Bishul Akum #3

Last week we spoke about the two exceptions to the aveirah of Bishul Akum (food that is readily edible without cooking and food not fit to be served on a kings table). This week I would like to discuss what happens if those exceptions do not exist. As we mentioned last week most kosher restaurants employ non-Jewish chefs and the food cooked in the kitchen does not fall into those exceptions. So how is that food kosher? Isn't that a perfect example of Bishul Akum? There is in fact a machlokes between the Shulchan Aruch and the Rama as to whether it is enough for a Jew to just participate in the cooking process (even if the food item is not exclusively cooked by a Jew) to be considered Bishul Yisroel and not Bishul Akum. The Shulchan Aruch ruled the Jew must place the food item on the fire for it to be considered Bishul Yisroel (and thus is the stringent opinion of many Sefardim). However the Rama ruled leniently and allowed the Jew to merely add kindling to the fire to be considered the cooked item Bishul Yisroel. The Star-K paskened that there a two ways for a Jew to participate in the cooking process: a) The food is placed in a cold stove or cooking apparatus and then the Yehudi lights the fire. b) The fire or pilot light in an empty oven is first lit by the Yehudi and remains lit continuously. After being lit the food can be placed inside by anyone. The first method is the optimal one. I am sure many people have heard of this leniency using the pilot light, but there are some questions we can ask on this. The following questions and answered were compiled by Star-K: 1. If a pilot light is burning continuously, how long can it remain lit without Yehudi intervention and still be considered bishul Yisroel? If the pilot is directly heating the stove or the pot, as the old style pilot lights of a gas oven, the light can burn indefinitely and still retain bishul Yisroel status. If the pilot light indirectly lights the burner but does not add heat to the food, as the old style central pilot light of a gas cook top, then a halachic authority needs to be consulted to determine if the burner needs to be lit each time (even the first time) by a Yehudi even though the pilot light burns continuously.2. Can bishul Yisroel be achieved by setting a timer that will ignite the oven at set intervals? No. Since the Yehudi does not perform direct lighting of the oven it would not qualify for bishul Yisroel. In commercial settings (e.g. hotels, hospitals or factories) where large boilers provide the steam for the cooking equipment, bishul Yisroel requirements would be fulfilled if the Yehudi flips a switch or presses a button that directly ignites a boiler. 3. If an oven that was lit by a Yehudi was subsequently turned off, but remained warm until being relit by an akum, would the bishul Yisroel status of this oven be nullified? As long as the oven remains warm the bishul Yisroel status remains intact. Some Rebbeim a few years back wanted to take this leniency one step further and proposed that instead of lighting a pilot light, why not have the Masgiach, or another Jew, install the light bulb in the oven. The light bulb will provide heat to the cooked food, and will stay on longer than the pilot avoided (and thus avoiding the fear the pilot light will go out and the non-Jew will inadvertently relight it). However the OU points out that various poskim have argued against the light bulb system. The main contention with the "light bulb" is that when a Jew adds a wood chip to a fire, it is rendered aish yisrael because the Jew is instrumental in preparing and intensifying the fire. In contrast, a light bulb remains separate and distinct from the fire, and the Jew is not a contributor to the primary source of heat. The OU does not subscribe to the light bulb system, though a number of other kosher organizations do utilize the light bulb hetter. It is worth noting that even those kosher organizations that use this leniency require the bulb to be producing substantial heat that in theory could be equated to the wood chip on fire. However, just to have a light bulb that does not provide heat into the cooking chamber would not suffice. Have a good Kosher shabbas.