16 Apr EYE IN THE KITCHEN: MONITORING KASHRUT IN THE KITCHEN

Last week we
discussed the
monetary concerns of
employing a cleaning
lady to clean before
Pesach, such as
snatching a cleaning lady from her place of
employment or dealing with her directly,
avoiding the cleaning agency that sent her.
Today we would like to address kashrut
issues. Let’s start with the question of leaving
the lady home alone. When we leave her
alone in the house, there are concerns,
referred to as -העין מן שנתעלם בשר” meat that
was covered from the eye”.
Chazal prohibited us from leaving the food
around the non-Jewish person without
supervision, as they might have exchanged
our meat, chicken, fish, etc., with non-kosher
ones. In the event it was left unattended, the
. (יו״ד סימן קיח)forbidden becomes food
There are other concerns, such as she might
have cooked with our utensils, rendering
them not kosher, or opened the wine bottles,
. (סימן קיח סעיף יב)unkosher them making
Chazal also prohibited eating goy’s cooking,
even if the food is kosher food. This decree
is known as “bishul akum.” The reason

Chazal didn’t allow it is to distance us from
the goyim so we don’t intermarry with them.
Not only does the food become not kosher,
but also the utensils used become treif. Thus,
when we leave a cleaning lady alone at
home, we are concerned that she might have
gotten hungry and cooked something to eat
or boiled herself an egg, thereby rendering
the utensils treif.
She might also have used our oven, toaster,
or microwave to heat her food. This is true
even if we are certain she didn’t bring any
food with her.
אגר״מ יו״ד ח״א סימן)Feinstein Moshe Rabbi
סא (warned about this and said that one
should not leave her alone. But in the event
one didn’t know and left her alone in the
house, the utensils don’t require kashering.
However, one should wait 24 hours before
using them, as after 24 hours if she cooked in
them, it becomes rabbinically prohibited.
Since it’s doubtful if she cooked in them, it’s
a doubt in rabbinical law. Rabbi Moshe adds
that even if the cleaning lady was hired only
for cleaning and not for cooking, we are still
concerned.
On the other hand, Shevet Hakehati(סימן ח״ו
רפא (argues against this and says that the

concern is only if she was hired
to cook as well. Otherwise, we
aren’t worried that if she was
only supposed to clean, she’ll
also cook.
Another concern is that she’ll
cook meat and dairy together or
cook meat in a dairy pot or vice
versa.
In the event one must leave his
house and can’t be around, there
are some ways to permit leaving
her there. One way is to enter the
house every once in a while
הוא היתר לכתחילה ראה כף החיים)unexpectedly
קכג ס״ק (. One should enter the house for no
(גר״א סימן קכט סק״ב)minutes 18 than longer
and make sure the house isn’t locked unless
. (ש״ע סימן קיח ס“י)keys the has he
This way, she’ll be worried about being seen
doing something she isn’t allowed and
potentially be fired. Even if one can’t come
every once in a while, he should tell her he’ll
be back shortly, thus creating the same sense
. (סימן קיח ס״י)fear of
Of course, when hiring her, we should make
sure to inform and warn her that she isn’t
allowed to cook or warm any food in the
kitchen. Otherwise, she might cook without
realizing she isn’t allowed to do so.
The practice of entering once in a while
also addresses the issue of “meat that was
not seen” and the problem of wine that was
left alone with her.
A more updated solution is to install a
camera in the kitchen. When doing that, we
should either put the camera in a visible
place that she can see it so she’ll know
she’s being observed, or inform her that
שו״ת עמק התשובה ח״ט סימן)camera a is there
. (פו
Another way to permit leaving her alone in
the house is either locking the food in a
closet and hiding the keys, or sealing the
food in packages so that if she opens them,
the seal will break and we will know. This
reassures us that the food wasn’t handled.
In the event one didn’t follow this halacha
and left her alone without entering once in
a while, the food becomes restricted only if
we suspect that she has a gain by changing
the meat, fish, etc., for example if we think
she changed it with something of lesser
quality(ס״י קיח סימן (. Since today it’s very
unlikely she will have lesser quality meat
and change it, we are therefore lenient to
. (שו״ת מנחת אשר ח״ב סימן נא)food the permit
Leaving the non-Jewish person in the
house with an open bottle of uncooked
wine is not permitted, as we are concerned
that she might shake the bottle as a form of

worshiping avoda zara. However, we can
permit this if we enter the house often as
explained before.
In the event we forgot we had such a bottle in
the house and left for the day, Rav Elyashiv
permits it since we don’t suspect that the
lady would do two things: first, open the
bottle, and then shake it.
Yichud with the Cleaning Lady.
Another relevant issue is the question of
yichud (seclusion). Can the husband or boys
stay home while the wife needs to leave?
Here as well there are some ways to permit:
1. There is a debate about whether leaving
the front door unlocked saves a person
from the prohibition of yichud. The
מובא בפתחי)Raaved and) אלף רנא)Rashba
סק״ח תשובה (permitted, saying that
yichud is only if the door is locked since
people would not sin if the door isn’t
locked, as they are constantly afraid that
someone might walk in. Some
their explained’) רע״א סימן ק)poskim
opinion to forbid closed doors even if
not locked.
2. If the wife or other people can walk in
at any given time, then the place is not
considered a yichud place(דובב שו״ת
ס״ה ח״א משרים (.Therefore, a good idea
would be to give keys to a neighbor and
ask them to come in once in a while as a
surprise visit.
3. As we spoke before regarding the
kashrut section, the same solution of
placing a surveillance camera would
apply here as well. But here, the poskim
say that someone else besides the
husband should be able to have access,
such as the wife or another trusted
individual, to view the recorded
surveillance, whether in real-time or
חוט שני הלכות מזוזה עמוד תכט,)afterward
(אמנם יש הרבה פוסקים החולקים בזה
Another requirement is to make sure that the
entire house is covered by the surveillance
camera. Otherwise, we are concerned that
they might go to a room that doesn’t have the
camera.