QUESTION: There were workmen in my house fixing a window. I left them unattended when I went out to drive carpool. Later, I remembered that there was an unsealed bottle of non-mevushal wine in my refrigerator. Do I have to throw out the bottle?

ANSWER: In this case, there are two mitigating factors. Although you left the workmen unattended, the workmen did not know when you might be returning. They did not know if there was enough time to partake of the wine and put everything back before you returned. Furthermore, they did not even know that there was any non-mevushal wine in the house. Darchei Teshuva (129:54) is lenient in a similar case, where there was no reason to assume that the workmen knew there was any wine around. However, if you had told the workmen that there were cold drinks in the refrigerator that they can take themselves, then the unsealed bottle of wine would be questionable.

___________________________________________________

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.