Tevilas Keilim: Which Utensils Need Immersing?

Metal and glass utensils bought from a non-Jewish manufacturer or shop must be immersed in a mikveh before you use them. That is tevilas keilim. It has nothing to do with whether the utensil is clean, or whether it was ever used — a brand-new pot straight out of its box needs it just the same.

Food cooked in a utensil that was never immersed is still kosher. But the utensil should not be used until it has been.

The short answer: the material decides

Almost every question about tevilah comes down to what the utensil is made of.

Where several utensils are being immersed together and some need a bracha while others do not, the usual practice is to make the bracha on the ones that require it and immerse the rest at the same time.

Working out an item the table does not list

Rather than hunting for your specific gadget on a list, three questions settle almost anything.

1. Is it a food utensil?

Tevilah applies to utensils used for eating, drinking or preparing food. A knife bought to cut cardboard needs no immersion — but having decided that, it should not then be used for food even once.

2. Does it touch the food?

Only utensils in direct contact with food are included. This is why a hot plate, a canister lid, a cake-plate cover, a corkscrew and a knife sharpener need nothing: the food never touches them. A can opener is the same, since it contacts the can rather than the contents.

3. Does it bring the food to its finished state?

A utensil that does the final preparation — a pot, a frying pan, a knife, a serving spoon — takes a bracha. A utensil that does earlier, intermediate work does not: a dough hook, a kneading hook, a flour sifter, a meat grinder, a meat tenderiser, a coffee mill. Vessels used purely for storage are also immersed without a bracha.

Applying those three questions to a food processor: the metal blade touches food and finishes the job, so it is immersed with a bracha; the plastic housing is plastic, so it is not immersed at all.

Mixed materials and separable parts

• A utensil of a material that needs tevilah is immersed complete, including plastic or wooden parts attached to it.
• A wooden or plastic utensil needs tevilah if metal is attached to it — but only where that metal touches the food and is essential to how the utensil works. A wooden-handled metal knife needs immersion; a plastic spatula with a decorative metal rivet does not.
• Where a utensil comes apart into separate pieces, only the parts made of a material requiring tevilah need it.
• Something like a meat grinder or a thermos, which separates but is used assembled, is best immersed assembled.

Electrical appliances

An electrical appliance whose parts touch food does require tevilah — an urn, a kettle, an electric juicer, an electric knife, a sandwich press.

That creates an obvious problem, and the honest guidance is to think about it before buying: an appliance that cannot be immersed should not be bought in the first place. An urn, for example, has to go fully under the water, which is not something to improvise. Where an appliance cannot simply be immersed, ask your rav — there are recognised approaches, and they depend on the appliance.

Which utensils are actually included

The obligation attaches to a utensil that belonged to a non-Jew and is now owned by a Jew. In practice that covers nearly everything bought at retail:

• Made by a non-Jewish company — including one partly owned by Jews.
• Made by a Jewish company but sold in a non-Jewish shop.
• Sold in a Jewish shop, if the shop bought it from a non-Jewish wholesaler.

Who owns the factory decides it

There is a fuller position here worth knowing, because it cuts against the intuition that the workers are what matter.

The Aruch HaShulchan reasons that in a general business — a factory turning out vessels by the hundreds and thousands — everything follows the proprietor. The vessels are called by his name, and the workers are simply day-labourers. On that view:

• If the proprietor is a Jew, the vessels are exempt from tevilah — even metal ones, and even where the workers are not Jewish.
• If the proprietor is not a Jew, they require tevilah with a bracha — even glass ones, and even where the workers are Jewish.

The practical instruction that follows is unexpected: when buying metal or glass vessels, one needs to know who owns the business.

A related line of reasoning reaches the same place differently: a Jewish worker in a non-Jew's factory is paid wages in money, not in vessels. The vessels were never his, so they belong to the non-Jewish owner and require tevilah with a bracha.

Note also that a vessel made in a non-Jew's factory requires tevilah even when bought from a Jewish distributor or shop, because it passed through the non-Jew's possession and remains so until immersed.

Where there is real reason to believe a utensil never belonged to a non-Jew, it is immersed without a bracha. A utensil borrowed from a non-Jew rather than owned needs no tevilah — ownership is what triggers it.

How it is done

• Clean it completely first. Anything between the water and the utensil invalidates the immersion — rust, dirt, and above all labels. Remove the glue as well as the sticker; nail polish remover or a silicone spray will shift stubborn residue.
• Use a kosher mikveh. Not every men's mikveh is suitable for utensils, and a shop with its own mikveh should be under competent rabbinic supervision. The sea is also acceptable. For a lake, ask your rav.
• Wet your hands in the mikveh before taking hold of the utensil, so your grip does not come between it and the water.
• Do not grip tightly. Better still, hold it in one hand and pass it to the other while it is under the water.
• A basket is fine, but do not stack dishes on top of one another — the water has to reach every surface.
• Children may immerse utensils under adult supervision, and a child doing so says the bracha. A non-Jew should preferably not perform tevilah even when supervised.

Jars, cans and eating out

You may buy food and drink and consume it straight from the jar or bottle it came in. Once a glass jar is empty, some poskim permit reusing it for other food without tevilah. A metal container should not be reused without immersion, though some poskim permit reusing a tin opened by a Jew.

If you are invited to the home of a Jew whose dishes have not been immersed, that is a question to put to your rav rather than to resolve yourself.