Revenge against Midian

by Rabbi Pinchas Winston

THE LAWS OF kashering are many and confusing, and learned from this week’s parsha. Thanks to Midian, we’re still in exile. Bilaam sent them in, and their impact went far beyond Shittim, causing the tribes of Reuven, Gad, and half of Menashe to choose the land east of the Jordan river. And unfortunately and clearly unbeknownst to them at the time, it cost them and every Jew since then, the final stage of redemption.

Because, by choosing not to settle in Eretz Yisroel, they reduced the magical number of 600,000 necessary to annihilate the Sitra Achra and begin the Messianic Era. Had that many men between the ages of twenty and sixty settled on the west side of the Jordan, evil would have been destroyed forever, and Yemos HaMoshiach would have begun at that time.

Revenge against Midian in this week’s parsha therefore was more historic than it might seem. And unlike with respect to the annihilation of Amalek, we were allowed to take spoils of war, which we did. Among the many things taken were cooking implements, and that created the need to talk kashrus, specifically the kashering of treif pots, pans, dishes, etc.

Obviously, everything had to be thoroughly washed and cleaned. That took care of all the mamashos, the traces of food that stuck to the vessels. For the average person, that would have seemed like enough. What else could there be to worry about?

Bliyos. Absorptions. Molecules of food that can, under the right conditions, become absorbed into the walls of a pot, a roasting spit, or a knife, etc. And even though such vessels may seem impervious to everything, especially today given the materials and methods used to make them, halachically, nothing is. With enough heat, bliyos of what is being cooked will split away from the main food and become absorbed in the walls of the cooking instrument.

That’s how a pot, etc., can become milchig (dairy) or fleishig (meat) and remain that way even after the food has been removed and the pot has been cleaned. It’s the bliyos that were absorbed that do that, and they will remain in the walls of the pot until one of two things happen. Either the pot remains unused for 24 hours, or something is done, like kashering, to draw out the bliyos and make the pot pareve again.