OU KASHRUT RABBI EZRA FRIEDMAN PAGE BY Director, The Gustave & Carol Jacobs Center for Kashrut Education
The Hag’alah Procedure (continued)
H
ag’alah, kashering with hot water, can be done at home in a few simple steps. Nevertheless, it is imperative to ensure the safety of everyone involved, as well as children who may be at home. When working with large quantities of boiling water, precautions are essential! The “Hag’alah Pot” A large pot should be used. There is a difference between kashering non-kosher flavor and kashering for Pesach regarding the pot being used for hag’alah. When kashering non-kosher flavor (or a mix up between milk and meat) it is customary to take a kosher eino ben yomo pot (which wasn’t used twenty-four hours before kashering) for the process of boiling water (see Rema OC 452:2). However, for Pesach, if a chametz pot (e.g. year round) is used, it is customary to kasher it before using it for hag’alah (Shulchan Aruch Harav 452:22, Mishna Berura 452:10). If one wishes to use a Pesach pot as the kashering pot, it is customary to kasher it afterwards in order to use it subse48
TORAH TIDBITS / VAYIKRA 5781
quently on Pesach (Sha’ar Hatziyun 452:15). Boiling water Pure water should be used for hag’alah. The water should come to a boil and remain so throughout the kashering process. If after numerous immersions the water has stopped boiling, one should wait for it to reboil before continuing. If the water was not boiling when the utensils were immersed, the kashering must be repeated (Mishna Berura 452:8). In a case where hag’alah was done in water that had stopped boiling, the process must be repeated. The utensils Utensils must be clean and dry before hag’alah. In order to facilitate immersing cutlery and other small items in the boiling water, a metal strainer basket may be used. One should take care that the utensils are not piled densely in the basket, since that might prevent the water from reaching all surfaces. If utensils are too long or too wide to fit into the hag’alah pot, kashering may be done in stages (see Tur YD 121). Hag’alah procedure Once the water has boiled, one should submerge the utensil so that its entire surface comes in contact with the water. When performing hag’alah on a cup or small pot, one should take care that the
