QUESTION: I bought a set of used metal pots from a non-Jew. Do I kasher them first or do I toivel them first?

ANSWER: Shulchan Aruch (YD 121:2) writes that one should first kasher the pot and afterwards immerse it in a mikva. If one toiveled the pot first before kashering, it is matter of dispute among Rishonim as to whether the tevila was effective. The Rashbam (cited in Beis Yosef YD 121) writes that toiveling a pot before kashering is like immersing in a mikva while holding a sheretz (an unclean item) in which the tevila is ineffective. However other Rishonim disagree and maintain that tevila is a separate mitzvah and is not connected with kashering. The Shach (YD 121:5) writes that because of the doubt one should toivel again but without a bracha. The Dagul Merivava writes that so long as the pot had not been used in the past 24 hours, then one may toivel the pot first. After 24 hours, the non-kosher taste that had been absorbed in the pot is ruined. At that point, one can no longer consider the absorbed taste in the pot to be similar to a sheretz.

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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.