Hello, I would like to know if it is permitted to use soap and shampoo which contain grape as one of their ingredients. The products are made by goyim. Thank you!
Answer:
The Shach (155:17) writes, in the name of the Or Zaru’a, that the halachah of sichah ke-shetiah, meaning that “embalming is equivalent to drinking” applies even for products that are pagum, and he therefore writes that one must avoid a bathhouse that involves prohibited wine.
The same halachah will apparently apply to the case of soap (see Shevet Ha-Levi, Yoreh De’ah 1:48).
However, the Peri Chadash disputes this, and writes that there is no prohibition.
Although for chametz on Pesach poskim are generally stringent in this matter (see, for instance, Kol Ha-Torah 5762, p. 42ff; see Magen Avraham 467:10), for the issue of grape extract, which is a rabbinic prohibition, there is room for leniency. In addition, one cannot know how the grape extract is prepared, and whether it actually exists as separate from the mixture.
Nonetheless, it might be better to avoid this kind of soap.
Best wishes.
