Zeiya vs. Reicha

QUESTION: What is the difference between “zeiya” and “reicha”?

ANSWER: “Zeiya” refers to steam or vapor that comes from hot liquid. Poskim use the expression “zeiyas mashkim k’mashkim” (the steam that comes from a hot liquid has the same status as the liquid itself). Therefore, zeiya from a pot of boiling milk is milchigs even when it is still in the form of vapor.

“Reicha” refers to the aroma which comes from a food. The particles of aroma cannot condense and turn back into liquid. If you walk into a house and smell the aroma of baked bread or roasting meat, this is reicha, not zeiya. With regard to reicha, lechatchila (in the first instance) one must view even the dry reicha of meat as being fleishigs, but bedi’eved (after the fact—i.e., once the act has been done) it is pareve.

The Pri Megadim (Hanhagos Hashoel 2:37) writes that it is questionable if “zeiya” that comes from a food (such as steam that emanates from a hot piece of meat or melted cheese) has the status of zeiya or reicha. Rav Moshe Feinstein zt”l (Igros Moshe YD 1:40) writes that if one sees steam coming from meat, one should be strict and view it as zeiya. If the meat is very dry and one did not notice steam, one may be lenient to assume that there was no zeiya because it is a food and not a liquid.

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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.