Pas Yisroel - Kashering

QUESTION: A kosher bakery would like to make a special run of Pas Yisroel bread. The mashgiach will come in the morning and turn on the fire. Does he also have to kasher the ovens and baking pans from absorption of Pas palter?

ANSWER: The Rema (YD 115:1) writes that one does not need to kasher utensils that were used to bake Pas akum. Presumably, this is because Pas akum is not a forbidden food per se, but rather a safeguard against intermarriage. The concern of intermarriage exists only when eating the actual bread, not from eating foods that shared the same equipment as bread. Additionally, since there are situations in which Pas akum is permitted, there is no need to kasher. There is one exception. If a non-Jew baked dough that belongs to a Jew, the Taz (YD 112:7) writes that this bread is forbidden and has the status of bishul akum. Although bishul akum was also enacted to prevent intermarriage, we are stricter and treat it as non-kosher food; Shulchan Aruch (YD 113:16) rules that bishul akum equipment requires kashering as well.

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The Gerald & Karin Feldhamer OU Kosher Halacha Yomis is dedicated to the memory of Rav Yisroel Belsky, zt"l, who served as halachic consultant for OU Kosher for more than 28 years; many of the responses in Halacha Yomis are based on the rulings of Rabbi Belsky. Subscribe to the Halacha Yomis daily email here.