Q&A: Kosher Food in a Secular Hostel
Kosher Food in a Secular Hostel
Question
Hello and blessings,
A good month!
I was hired to work as a counselor in a hostel where residents with cognitive disabilities live. The residents have different levels of disability, and different levels of religious observance—some are religious and some are secular. The management is secular.
Among other things, I am occasionally responsible for cooking meals together with the residents.
Officially, kashrut is observed there, meaning that the policy is to purchase products with some kind of kosher certification.
As for the separation of meat and dairy, I do not know whether anyone there can be relied upon. The counselors are secular, and of course the residents cannot be relied upon. It could be that they cooked dairy in a meat utensil that had been used within the last day, or vice versa, and so on. The cooking utensils are not marked at all, but usually they do not cook dairy.
I assume that I cannot eat the meals cooked there (?), but I would like to ask about the preparation itself—
Can I taste the food during preparation in order to check the seasoning?
Can I cook in the utensils or in the oven without concern that I am using a non-kosher utensil?
What about tithes, and about insects in the food?
What about the issue of immersing the utensils?
And what about causing the residents to stumble in matters of kashrut?
Answer
In principle, one cannot rely on a person who does not observe Torah and commandments, unless it has become clear to you that he is in fact reliably observant and knows the rules.
It is forbidden to cause a person to stumble through prohibited foods, and regarding meat and milk there is a prohibition on cooking that applies to the one who cooks even if he does not eat. Actively causing someone to stumble is forbidden according to most opinions even for someone who is defined in Jewish law as mentally incompetent and therefore not obligated in the commandments.
Clearly, you cannot eat there, and you also cannot taste. If tasting were permitted, there would be no need for a professional taster (a non-Jew who tastes non-kosher food; see Hullin 97a).
The same applies to tithes and insects, and likewise to immersing utensils.
As a rule, you need to insist on maintaining kashrut in that place, and not work in a non-kosher place.
Discussion on Answer
When you speak about an “unspecified utensil,” you are dealing with a situation of lack of information. This is not a case of the laws of doubt. You are in the place and can check and influence things, so the laws of doubt are irrelevant here. By the way, it is also not necessarily relevant that an unspecified utensil is presumed not to have been used within the last day. That depends on the circumstances and the situation.
I do not know how to answer regarding the practical measures. Kashrut has to be maintained. I do not know the place and do not know how realistic that is. In the army they try to do this, and in large, organized kitchens it works fairly well. In small places, much less so. Of course, if the cook is observant, it is easier.
Thank you for the response.
The Torah-level prohibition of cooking applies to actual meat and milk; here we are dealing with absorption in utensils, and it has been ruled that an unspecified utensil is presumed not to have been used within the last day, especially since it is uncertain whether they actually cooked dairy in it.
Are there measures and rules that can be put in place there to permit cooking there, or is there no way?