Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Yesterday we discussed kashering dishwashers for Pesach. Even more common, Shaila, and one that I keep getting asked, is whether one can kasher a microwave for Pesach, and if one can kasher a microwave, how does one kasher a microwave for Pesach? So the truth is, a lot of the issues are the same, are very similar to the issues relating to dishwashers.
Chapter 2: What are the common questions about kashering microwaves for Pesach?
The problems with kashering a microwave is, number one, one of the basics of kashering is that in order to kasher, you first need to clean out whatever it is that you're kashring. Similar to dishwashers, some folks can have a problem with kashring with dishwashers because they don't believe that it's possible to thoroughly clean it out.
Microwaves also, they have a lot of vent holes and little crevices and things that people do not believe that it would be possible to really clean it out. Ramah writes in Tofran Aleph, that kashring, things like sieves and things like that, where you can't possibly clean out every little hole,
would be impossible, because if there's mamashot, if there's actual substance of chametz there, then there's nothing you could do about it. The other problem with kashering a microwave, which we also said is very similar to the issue of kashering a dishwasher, is the Rav Moshe's general objection to kashering plastic, any synthetic material.
So we know from the Gemara and from the Shulchan Aruch had a kasher metal, we know that you can't kasher keres, and we know that glass is a machlok as we've shown him, but synthetic materials are sort of up in the air.
So Moshe was not so excited about the idea of kashering synthetic materials, but Rav Oldenburg and Sitzel Yezer, Chalik Dalit, and the Sri Daesh as well, and Rav Avadio all say that you're allowed to kasher plastic even for Pesach. Not only are you allowed to kasher plastic from Treif, but even for Pesach one is allowed to kasher plastic. So that is a major discussion.
A third issue that comes up with kashering a microwave is that many microwaves have, a glass plate that spins around or whatever, a glass plate on the bottom of the microwave. So, kasher and glass, as we mentioned, is also a significant issue.
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Chapter 3: What are the main challenges of kashering a microwave?
The Shulchan Aruch and Siman Tofna and Aleph Poskins that you don't have to kasher glass because glass is totally smooth and there are no blios in glass. If I'm not mistaken, scientifically, that's actually correct, that there are no blios, there's nothing that actually gets into glass and that's what the Shulchan Aruch Poskins, but
the Ramah Paschins, and we go with the Pesach and the Shulchanarach, even though scientifically it may be difficult to understand how it
how it stems with the science, but Ramah poskins that glass is the same as keres, and therefore not only does glass need to be kashered, but it can't be kashered, meaning it's bolea all the chametz and all the tamavisser, but there's no way to get it out, just like a kli keres.
That's the shita of Rabbeinu Yuchil mi Pariz, quoted in the Mordechai, that's the shita of the smag, and that's what Ramah holds, that glass simply cannot be kashered. A third shita, A third sheath, why would glass be like keres? So glass is like keres because it comes from sand, just like keres comes from sand.
Chapter 4: How does cleaning affect the kashering process?
A third sheath that is not mentioned by the Shulchan Aruch nor by the Ramah is that glass has a din of klei matechas, that it has a din like metal. That it is able to be balea isser, but you can also kasher the isser out. So we don't pasken like that, that's the sheath of the Arzeruah. So we have this basic machlux machab ramah.
So if you have the glass tray in your microwave, if you're a Sephardic Jew, you don't have to worry about it. It's automatically kosher. Just wipe it clean. And if you're an Ashkenazi Jew, not only do you have to worry about it, but there's no way to fix it. So it's going to be highly problematic.
You would have to remove the glass tray or cover it with something else, with a piece of cardboard or something, in order to avoid any chametz-related problems. issues. It should also be noted that when we talk about microwaves, there are two types of microwaves.
There's microwaves that actually cook with microwaves, and then there's what they call convection microwaves, microwaves that have a convection feature, which really means that the microwave isn't just a microwave. The microwave is actually a little oven also. So you can either use it as a microwave or you can use it as an oven.
You can actually see when the difference between the way ovens cook and the way microwaves cook is that ovens have an actual fire, an actual heating element, and the thing gets really, really hot inside of an oven. It gets actually very, very hot. A microwave cooks with magic. So it doesn't get really hot.
It's just the molecules start jumping around and fighting with each other and all of a sudden the food gets hot but nothing else in the entire microwave is hot. Just the food is hot. That's magic. So it doesn't cook with heat. So the way to kasher a microwave is going to be different than the way to kasher an oven.
Meaning if you want to kasher an oven, it's not going to be good enough to just to use magic. You would need to use actual heat in order to kasher an oven. I'm going to get tons of emails. How could you say it's magic? It's explanations, you know, like. I know it's not magic, but you know what I mean.
So if you want to kasher something that was used with heat, you need to use heat in order to kasher it out. So if you have a convection microwave, you would have to kasher it the same way you would kasher an oven, which is the way we pass.
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Chapter 5: What is the significance of materials used in microwaves for kashering?
Even though Rav Moshe does not hold this, Rav Moshe holds the only way to kasher an oven is if you have a self-clean. If you can get to Liban Gomer, which is 950 degrees, and our regular ovens, unless you put it on self-clean, will never get that hot.
But most post-cum assume, if Solveig assumed and Rav Aaron Cutler assumed, that in order to catch an oven, you just needed to get it to Liban Kal, to about 550 degrees, for a period of about an hour, an hour and a half, and that will burn out any of the... any of the tam of chametz. So if you have a convection microwave, you ought to do the same thing.
You have to put it on the highest temperature for that amount of time. But in a typical microwave, or even if it's a convection microwave, but it was never used with the convection feature. It was only used as a microwave. It was only used through the normal magic of a microwave. So now that we've discussed that issue number one is cleaning, issue number two is plastic.
And issue number three is the glass. And we've already solved the glass problem by saying just simply cover it or remove it if you're an Ashkenazic Jew. And let's assume for a moment that you can get it completely clean, that it is possible to clean out a microwave properly. So can we kasher it? And let's assume that plastic is something that can be kashered. So how would one kasher a microwave?
You can't heat anything. You can't heat the walls of a microwave because the microwave's walls don't get hot. So how does one kasher a microwave? So Rabbi Eider in the Halachos of Pesach quotes from a Moshe that after you clean it out, you should wait 24 hours and then boil a glass of water
in the microwave and through the steam the same way that the microwave was ever through the steam from the food that will also kasher the entire microwave. It seems to go against where Rav Moshe writes in Yerudea, where Rav Moshe holds that you're not allowed to use steam for kashering.
Rav Moshe writes that even though steam is hotter than boiling water, and you're allowed to use boiling water for hagala, but steam is not able to draw out the tam the same way water is. This is also very nogel l'maysa.
A lot of people got sick of koshering their countertops by pouring boiling water all over the place because it makes a humongous mess and all the water gets into the drawers and everything. It's extremely messy. So a lot of people wanted to start using steamers to kosher their countertops. because that's much cleaner and steam is very, very hot.
So aside from the general problem that very often when you use a regular steamer, unless it's really super strong, like an industrial strength steamer, a lot of times the steam, by the time it comes out of the steamer and hits the counter, it's already cold because it's so It's so thin, it's not like you're taking boiling water where it can retain its heat for a long time.
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Chapter 6: How should glass components in microwaves be treated during kashering?
By the way, even if you're going to kasher with steam, how do you kasher with steam? You put in a cup of water and turn on the microwave for a long time until the whole chamber of the microwave fills with steam. So some of the posts can point out that kasher is everything except for where the cup of water was sitting.
The area the cup of water was sitting on is not kasher now because no steam hit that. You would then need to move the cup of water over and do it again to kasher the area where the water was. The other problem with Rav Moshe is that the assumption of Rav Moshe's kula, of kashering with steam, is that the microwave only absorbs tam with steam. That's not necessarily true.
The microwave might absorb tam of chametz by having direct spills. A lot of times, I don't know about you, but a lot of times I've pulled things out of the microwave and accidentally spilled and things splatter in the microwave. Very hot food that splatters in the microwave. That's not steam. That's an actual pouring of food.
And if that's what happens, then you would need a genuine hagala in order to kasher such a microwave. So it's not so pashut. why Rav Moshe assumes that it's okay just because it's generally baleah with steam. Rav Moshe might say that during Pesach, steam will take the food from the spills out also, meaning steam counts as hagalah. But again, that would have to assume
that the steam can take out khametz and steam would actually work as a form of hagala. So the reasons that poskam, I think, in general, are made with kashring or microwave, in spite of these questions on Rav Moshe's is that, first of all, again, some post-Kamaldi can kasher with steed.
Second of all, according to the Shulchan Aruch, even though the Ramat disagrees, according to the Shulchan Aruch in Simtaf Nun Aleph, in the Alachs of Kasher and Kelim, the method that we kasher is determined based on Rav Tashmishah, based on the way the Kli is normally used. So we've discussed how when you use a kli with straight fire, without any liquid medium, then it needs libon.
But if you use it with a liquid medium, then it only needs hagala. So what if you use it both? Which method of kashring? So naturally, we would have probably assumed you have to use the more severe, the more intense method of kashring. If you ever use it with more intense heat, you've got to use the more intense method of kashring. But the Shulcharuch passing is not that way.
The Shulcharuch says, rov tashmisho. However, it's normally used. So rov tashmisho of a microwave is certainly with steam and not with spilling, hopefully. So if that's the rov tashmisho, that would be the way to kashus, at least as a sniff l'hakel. Also, the Darki Tshuva quotes a certain poskim that steam cannot take out that which is already absorbed in the microwave.
So if that's the case, that steam cannot take out that which is already absorbed in the microwave, then there's no concern because whatever you cook in the microwave is not going to be able to pull out, to draw out the chametz that's absorbed in the walls of the microwave.
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