10
votes
Accepted
Use a sink sprayer on Shabas?
From Rabbi Dovid Ribiat's The 39 Melochos (p. 378):
a) Aerosol spray cans
...
The Igros Moshe permits the use of aerosol cans on Shabbos because the scattering is not caused directly by blowing or ...
- 16.8k
9
votes
Taping the Light on a Freezer
It depends on the freezer, but one approach is to just unscrew the light bulb if you can reach it. That's what my family has always done.
You can leave it loosely hanging in the socket if you want to ...
- 9,037
7
votes
Accepted
May I use a clean can opener previously used for non-kosher cans?
According to the OU - it may be used after they are cleaned and rinsed off.
Q. The lunch area in our office has a can opener, peeler,
bread-toaster (not a toaster oven), flatware, coffee mugs, ...
- 138k
5
votes
Refrigerator door and Yayin Nesech
Mishna Avoda Zara 4:10 (פרק ד - משנה י):
גּוֹי שֶׁנִּמְצָא עוֹמֵד בְּצַד הַבּוֹר שֶׁל יַיִן, אִם יֶשׁ לוֹ עָלָיו מִלְוָה, אָסוּר . אֵין לוֹ עָלָיו מִלְוָה, מֻתָּר . נָפַל לַבּוֹר וְעָלָה, וּמְדָדוֹ ...
- 22.5k
4
votes
Can I use a Keurig coffee machine if someone else has used a non-kosher "pod"?
An important development on this topic. The Star-K used to say Keurig machines in a work environment were ok to use, but they have revised.
"There was a time when a Keurig machine dispensed only ...
- 131
4
votes
Can I use the Flavia coffee machine in my workplace?
I too emailed the LBD a few months ago and never got around to updating here (apologies for the delay on my part). I asked specifically about using the machine after it has been used with a non-...
- 6,908
4
votes
Taping the Light on a Freezer
I use velcro tape. If you dry the area on both sides of the switch, you can get the tape with the hooks or loops to stick. Then, every week before Shabbos it's just a matter of attaching the other ...
- 33k
4
votes
Taping the Light on a Freezer
If your freezer is anything like mine it doesn't have an actual bulb.
One way round this is to use a powerful magnet which cuts the circuit without harming the freezer in anyway.
The Federation Beis ...
- 25.3k
3
votes
Using modern electronic devices (refrigerators, air conditioners, digital water meters) on Shabbat
The disagreement with these devices(disregarding light bulbs in fridges or fans in ovens, at the moment) is whether grama or pesik reisha d'lo neicha lei are permitted on shabbat; assuming we accept ...
- 849
3
votes
Double Wrapping on Pesach
The Mishna Brura (247:1 sv. 13) And Shulchan Aruch HaRav (O.C. 247:10) both permit covering as a way of avoiding the issue of smell, which is one of the issues that the double covering is designed to ...
- 31.7k
3
votes
Using the SodaStream on Passover
See answer to this related question regarding the kashrut of Sodastream for Pesach. According to OU, it is permissible for Pesach use. (I can't qualify it further as my web browser is blocking me from ...
- 69.6k
3
votes
Accepted
Can I use the Flavia coffee machine in my workplace?
A comment from dmi_ provided a kashrut certificate from the London Beit Din (expires December 2016) that certifies many of the Flavia drinks, including the dairy ones excluded in the (presumably-older)...
- 56.2k
3
votes
Using a non-kosher toaster oven
R Yitzchok Yaakov Fuchs (in his book Hakashrut, p. 665) writes
Baking ovens and toaster ovens that were used for meat and dairy foods
and even for prohibited foods may be used to bake or warm up ...
- 44.6k
3
votes
Accepted
Refilling a percolator on Yom Tov
The Federation Beis Din here in London have an incredible department called 'Fed Tech' which explores various appliances and their halachic status on Shabbos and Yomim tovim etc.
Their article on urns ...
- 25.3k
2
votes
Accepted
Toasters in motels / cabins
Per the OU website discussing "Kosher Food in a Non-Kosher Office" one should not use a bread toaster and should assume it is not Kosher.
Q. The lunch area in our office has a can opener, peeler,
...
- 138k
2
votes
Remote control lighting of stove?
According to R' Moshe Heinemann, the Star-K's chief authority, the use such remote-control devices does not grant bishul Yisrael status, as it is not sufficiently direct:
If the action that is done ...
- 47.4k
2
votes
Making seltzer/soda water on Shabbat or Yom Tov
ילקוט יוסף קצוש"ע אורח חיים סימן שכב - דין נולד בשבת
ה. מותר לעשות מי - סודה בשבת על - ידי הכלי המיוחד לכך שנקרא "סיפולקוס" או "סודה סטרים", ואין בזה שום חשש לא של עובדין דחול, ולא משום נולד, ולא ...
- 40.3k
2
votes
Can one use timer to turn on platta on shabbos morning?
Your question is exactly that asked by Rabbi Cohen over at Dose of Halacha.
He asks "Can I use a timer on my hotplate to heat my chicken on Shabbos for lunch?"
While one mustn’t place a ...
- 6,115
2
votes
Accepted
Does a refrigerator ice machine need to be cleaned for Pesach?
You asked: Does a refrigerator ice machine need to be cleaned for Pesach?
The Shulchan Aruch clearly states that any place where Chametz could enter needs to be checked for chametz on Bedikath-...
- 42.5k
1
vote
Closing an oven door on shabbos
The Star-K website has a feature on ovens here. It writes there:
As previously noted, aside from the prohibition of cooking on Shabbos, there is a prohibition against initiating a fire or causing ...
- 25.3k
1
vote
Where can I get an Unblech?
I, too, want this blech. In addition to its halachic advantage (which may or may not change the way you can use it), this blech supposedly provides a lot more surface area and is good at keeping food ...
- 19.5k
1
vote
Induction Cooktop on Erev Shabbat
If I understand, your question doesn't seem to be about induction cooktops so much as it is about timers: can I leave my pot on an open element before shabbos, with a timer that will turn it off some ...
- 129k
1
vote
What is the function of covering the stove top on Pesach?
The problem is that the stove top on Pesach can make your pots chametz much more easily than it could make your pots non-kosher during the year. As a result, even splash back or resting the pot on the ...
- 42.7k
1
vote
Accepted
Can one use timer to turn on platta on shabbos morning?
Opinion #1 based on Hacham Ovadia Yosef
On Erev Shabbat one may put a pot of raw food on a plata which is connected to a timer so that when the plata eventually turns on the food will cook. Since ...
- 10.1k
1
vote
Toasters in motels / cabins
It is not kosher. In order to use such a toaster, you would have to do a "Libun" because the metallic element had absorbed "taref" food.
- 111
1
vote
Using the SodaStream on Passover
This page suggests that the matter is complicated and that there is halachic reason for worry unless specifics are well known. It cites a source for kashering seltzer equipment, and suggests there is ...
- 19.5k
1
vote
Can an induction hob be kashered on Pesach?
I don't understand these answers. Surely the basis of kashering is to bring the item to a temperature above that that it experiences when cooking. As the glass top only receives heat indirectly (from ...
- 11
1
vote
What do you do if you forgot to turn off the refrigerator light before Shabbat?
http://www.dailyhalacha.com/m/halacha.aspx?id=595 Chacham Ovadia would permit you to close the fridge with a shinui. All other poskim would not.
If you need the food in the fridge and there's no way ...
- 222
1
vote
Microwave tray tevilah
The Kof-K says the tray doesn't need to be toveled if it doesn't touch the food.
Microwave Oven Tray- A glass microwave oven tray does not require tevilah if no food
actually touches the glass. ...
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible