Q&A from the Bais HaVaad Halacha Hotline

Wait Loss

July 6, 2023

Q I ate potatoes from a cholent and was careful to avoid the meat. Must I wait six hours to eat dairy?

A There are two reasons for waiting between meat and dairy:

• The meat taste lingers in the mouth (Rashi, Chulin 105a).
• Strands of meat get stuck between the teeth and remain intact for a while. (Rambam Hil. Ma’achalos Asuros 9:28).

These reasons don’t apply in your case, as actual meat was not consumed (see Igros Moshe Y.D. 2:26). For this reason, the Mechaber (Y.D. 89:3) allows eating dairy immediately following a meat dish if the meat itself was avoided, provided one washes his hands. Others disagree and treat all parts of a meat dish as meat; the Rama (ibid.) reports this to be the prevailing minhag and strongly supports it, requiring the full waiting period before eating dairy.

What about eating the non-milk parts of a dairy dish (like the pastry of a cheese Danish) following the non-meat parts of a meat dish (like potatoes from cholent)? Some poskim are lenient (Minchas Yaakov, cited by R’ Akiva Eiger ibid.) if one washes his hands and cleanses his mouth. But many others are stringent in this case as well, and this view seems to be the consensus among the poskim (see Igros Moshe ibid.).

If a meatless dish is cooked in a fleishige pot, or warmed in the oven along with meat, though it may not be eaten together with milk, one may eat dairy immediately after its consumption (Rama ibid.).

Similarly, if a small amount of meat is accidentally mixed into a pareve recipe, one needn’t wait six hours after eating it (Shach ibid. 19). Some say this is so even if the meat was not batel beshishim (nullified sixty to one), provided the meat was mixed in unintentionally (Aruch Hashulchan ibid. 13).