QUESTION: I have a used baking tray that was never toiveled. How clean does it have to be before I can toivel it?

ANSWER: Residue on a utensil forms a “chatzitza” (barrier) between the utensil and the water of the mikvah. If the residue covers most of the utensil and it is something that you would want to remove, then the tevila is invalid even on a Biblical level. If the residue bothers you, but only covers a minority of the utensil, or if it covers a majority but it is not something that you or most people would care to remove, the tevila is valid on a Biblical level, but the Rabbis invalidated this tevila and required toiveling again (after it is cleaned) with a beracha. However, if only a minority of the utensil is covered, and the owner of the utensil and most people would not be bothered by this “chatzitza,” then the tevila is valid. When assessing what most people would do, we only care about most people who are in a similar type of situation. For instance, Rav Belsky, zt”l ruled that a Jewish bakery may toivel used baking trays even though they are not perfectly clean, provided that this baker and most bakers would not care about the remaining residual matter. Similarly, since it is the common practice for bakeries to leave stickers on their pans, this too is not a “chatzitza.” However, a homeowner will typically not leave stickers on their pots and pans, and therefore for them, stickers are a “chatzitza.” Even if an individual claims that it does not bother him, we look at whether most people in this type of a situation would be bothered.

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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.