Question:
1.
Do metal and glass utensils
manufactured outside of Israel and then brought into Israel require Tevilat
Keilim?
2.
Do plastic utensils require
Tevilat Keilim?
My Introduction: This week’s halacha is one
where the analysis is certainly more interesting than the halachic conclusions.
In short, yes, we must assume that all utensils coming from outside of Israel
require tevilat keilim and no, plastic utensils need not be toveled at all. If
all you want is the bottom line, you can stop reading here.
Answer: The Talmud (Avoda Zara 75b) says that
utensils used with food that are purchased from a non-Jew require tevila even
if they are brand new and were not used by the non-Jew at all. The source comes
from the Torah: אך את הזהב ואת הכסף את הנחושת את ברזל ואת
העופרת, כל דבר אשר יבוא באש תעבירו באש וטהר.. אך במי נדה יתחטא.
Chazal interpret the “water of niddah” to mean the type of
water that a niddah is tovel in, i.e. the forty se’ah of a mikvah. In other
words, after the Jews took the utensils from the Midyanim, they kashered them,
but that was not enough. Kashering removes the non-kosher flavoring in the pots,
but there is still a need for tevilat keilim which applies even to new utensils.
The Talmud Yerushalmi explains the taam hamitzvah hereas
once the utensil leaves the possession of a non-Jew and moves into the kedusha
of a Jew it must be “made holy” through the mikvah. Some actually compare this
to just as a non-Jew who wants to convert to the holiness of Judaism; he must
go into the mivkah. So too, utensils require immersion before a Jew can use
them.
Finally, when immersing Metal and Glass utensils one must
make a bracha. Plastic materials will need to be discussed below.
Q:#1 – Utensils Brought into Israel
At first glance this should be simple. Outside of Israel the
majority of people and companies that manufacture utensils are not Jewish.
Thus, it should be obvious that tevila should be required. So what is the
question here?
The other side of this story revolves around a fascinating question
about the rule of ספק ברכות להקל, that generally
speaking in the topic of brachot, if there is a doubt if a bracha is warranted,
you should be lenient and not recite the bracha. The logic is that saying a
bracha that is not needed is likened to taking Hashem’s name in vain, a violation
of לא תשא את שם ה׳ אלקך לשוא, which is amongst the most severe sins. Therefore,
with brachot that are typically Rabbinic in nature, when in halachic doubt, don’t
say one.
So, in our case where the utensils come from out of Israel,
although there is the rule of majority that tells us the likelihood is this come
from a non-Jew and thus needs tevila with a bracha, perhaps ספק ברכות להקל should come into play and tell us not to make
one.
Rav Ovadia explains that we should distinguish between two
kinds of doubt:
1.
The type of doubt where we generally apply ספק ברכות להקל would
be in a case of a מחלקת הפוסקים. When there
is a מחלקת הפוסקים as to
what the proper halacha is in a certain situation, although אחרי רבים להטות, that
we follow the majority opinion, tells us which opinion to act like, we do not
actually leave the minority opinion behind completely. In other words, we
remain somewhat in doubt. The reason is that had the poskim with different
opinions had the opportunity to get in a room and talk the issue out, perhaps
the majority would have convinced the minority to concede to their view. For
this reason, with brachot we would be lenient and not risk taking Hashem’s name
in vain.
2.
However, when there is a majority is a natural reality, like in our
case, the natural reality is that the majority of people outside of Israel are
not Jewish. In this situation אחרי רבים להטות tells us that the minority is completely subsumed and ignored.
Therefore, in our case we can state unequivocally that the utensil comes from a
non-Jew and requires tevila. Therefore, you can ignore the minority and recite
a bracha.
Another example of this would be on
Purim, where we have a city that is in doubt if it was a walled city in the
days of יהושע בן נון, and
therefore we are not sure if we read megillah on the 15th of Adar like
walled cities or the 14th of Adar like non-walled cities. The halacha
is we go by the majority and since the majority of the cities in the world, the
natural reality, is non-walled cities, we read in that city on the 14th
(and again on the 15th without a bracha). We read it with all the
brachot, despite there being some doubt; the majority subsumes the minority.
Q:#2 – Do Plastic Utensils Require Tevila?
The Talmud in Avoda Zara (75b) says that earthenware
utensils do NOT need tevila because when the Torah instructs us to do tevilat
keilim it only spoke of Metal Utensils. Then Chazal added מדרבנן that you are required to
tovel glass utensils since they share a similar property with metal. Just as a
metal utensil can be melted down and then rebuilt, so too, glass utensils can
be broken down (albeit by a professional glazier) and reformed back into a new
glass utensil. For this reason, Chazal required glass utensils to be immersed.
Rav Ovadia questions if we should compare plastic utensils
to glass ones in that they too can be broken down and rebuilt. However he
quotes the שו׳׳ת מלמד להועיל who writes that
plastic does not require tevila because we do not extend the gezeirot, the added
restrictions of Chazal and if they did not require it by plastic, we need not
extend it there. Rav Ovadia then quotes a number of other poskim who agree with
this and elaborate that especially since plastic was not in existence during
the times of Chazal there is no reason to extend the prohibition to it.
Presumably this means that these poskim do not require tevila at all. However,
there are a few poskim who suggest to be stringent and tovel the utensils but
WITHOUT a bracha. Rav Ovadia concludes that this is not necessary and one
need not tovel plastic utensils at all.
Summary:
1.
We must assume that
all utensils coming from outside of Israel require Tevilat Keilim.
2.
Plastic utensils need not be toveled at all.
Other Links to Laws of Tevilat Keilim and Which Type
of Utensils Require Tevila
(Summary based on יחוה דעת חלק ג׳ סימן
ס׳)
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