Mishneh Torah, Forbidden Foods 17

Sugya Map

• Issue: The status of keli rishon (first vessel) and haga’alah (purging) regarding earthenware vs. metal utensils used for non-kosher.
• Nafka Mina: Whether a vessel requires haga’alah if it hasn't been used for 24 hours (eino ben yomo), and the threshold for nullification (bitul).
• Primary Sources: Avodah Zarah 75b, 30a; Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Ma’achalot Asurot 17:1–11.

Text Snapshot

"כלי חרס... אין מועיל לו הגעלה... שאינו בן יומו... שאין בו ששים" (MT 17:1)

• Nuance: Rambam emphasizes eino ben yomo as the mechanism of "impaired flavor" (ta'am lifgam). The Ohr Sameach (17:1) debates whether chametz behaves differently, arguing that once an item is "prohibited" by the Torah, the flavor does not become lifgam even if it is technically eino ben yomo—a stark contrast to general non-kosher absorption.

Readings

• Radbaz: Notes the impossibility of bitul (nullification) in earthenware pots because the pot’s volume rarely contains 60x the absorbed flavor. Thus, even a "drop" of absorption renders the entire vessel a machshir for prohibition.
• Ohr Sameach: Argues that the leniency of eino ben yomo relies on the flavor being nifgam. He maintains that for chametz, because its prohibition is absolute once the time arrives, it never truly loses its "status" as forbidden, unlike nevelah (non-kosher meat).

Friction

• Kushya: If the pot is eino ben yomo, why does Rambam (17:1) say the food is forbidden? If the flavor is impaired, it should be batel (nullified) or permitted lechatchila?
• Terutz: The Steinsaltz commentary clarifies that the prohibition stands only when there is less than 60x the volume of the absorbed flavor. The eino ben yomo leniency is not an absolute permit, but rather a reduction of the flavor to nifgam, which is only relevant if there is no bitul to begin with.

Psak/Practice

The Rambam’s meta-heuristic here is harchakah (distancing). Even when the flavor is technically impaired, the Rabbis forbade re-use to prevent slippage into cooking with a "fresh" non-kosher pot. Practice today follows the Shulchan Aruch (YD 103:5), requiring 24 hours of disuse before haga’alah is valid—a direct application of the eino ben yomo principle found in Rambam.

Takeaway

The "flavor" of a prohibition is a dynamic halachic construct; it is not just physical residue, but a legal status that changes based on time (ben yomo) and vessel material. Always prioritize the keli status before the bitul calculation.