and Shach says that any said that this subtle heker is not cheese which is aged more than one that everyone will notice yet 6 months qualifies for this. Rav it is still considered “good Belsky clarified that this only enough” for these purposes. applies to cheeses which truly Accordingly he ruled that if a “age” for 6 months and develop restaurant is serving the pungent taste and hard cheeseburgers made with real texture which demand that one meat and pareve cheese, it is wait for 6 hours between eating enough for them to print “made them and meat. However, a with pareve cheese” on their standard packaged cheese (e.g. menu and receipts, even though mozzarella) which happened to sit some people will never pay in the refrigerator for 6 months is attention to the notice. not aging in any meaningful Dairy Bread manner and is not considered a Submitted by: Rabbi Zushe Blech “hard cheese” in this context. Halacha states that bread must always be pareve, lest it be used inadvertently with a meat (or Sappirim is a cRc publication written by Rabbi Dovid Cohen and edited by Ms. Biranit Kohn Page 2 Sappirim dairy) meal. In most states that eating cheese circumstances, this precludes the softened by cooking/baking does certification of dairy breads even not necessitate waiting six hours. if all of its ingredients are kosher. Rav Belsky maintains that the Yad Rav Belsky held, however, that Yehudah’s leniency refers to such bread is not “treif”, and cheese melted into a food, not to equipment used to produce non- cheese melted onto a food that is certified dairy bread which not integrated with the food to contains only kosher (albeit dairy) become part of the food. ingredients may still be used to produce kosher dairy cakes and other products that are allowed BERACHOS to be dairy. Cheerios Hekker Submitted by: Rabbi Eli Gersten Submitted by: Rabbi Eliyahu Ferrell Rav Belsky holds that Cheerios are If two people are eating on the not pas. This is because Cheerios same table with one eating meat are made by cooking the oats. and the other eating milk, there Although afterwards they must be a heker on the table so undergo a drying process, Rav that they do not accidentally eat Belsky held that since this drying from one another’s plates. Rav does not cause krimas panim Belsky said that the hekker must (forming of a crust/ be large enough to be noticed caramelization) but rather just and thereby serve as a reminder. dries out the O’s to give them Meat Soaked in Milk crunch, they are more similar to Submitted by: Rabbi Eliyahu Ferrell bread that is baked by leaving it Meat soaked in milk for 24 non- out in the sun. On such bread one consecutive hours. One wants to does not say hamotzi. This has cook this meat. The din is that a important implications for kevias greira must be removed. Rav seuda. According to this, if one Belsky pointed out that this kula ate a meal’s worth of Cheerios applies only to meat that is not they would still only say mezonos and al hamichya. However, he .בקעים and lacks מתובל thought there was reason to be Melted Hard Cheese machmir and avoid such Submitted by: Rabbi Eliyahu Ferrell situations. Also, accordingly one The Yad Yehudah (89:30 – Katzar, may eat Cheerios during aseres cited by Darchei Teshuvah 89:43) July 2012 Page 3 y’mei teshuva, when there is a (http://bit.ly/zbjkgW - page 9) it quotes Rav Belsky as differentiating between different types minhag to be nizhar only to eat of wraps. pas Yisroel. Onions in Herring BITUL Submitted by: Rabbi Yissachar Dov Krakowski Twice I witnessed Rav Belsky take Bitul of a Davar Pagum a fork of onions from pickled Submitted by: Rabbi Zushe Blech herring and make a ho’adomo. There is a general Halacha that Rav Belsky explained that since ingredients that are pagum are we follow the Mishnah Berurah’s batul b’rov. Rav Belsky felt, ruling (205:5) that onions are however, that this only applies shehakol both when they are raw where the pegimah is still and when they are cooked, the noticeable in the final mixture. In only time one may make a situations where the offending ho’adoma on them is when they material is diluted to the point are kavush (pickled). He where it cannot be detected – explained that he is therefore very but not batul b’shishim – then it much mechavev the (pickled) (the ingredient which contains the herring onions. davar pagum) is not batul. Wraps Darko L’Hishtamesh B’shefa Submitted by: Rabbi Tsvi Heber Submitted by: Rabbi Zushe Blech When Rav Belsky shlit”a came to Under certain circumstances, Toronto a few years ago, we had large kelim that been used for the zchus to host him for lunch at non-kosher products may be used which we served a variety of for kosher productions without “wraps”. Rav Belsky recited a kashering. The basis of this heter is borai minai mezonos on the that such kelim always contain wheat-based wraps. product that is more than 60 times Editor’s note: There was considerable reaction the volumetric displacement of to the above submission on Rav Belsky’s the material of the kli, thereby practice regarding wraps. It goes without saying that the Vekasher HaDavar pesakim are rendering any non-kosher b’lios meant to only reflect Rav Belsky’s positions and batul. Rav Belsky felt that this not necessarily that of other Rabbonim. However, it was pointed out that in one heter (where applicable) applies publication approved by Rav Belsky only where the amount of non- (http://bit.ly/wZuF7l - point “g”) it states that Rav kosher flavor absorbed by the kli is Belsky was of the opinion that the bracha is hamotzi, and in another one minimal - i.e. the non-kosher Page 4 Sappirim material that had compromised six hour waiting period after its kosher status had only a small eating meat. [My application of amount of treif ingredients. If the this is to some non-dairy creamers kli had been used to cook a fully that have a little bit of milk in them non-kosher product, then the and since we do not say chanan heter of darko l’hishtamesh on heter, shishim is only needed b’shefa would not apply. against the little milk in the non- Estimating Bitul in a Tank dairy creamer.] He said yes, as Submitted by: Rabbi Dovid Cohen the minhag is on the gavra to wait In a situation where kosher food six hours, and thus would not was processed in a non-kosher violate ein mivatlin issur tank, the proper way of lechatchila. calculating if the non-kosher b’lios are batel b’shishim is to compare CHALLAH the volume of the metal which comprises the tank’s walls to the Crumb Dough volume of the kosher food (rather Submitted by: Rabbi Yissachar Dov Krakowski than its weight). Rav Belsky Last week, Rebbetzin Presby (Rav created the following relatively Belsky’s daughter) asked her easy formula to calculate an father whether one is required to estimate of this type of ratio for a be mafrish challah on crumb cylindrically shaped tank: [R * H * dough, the dough used to create F] / [A (2H + R)] where A = the crumbs which are the thickness of the metal walls of the covering for an apple cobbler. tank (in inches); F = percentage of She described the ingredients the tank which is Full (e.g. 1 = (flour with considerable amounts 100%, 0.8 = 80% full); H = Height of of oil or margarine) and the tank (in inches); R = interior consistency of the finished Radius of the tank (in inches). For product (crumbs), and Rav Belsky an explanation of the basis for this ruled that there is no need to be formula and examples of how it is mafrish challah for this product. used, see http://bit.ly/OU-N-16. Non-Dairy Creamer Submitted by Rabbi Yosef Wagner I once asked Rav Belsky if someone can be mevatel milk bshishim in ones coffee during the July 2012 Page 5 COSMETICS & TOILETRIES Toothpaste Submitted by: Rabbi Moshe Dovid Lebovitz Mouthwash Rav Belsky said, based on a ruling Submitted by: Rabbi Moshe Dovid Lebovitz from Rav Yaakov Kaminetzky, that The opinion of the Taz 98:2 is that when the primary ingredient in one is not allowed to taste a non- toothpaste was inedible calcium kosher food with one’s tongue carbonate (chalk), the other because the person may come to ingredients were batel b’rov and eat it. Many mouthwashes one could use any toothpaste. contain a large amount of However, recently, in many types glycerin (which may be treif) of toothpastes, calcium which gives a refreshing taste, carbonate has been replaced and Rav Belsky said that since the with hydrated silica which mouthwash is sometimes comprises less than 50% of the swallowed the above ruling of Taz paste.