Making Soap in a Kosher Pot

Q. I bought a soap-making kit. Possibly, some of the ingredients in the soap-mix are not kosher. The instructions call for cooking the mix in a pot. May this be prepared in a kosher pot?

A. Since soap is inedible, any non-kosher ingredient added to the mix loses its non-kosher status. It follows that cooking a soap mix in a pot will not render the pot non-kosher. Nonetheless, since there is a Rabbinic prohibition to eat non-kosher items even if they are inedible, as an extension, it is customary not to wash pots, dishes and utensils with non-kosher soap, lest some soap residue transfer to the food during subsequent use. In fact, in the mid-1800s, Israel Rokeach of Kovno, Lithuania, opened the first factory that produced kosher soap. Instead of animal fat, he manufactured his soaps with kosher coconut oil, and stamped each bar of soap with the word kosher. One of the most prominent rabbis of that generation, Rav Yitzchok Elchanan Spektor, the chief rabbi of Kovno, granted kosher certification to Rokeach soaps. It is thus obvious that Rav Yitzchok Elchanan favored using kosher soap. (In 1890, Mr. Rokeach immigrated to the United States and opened a kosher soap factory in New York City, which eventually came under OU supervision.)

Regarding our original question, according to the letter of the law, a non-kosher soap mix can be cooked in a kosher pot, and the kosher status will not be compromised. However, it would be preferable to not use a kosher pot, as per the custom cited above to wash pots with kosher soap exclusively. If one did cook non-kosher soap in a kosher pot, the pot remains kosher. If there is a pressing need to prepare soap and there is no other pot available, there is basis to allow the use of a kosher pot, since the custom to use kosher soap is a stringency which is beyond the letter of the law.

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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.