Milk & Meat - Sharp Foods

QUESTION: I ate a salad that contained very sharp onions that were cut with a fleishig knife. Am I required to wait six hours?

ANSWER: If a sharp or spicy food such as an onion is cut with a fleishig knife, it absorbs the full flavor of meat that is in the knife. The onion is not considered merely a nosein ta’am bar nosein ta’am of fleishig (a secondary flavor of meat) similar to the last discussion about a pot, but rather it is considered to have a full measure of meat flavor—and if this onion was cooked with dairy the onion would be forbidden. However, Rebbi Akiva Eiger (YD 89:3) writes that even so, one is not required to wait six hours after eating such an onion. This type of food is not actual meat, but would at most be similar to a tavshil shel basar (a food cooked with meat). Although the Rama (YD 89:3) writes that the minhag is to wait six hours after eating a tavshil shel basar, in this case, since there was no actual meat that came in contact with the onion, there is no minhag to require waiting. Although one may certainly not eat dairy together with this salad, after one finishes eating this salad, dairy foods may be consumed. 

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The Gerald & Karin Feldhamer OU Kosher Halacha Yomis is dedicated to the memory of Rav Yisroel Belsky, zt"l, who served as halachic consultant for OU Kosher for more than 28 years; many of the responses in Halacha Yomis are based on the rulings of Rabbi Belsky. Subscribe to the Halacha Yomis daily email here.