Q&A: Relying on Kashrut
Relying on Kashrut
Question
I sublet my home for a week to someone who isn’t religious. We agreed in advance that he wouldn’t use my oven, pots, or dishes, for kashrut reasons, and he said he had no problem with that—he never cooks anything anyway.
I came back and I have a strange feeling that he did something. I don’t know, it’s possible he used things in a non-kosher way. It’s something in the way he spoke, in certain things he said, and a kind of mockery about the whole kashrut issue. I can’t say exactly what aroused my suspicion, but bottom line, I’m really suspicious. He says that just as we agreed, he didn’t use anything except disposable utensils. The guy is gone now, that’s it.
Should I kosher everything again? It’s a hassle, but if from a halakhic standpoint it’s advisable to re-kosher things, I have no problem doing whatever needs to be done.
Answer
There is no clear-cut Jewish law here. It’s entirely a question of trustworthiness. With prohibitions, testimony is not really testimony, only persuasion. If you are suspicious, then this is a Torah-level doubt and you should kosher everything again. If you believe him, then no.
Discussion on Answer
Utensils do absorb. Why is it not certain that they absorb? Do you mean the new experiments? As long as you do not know otherwise, they absorb.
If it was not used that day, then indeed the food absorbed in it does not prohibit a mixture on the Torah level, only rabbinically. But regarding the utensil itself, one must discuss whether the prohibition on using it is Torah-level (because it absorbed a prohibition and became prohibited) or not. There are various textual inferences about this, and this is not the place.
Yes, I did mean the new experiments.
By the way, it’s not certain that the utensils changed; it may be that the cleaning agents changed. From the lukewarm water and sand and ash of the past—so that boiling water was considered purging—to the detergents of our day…
By the way, could you send a link about the “not the place” point?
I don’t have a link.
Why is the suspicion here a Torah-level doubt and not a rabbinic one?
After all, we’re talking about utensils, and it’s not certain that they absorb taste, and even if they do, the absorbed taste is spoiled after twenty-four hours if the utensil was not used that day.