23 Feb Purim Kashruth Questions

I am planning to send a glass plate with cookies for mishloach manos. Can I avoid the need for tevilah by placing the cookies on a doily or foil, such that the cookies won’t directly touch the plate?

Shulchan Aruch (Yoreh De’ah 120:4) writes that a stove-top grate does not need tevilah. The Aruch Hashulchan (Yoreh De’ah 120:32) explains that the mitzvah of tevilah only applies to utensils that come into direct contact with food. Since the grate does not come in contact with the food, it does not require tevilah. Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach zt”l (see Sefer Tevilas Keilimpg. 55) maintained that a metal pitcher used to hold plastic pouches of milk does not require tevilah, because the plastic pouch is used to transport the milk and is therefore considered a separate container. However, if one lines a metal pitcher with plastic, the plastic is not considered a separate entity since it serves only as a liner. In such an instance, the pitcher would require tevilahwith a bracha. Similarly, Rav Schachter, Shlita said, a glass plate requirestevilah even if the cookies are served on a doily or foil. The doily or foil is used for decorative purposes and is not treated as a separate entity. In contrast, formishloach manos, one may place packaged food, such as a box of cookies or a bottle of wine, on a plate that has not been toveled. In this instance, the wrapping is a package and therefore we view the food as being stored in the package and not as being served on the tray. A note should be included to the recipient that the plate has not been toveled.

This Purim, I am planning to send cookies to my neighbor on a metal tray for mishloach manos. Should I tovel the tray, or should my neighbor perform the tevilah?

Bais Yosef (Yoreh De’ah 120) writes that tevilah is only required for utensils used with food. Thus, if a Jewish store owner buys utensils from a non-Jew for resale, the merchant is not obligated to perform the mitzvah of tevilah. Since there is no mitzvah, even if the merchant was tovel the utensils, the tevilah would be ineffective; the purchaser would be required to perform tevilah in spite of the earlier tevilah. Similarly, a tray purchased as a stand-alone gift cannot be toveled before it reaches the recipient. However, if the gift will be a tray with food on it (such as mishloach manos on a tray), there is a dispute whether the giver is required to perform tevilah. Therefore, the proper procedure in the latter case is for the giver to tovel the tray without a bracha and then inform the recipient that he too should tovel the tray without a bracha.