Tvilat Kelim
Question
Hi – I’m slowly increasing my level of observance and while we only buy kosher meat at home and separate milk and meat, we use the same dishes and buy foods with no hechsher.
I just bought new dishes and thought I might use them strictly as my meat dishes but was wondering if I should toivel them if the foods that will be in them might not be kosher by all standards (foods prepped in my kitchen with pans and silverware that would not be considered kosher).
Basically, should I toivel dishes if they won’t be used in the strictest kosher keeping kitchen?
Answers
First, please accept my personal blessing that you continue to grow in Torah observance and knowledge, in good health and contentment for many, many more years to come.
I appreciate that it sounds a little incongruous, but the correct thing to do is to take your new dishes to immerse them in the Keli Mikveh with a blessing – even though the food served on your new dishes may not be completely Kosher. The reason is that keeping Kosher and toveling utensils are two separate obligations, and not doing one of them does not mean that the other should not be done.
Please allow me to suggest: If you have gone to all the trouble and expense of buying new dishes, perhaps it might be possible to buy some (or at least one) new pots and pans and to designate them to use only for preparing meat meals.
Best wishes from the AskTheRabbi.org Team