What happens if you mess up and say, use the “meat dishes” for ice cream? Or if you inadvertantly eat something non-kosher?
I’m honestly curious here. I just read a novel which featured an observant Jew as one of the characters, and it spoke briefly about the two sets of dishes, etc, but I’d like to learn more.
–tygre
Simply, you have to cleanse them. How depends on the materials used to make the dish/utensil/pot. The processes ranges from filling the treifed pot to the rim and boiling (letting the water boil over the rim) to using a blowtorch. IIRC, dishes made from porous materials, such as wood and unglazed ceramics are extremely difficult, if not impossible to kashrut.
Again, I’m sure zev or another will be along soon to correct/supplement what I wrote. When I was living in a kosher house, my Jewish roomie assisted/supervised when I was kashruting something I’d treifed, so details are fuzzy.
Sua
If the food is cold (such as eating ice cream with meat utensils) the utensil simply need to be cleaned and washed well.
If the food is hot, the utensil may need to be kashered. The process of kashering depends on the material the utensil is made from. Certain materials (earthenware, for example) cannot be kashered.
If a person eats something non-kosher, but doesn’t involve any of his utensils (eats out of home, for example) no kashering needs to be done in the house, of course.
Zev Steinhardt
Zev Steinhardt
No pepperoni pizza?
No chili cheese dogs?
What about paper plates and platic eating utensils? can you just use those and chuck them?
This all sounds like a terrific PITA. Are there many Jewish people that are that strict?
I just knew I was using the wrong word.
Sua
No pepperoni pizza.
No chili chese dogs (unless veggie)
No cheeseburgers.
It’s not nearly as bad as you make it sound.
As for how many… all Orthodox Jews and many Conservative Jews are “that strict.”
Zev Steinhardt
<< No cheeseburgers. >>
The original Torah text says simply not to boil a kid in its mother’s milk, but this commandment is repeated three times. Thus, the first interpretation is not to eat milk and meat together. The Talmud interprets this to mean also using separate pots and dishes for milk products and for meat products. So the idea of “using paper plates” for a cheeseburger and “throwing them away” would avoid the separate dishes part, but would violate the essence of the law by eating mixed milk/meat.
Although no reasons are given for these commandments, the best poetic explanation I’ve heard is that the mixture of meat (blood, symbolizing death) and milk (white like semen, symbolizing life) is inelegant.
And my final point: it is possible to have a kosher cheeseburger, using soy (non-meat) with cheese; or using non-dairy cheese with the meat; or, best of all, using both soyburger and non-dairy cheese, to have a parvedic (neither meat nor milk) cheeseburger.
It’s not a PITA, but it can be challenging, especially when travelling. When we go on vacation, we check out websites that list kosher restaurants in various cities. Then, we drag out the huge insulated cooler, fill it with ice, and put in stuff like bagels, bread, cream cheese, and peanut butter. We buy tuna fish, plastic utensils, paper plates, etc., and we’re ready to go. Usually motels like Hampton Inn have a breakfast bar that includes the kosher cereals, so we can eat there as well. We even found a kosher deli inside a supermarket in Buffalo NY!