Waiting Six Hours after Eating Onions Cut with a Fleishig Knife

I ate a salad that contained onions that were cut with a fleishig knife. Must I now wait 6 hours before eating dairy?

In this case, one need not wait 6 hours. Rabbi Akiva Eiger (Y.D. 89:Shach 19) explains that even if one drank vinegar that had been cooked in a fleishig pot, one would not need to wait 6 hours after drinking this vinegar. Although vinegar is a sharp food that absorbs the full taste of the meat from the pot, still it is not quite the same as eating meat itself. The same holds true for the onions. Although they must be treated as fleishigs, but in this one regard, it is more lenient. There is no need to wait 6 hours after eating these onions.

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.