Aino Ben Yomo - Double Uncertainty

QUESTION: Food was cooked in a pot that belongs to a non-Jew. One is uncertain as to when the pot was last used. Is the food forbidden, or does one have the right to assume that the pot had not been used in the past 24 hours?

ANSWER: Shulchan Aruch (Y.D. 122:6) rules that one may assume that the pot of a non-Jew is an aino ben yomo (not used in 24 hours), unless we know otherwise. This is because there are two uncertainties in this situation: a) perhaps the pot had not been used in the past 24 hours, and b) even if the pot had been used, perhaps the absorbed non-kosher flavor adversely affects the taste of the kosher food that was now cooked. (Adverse flavors are referred to as nosen taam lifgam, and they are always botel (nullified) even without a ratio of one to sixty. For example, if chocolate was melted in a pot that was used previously to cook non-kosher catfish, the chocolate remains kosher because fish and chocolate are incompatible.) A double uncertainty is referred to as a sfek sfaika and is halachically permissible.  

Rav Belsky, zt”l would often say that the above halacha applies only in a home setting, but we should not assume that utensils in a non-Jewish factory or restaurant were not used for 24 hours. This is because these utensils are generally used every day, multiple times a day. Furthermore, in a factory, it is generally possible to review the records, and this will show when the equipment was last used. We are not lenient with a safek when it is possible to verity the status. For both reasons, the concept of sfek sfaika is not applicable.

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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.