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Tevilas Keilim – Redoing

Before yuntif a new set (about 80 pieces) of cutlery was bought and toiveled. I discovered after they were toiveled that one of the forks had a thick black goey substance on it (probably a grease from the factory).

Unfortunately, the fork got mixed in with the set. My husband who is an avreich, but not a posek, looked into the matter.

He said that there is a Rashba (I think) that says in this case if 2 conditions are met the set would not have to be re-toiveled.

One was that it could not be fixed immediately. It is true that our kelim mikveh is locked and the store with the key was closed, but the owner lives close by.

He said that it would require more “tercha” than one would have to extend and therefore the forks did not have to be re-toiveled.

I have difficulty with his application of the halacha and he refuses to ask a shaila.

What is the halacha?

Thank you very much.

Answer:

I understand from your question that you are concerned about a chatzitzoh on one of the forks that you immersed in a mikveh. That fork that may have not been immersed properly was mixed with other forks that were immersed properly and they were all eventually used and washed properly. At this stage, it is impossible to distinguish between them.

Answer:

Generally, an item that one is unsure whether it had undergone a tevilloh or not, should be immersed without a berochoh. However, in this situation one is not required to reimmerse all of the forks.

A thick, black guey substance is not necessarily a chatzitzoh. Often people may not be concerned about such a spot on an eating utensil and use it as is. That would likely depend on which part of the fork it was on and how large the spot was. Furthermore, the item was immersed and the question is whether there was a chatzitzoh. That may be halachically distinguishable from a situation in which there is a question if the fork was ever immersed or not.

Should more information be unavailable to you, you may use all the forks without immersing them again. Although, items that do not require tevilloh should not be immersed lest one come to make a berochoh on them unnecessarily,((או”ה כלל נ”ח סימן פ”ה)) in this situation, it would be permitted to reimmerse all the forks lechumroh.

Your husband’s comments are also significant regarding the issue and may be another basis for leniency depending upon how easy it would be to reimmerse the forks. He seems to be an avreich with great promise or an already accomplished talmid chochom.

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