A home, with a full Kosher kitchen, had Goyim working there as home attendants during a span of several years. Do all the dishes need to be Kasherd?

 

Question:

A home had goyim and not observant yidden working there as home attendants (one at a time) throughout the day and night during a span of several years.

In this home, there was a kosher kitchen with multiple cabinets and closets of many pots, pans, utensils, etc. In addition to the workers’ being instructed not to touch any dishes, throughout the years of this situation, there were always family members coming in and out at random hours of day and night checking up (although there may have been some shifts/days during which no family members came, but they were never informed if/when family would show up). Sometimes residing extremely close by.

In more recent times, there were also cameras installed. Despite that, there were several times (not many) which certain workers (of which there were various, different years brought different ones, but only one at a time) were caught using a utensil or about to use one. It remains unknown if there many other such instances in which they weren’t caught. Though it would have possibly been noticed if a utensil was left out.

Please note that they weren’t authorized to cook and so there was no cooking taking place. There was a kettle which they used to make hot drinks for the kosher patient and perhaps for their own food. But they weren’t usually seen eating hot food, so I’d assume they mostly dealt with cold. There are hundreds of utensils in this kitchen (not any unusual quantity, but a typical accumulation of a classic kosher kitchen). It is extremely unlikely that the vast majority of them were ever used by these workers.

The question now is the status of everything in the kitchen (the situation is no longer ongoing). Are the dishes all batul berov? Also, some of the cabinets/drawers looked like they were never handled though we can never know with certainty. The point being, if there was contact, some areas were more likely to have been accessed than others – if that’s a factor. Do they still need kashering? There are sets of china (and other utensils of non-kasherable material) as well.

Please advise your opinion on the matter. Sources would be appreciated. Thanks a lot!

 

Answer:

All utensils are permissible.

 

Sources:

 

ע״פ רמ״א יו”ד קכב, ט. ש״ך ח. ולעניננו אג״מ יו״ד א, סא. שבה״ל יא, קצא. ומשה״ק במנחת אשר ב, נא – י״ל.

וכאן ה״ז גם יוצא ונכנס – ראה ערוה״ש שם קיח, לה. כה״ח שם קעג.

ובענין ביטול ברוב בנוגע להכלים – להעיר מפת״ש יו״ד קב, ו – סברת הצל״ח. ואכ״מ.

 

 

#6251