Q&A from the Bais HaVaad Halacha Hotline

Hot Hoppers

August 14, 2025

Q While I was eating on the patio, a grasshopper jumped into my hot soup. May I eat the soup?

A Generally, if nonkosher food touches kosher food, and the point of contact was hot, the kosher food absorbs the forbidden taste and is no longer kosher. But here are several factors for consideration in your case:

1. The bowl of soup was likely a kli sheini (second vessel), which does not transfer bliyos (absorbed tastes). But if the grasshopper touched a solid piece in the soup (e.g., a carrot), it would be a kli rishon (first vessel), as long as it retains its heat (Magein Avraham 318:45).
2. The Shulchan Aruch (Y.D. 104:3) rules that if ants and flies and the like, which disgust people, are mixed into food, they are bateil berov (nullified by the majority). They do not require a ratio of shishim (sixty to one), because the taste they release is pagum (detrimental). That principle may apply here as well. But it is difficult to rely on this, because the Rama (ibid.) says that the taste of certain foods is enhanced by such creatures. Additionally, grasshoppers differ from ants and flies in that they can actually have a pleasant taste. (They are even eaten in some places.)
3. According to some Acharonim, a living being does not release taste. (See a full treatment of the question in the Pri Yitzchak (1:21), which concludes that it does.)
4. The grasshopper that landed in your soup may in fact be kosher. The Torah (Vayikra 11:22) enumerates four species that are fit to eat: arbeh, sal’am, chargol, and chagav. The Mishnah (Chulin 59a) teaches the signs of kosher grasshopper species: They have four walking legs, four wings, and two jumping legs; their wings cover most of their bodies; and they are known as “chagav” (which is a general term in addition to the name of a single species). The final criterion requires an unbroken mesorah (tradition; see Taz Y.D. 85:1). Some Moroccan and Yemenite communities may have such a mesorah.
5. Another potential leniency would be to consider the taste expelled from the grasshopper as tzir (juice). While the Torah prohibits liquids expelled from the flesh of most nonkosher species, it does not prohibit those of grasshoppers (Mishnah, Trumos 10:9). But the Pri Megadim (M.Z. ibid. 3) argues that the taste expelled from its flesh is considered as part of its flesh.

In conclusion, while the soup might be permitted, it is essential that all these factors be carefully considered before a decision is reached.