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Can You Get Coffee from Non-Kosher Restaurants? - Keeping it Kosher Clips
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Can you get coffee from a non-kosher diner? What about Slurpees or fountain sodas from a gas station? Rabbi Donneal Epstein discusses these questions and how concepts like "stam keilim" and "marit ayin" come into play. The newest episode of the Keeping it Kosher podcast, Navigating Travel, is out now! Host Rabbi Ezra Sarna is joined by Rabbi Donneal Epstein, OU Kosher Rabbinic Coordinator, to discuss practical halachos for kosher travel, covering everything from hotel coffee machines and rental home kitchens to highway rest stops and more. 🎧Listen now at keepingitkosher.org or wherever you get your podcasts.
Categories:Torah/Halacha
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Auto-generated transcript. Not time-synced to the video.
So this halacha with stam keilim, is that why
people are buying coffees when they're traveling,
even at non-kosher restaurants and coffee shops?
Yes, that is the reason why it's
a common practice for the last 100
years for people to go into non-certified,
non-kosher places and get a black coffee.
The only exception would be in the more
innovative modern places where they have
food and these new techniques of cleaning,
where everything is done together,
and they wash everything. So, that we recommend
to stay away from a black coffee even there.
I see. So, in other words, if you have
a diner, a simple old-fashioned diner,
and they have this coffee machine that's
only used for coffee, and as you mentioned,
the coffees don't have any flavors or anything
like that. And so, the regular coffee is kosher,
and so there's no issue of treif.
But here, they have other products,
they're washing them all together. So that that
adds treifus to the non-kosher ingredients?
Right, so an old-fashioned
diner, like you grew up seeing,
it's still the same type
of diner that there was...
The same benches.
Right. You know, in the 1960s, those
would be fine to get a black coffee.
Besides for the halachot of kashrus,
you're driving on the highway,
and there's a Dunkin Donuts, or there's other
stores that sell non-kosher. Is there any issue
of marit ayin in stopping in these places for
the bathroom, or for a coffee, or for a soda?
No, there's only an issue of marit
ayin if it's not normally done. So,
since it's common practice to stop
in these places for these reasons,
Coke or coffee, or using the
restroom, there's no issue marit ayin.
So besides for a coffee, I know a common question
that comes up is Slurpees and fountain sodas. If
a person stops by a gas station, can you just
get any Slurpee or fountain soda that you want?
No, you should look underneath
to see the bag or the box,
or see if you see the hechsher. And if you don't,
I wouldn't recommend buying it. Just get a
closed bottle or can that has a symbol on it.