Halacha of the Week: The Blech

Posted on January 26th, 2010 by JewishByte

HALACHA OF THE WEEK: A FEATURE OF THE BJSZ DAILY HALACHA SHIUR
THE “BLECH”

As we established previously, we have limitations regarding leaving certain foods to cook on Shabbos without a Blech-type modification because of a concern that we might adjust the fire on Shabbos to control the cooking (OC 253). There are a variety of opinions as to what constitutes a valid modification to the fire.

In Talmudic times when the fire was created by a bed of coals at the bottom of the oven, the methods prescribed were either the removal of the coals or covering them with ash. The purpose behind these modifications were to make it less likely that the fire be subsequently adjusted, either as: 1) a visible modification to the normal method of cooking (see MB 253:81); 2) something designed to lower the temperature in the oven (see Tur 253); or 3) as a simple barrier to fiddling with the fire (OC 252:1).

In contemporary stoves with electric or gas heating elements, the modification that classically has been used is a Blech, a sheet of metal that covers the fire. This certainly addresses the first two aspects mentioned above. Some are of the opinion that one should also cover the controls in order to address the third issue.

Note that the glasstop of modern electric stoves, where the fire is beneath the glass, does not satisfy the requirement for a Blech, as the glasstop is the normal way of cooking and does not constitute a modification. Likewise for a crockpot, a lining of aluminum foil may not constitute a Blech as it actually adds to the temperature in the pot rather than lowering it.

As such one should make sure that the Cholent is basically cooked before Shabbos, and then the controls should be covered.

Halacha of the Week is a feature of the BJSZ daily Halacha Shiur and is republished with permission from Bnai Jacob Shaarei Zion and Courtesy of Rabbi Hauer.