Mishloach Manos on a Metal Tray

Q. This Purim, I am planning to send cookies to my neighbor on a metal tray for mishloach manos. Should I tovel the tray, or should my neighbor perform the tevilah?

A. Bais Yosef (Yoreh De’ah 120) writes that tevilah is only required for utensils used with food. Thus, if a Jewish store owner buys utensils from a non-Jew for resale, the merchant is not obligated to perform the mitzvah of tevilah. Since there is no mitzvah, even if the merchant was tovel the utensils, the tevilah would be ineffective; the purchaser would be required to perform tevilah in spite of the earlier tevilah. Similarly, a tray purchased as a stand-alone gift cannot be toveled before it reaches the recipient. However, if the gift will be a tray with food on it (such as mishloach manos on a tray), there is a dispute whether the giver is required to perform tevilah. Therefore, the proper procedure in the latter case is for the giver to tovel the tray without a bracha and then inform the recipient that he too should tovel the tray without a bracha.

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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.