Kashrus - Soap Making

QUESTION: I bought a soap-making kit. Some of the ingredients may not be kosher. The instructions call for cooking the ingredients in a pot. Is this permissible?

ANSWER: It is fair to assume that soap is not fit for human consumption. Even if it were made with non-kosher ingredients, since they are mixed with harsh chemicals and converted into soap, this will not make the pot non-kosher. However, there is an old custom not to wash pots and dishes with non-kosher soap together with scalding hot water. In the 1800s, the kosher certification for Rokeach soap was granted by one of the most prominent rabbis of that generation, Rabbi Yitzchok Elchanan Spektor, the chief rabbi of Kovno. Although strictly speaking the pots would remain kosher even if the soap was not, if possible, we try to avoid contact with non-kosher items in our pots, even if they are inedible. If one already cooked soap in their pot, there is no need to kasher it afterwards. If one has no other pot to use for the soap making, since this is just an added stringency, there is reason to allow this.

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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.