Leftover Bread

Q. I have leftover slices of bread from a milchig meal. The bread was cut with a pareve knife. Can the bread be served at a fleishig meal?

A. The Yerushalmi (Pesachim 6:4, cited by Shulchan Aruch YD 89:4) states that one who ate a milchig meal and now wants to eat fleishigs must remove all the bread from the table. Not only may he not serve the leftover bread from the milchig meal, but it may not even remain on the table. The concern is that some cheese might have rubbed off on the bread. Although the bread appears to be clean, Chazal require us to suspect that cheese may have come in contact with the bread, since no one was watching the bread during the meal.

Rav Moshe Feinstein zt”l (Igros Moshe YD 1:38) proves from the wording of the Yerushalmi that Chazal were only discussing slices of bread that one cut to eat with the meal. This bread must be removed from the table because of the concern that it touched dairy. However, we need not assume that a large loaf of uncut bread was touched by cheese (unless one saw this happen). Still, he concludes that, if possible, it is best to remove the bread even though it is not mandated by halacha.

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The Gerald & Karin Feldhamer OU Kosher Halacha Yomis is dedicated to the memory of Rav Yisroel Belsky, zt"l, who served as halachic consultant for OU Kosher for more than 28 years; many of the responses in Halacha Yomis are based on the rulings of Rabbi Belsky. Subscribe to the Halacha Yomis daily email here.