Question
Hello. I am in quarantine in a place that I do not have my Pesach kitchen items. I need to purchase things but there is no mikvah available. What can I do to keep a kosher Pesach? I am planning on using disposable aluminum pans but I heard that you are not supposed to make food in the oven for seder, is this true? Thank you. We should all be healthy and have a kosher Pesach.
Answer
Shalom, Firstly, thanks for your blessings, and may you be happy and healthy together with the rest of Israel and mankind! Your suggestion of buying disposable aluminum pans is a great solution, for they don't need tvila. Regarding the oven, what you may have heard is that some opinions are stringent and don't allow to kasher ovens for Pesach. On the other hand, the mainstream opinion allows it and in your difficult situation, you can surely hold like those opinions. The kashering is done by having it rest for 24 hours from its previous use; cleaning the oven very well; and then turn it on and after it has reached its highest temperature, let it burn for at least half an hour, with the cleaned racks inside (in order to kasher them as well). Alternatively, what you may have heard is that for the seder night itself, we don't serve roasted meat/chicken (which would resemble the ancient Paschal lamb), but the solution to that is simple: just cook it in the oven with a sauce, and then it's considered visually and culinarily different, and no problem (as is roasted meat/chicken during the week, after the seders). Roasting vegetables or anything aside from meat/chicken is no problem even for the seder night. Regarding pots (but not pans, which are more problematic), simply kasher your metal pots which you use all year (that's what our grandmothers did in Europe!), by letting them rest for 24 hours; cleaning them thoroughly; and then fill each pot to the top with water and then boil water there until it overflows. Similarly, most silverware and cooking utencils can be kashered, but being that some, especially frying cooking-ware, is complicated to kasher, it's probably easier just to buy disposable cutlery, and plastic, wood or rubber cooking utencils, which are exempt from tvila.
Also, thank God, Tzomet in Gush Etzion opened a service over the internet exactly for this purpose, where you sign up and they sell your pot or utencil to a gentile/goy and then it's exempt from tvila! Here's the link:
https://nirshamti.co.il/en/e-tevilla/
Have a happy and Kosher Pesach, and praying that you're not sick!
