Q&A: Food Cooked by a Non-Jew
Food Cooked by a Non-Jew
Question
Hello Rabbi,
I’m currently in the army, and I’m stationed at an outpost where there is a kitchen that everyone has access to. A non-Jew fried bread with a fork, and then placed the fried bread on a plate in order to eat it. Afterwards he washed the utensils, and they got mixed in with the rest of the utensils. In addition, this person considers himself Jewish in his own view (his mother is a non-Jew and his father is Jewish), and going over to him and asking him not to cook anymore in the kitchen would cause a very great offense to his feelings.
A. What should be done with the frying pan, which we know for certain was used for the cooking?
B. What should be done with the plate and fork, which we cannot identify among all the kosher utensils?
C. How should one conduct oneself toward that person — should one hurt his feelings and tell him not to cook anymore in the kitchen, or is there some other creative solution that allows holding the rope from both ends?
Thank you.
Answer
First of all, there ought to be a rabbi assigned to the base, and he is the one who should handle these matters and determine who may cook and what the ruling is. In general, there are laws of nullification by majority, and if there is a plate that became forbidden and it disappeared from sight, as I understand it it is nullified by the majority.
Regarding the status of the utensil, the halakhic decisors disagreed about this (and one should remember that this is a rabbinic prohibition). See a summary here:
https://he.wikisource.org/wiki/%D7%97%D7%91%D7%9C_%D7%A0%D7%97%D7%9C%D7%AA%D7%95_%D7%97_%D7%9B%D7%93
There are quite a few laws and limitations regarding the prohibition of food cooked by a non-Jew: food that is eaten raw as is, food that is not fit to be served on a king’s table, when a Jew lit the fire, and more. And there are medieval authorities (Rishonim) who wrote that the prohibition of food cooked by a non-Jew is so that he not feed us forbidden foods, and not because of intermarriage concerns (Or Zarua), and based on that perhaps there is room to be lenient here (if there is no concern that he put forbidden food in there, or mixed meat and milk). And the Raavad wrote that if the non-Jew cooks in the home of a Jew, there is no concern of intermarriage and no prohibition (seemingly that is the case here, though there is room for discussion).
See a summary here: https://www.badatz.biz/article/%D7%91%D7%99%D7%A9%D7%95%D7%9C%D7%99-%D7%92%D7%95%D7%99%D7%99%D7%9D/
A creative solution is simply not to allow everyone access to cook in the kitchen. That also runs contrary to army regulations.
Discussion on Answer
Rabbi, regarding the plate that became forbidden and disappeared from sight — wouldn’t this fall under the category of something that will become permitted, since it would be possible to kosher all the utensils and thereby remove the doubt?
Interesting question, but this is a rabbinic-level doubt that is nullified by majority, and there is no real reason to be stringent about it even if it is something that will become permitted. Beyond that, it is very doubtful whether such a case is even called something that will become permitted. It involves considerable trouble, and it is not even clear whether they can do that there at the outpost.
In a public kitchen, is there really an issue of intermarriage? There’s no closeness at all…