Duchka D'Sakina - Davar Pagum

QUESTION: I used a kosher knife to cut through an onion, and I found that I also sliced through a large worm. Does my knife need kashering? Can I use the rest of the onion?

ANSWER: If one slices through a spicy non-kosher food, the knife requires kashering. An onion is considered a davar charif (spicy food), but a worm is not. If one slices through an onion that contains a worm, how do we view this? The Maharil writes that the worm in this case has the status of a davar charif, and therefore the knife requires kashering. However, most poskim disagree with this conclusion. The Chochmas Adam (38:27) discusses this scenario and rules that the knife does not need kashering, but where the cut was made, the onion should be scraped away. Although he agrees that the onion-worm combination is considered spicy, still there is no need to kasher the knife, because the taste of the worm is pagum (repugnant). Even the strong spicy taste of the onion is incapable of improving the taste of a worm.

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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.