Q&A: Dairy and Meat Dishwashing Sponge
Originally published:
This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.
Dairy and Meat Dishwashing Sponge
Question
Dear Rabbi Michael, hello,
If dishes were washed in the sink with a sponge that was used to wash both meat dishes and dairy dishes, what should be done in order to use them?
And is it בכלל obligatory to have two sponges, one for dairy and one for meat?
Thank you, and Sabbath שלום!
Answer
If you didn’t wash with hot water, it seems to me that there is no problem after the fact. (And even with hot water, when there is soap that spoils the taste, in my opinion we are not concerned about it.) Ideally, it is proper to use separate sponges, because people are accustomed to keeping things separate even beyond the concern of mixture.