Tevila

Tag Archives: Tevila

The Mitzvah of Tevilas Keilim

By: Rabbi Moshe Heinemann

Reviewed February 2023

Click HERE for a convenient summary of tevilas keilim guidelines and HERE for a handy chart.

In His infinite wisdom, Hashem Yisborach has spiritually elevated the mundane activity of eating and has vested it with special sanctity (kedusha). The food we eat must be kosher, the table upon which we eat our meals represents the holy altar (the mizbe’ach). Similarly, the vessels and utensils (keilim) used for preparing food and for dining must be given special holiness. When these dishes and/or utensils have been previously owned by an aino Yehudi, we have to immerse these keilim in a mikvah before their first use.

Keilim (vessels/utensils) can be categorized into three halachic groupings:

utensils requiring tevila (immersion) with a bracha

utensils requiring tevila without a bracha

utensils not requiring tevila at all

Utensils require tevila with a bracha when they have direct contact with food during preparation or meal […]

Getting Into Hot Water: Urns and Pump Pots in Halacha – Tevila and the Workplace

By: Rabbi Zvi Goldberg

Spring 2014

[See also a followup article: “Getting Into Hot Water: Urns & Pump Pots in Halacha – Shabbos & Yom Tov,” first published Spring 2020.]

Remember when making coffee meant putting a kettle on the stovetop and waiting until it whistles? Today, electric heating has taken over the market in order to fill the need of having hot water on-demand.

Two of the popular types of electric hot water heaters on the U.S. market are the common aluminum urn with a plastic spout, and the relatively newer ‘pump pot’, which requires that you push down on the top plunger to pump out the water.

I. TEVILA

The Torah requires that utensils used for a meal be immersed in a mikvah if they were in possession of an aino Yehudi at any time. The Talmud1 states that mechamei chamin, hot water kettles, also require tevila. Rav Moshe Feinstein2 explains that there is a novelty in this ruling. One can argue that a kettle requires no tevila at all. The kettle […]