Rav Moshe Twersky ztz"l HY"D
Hechsher keilim is the alef-beis of a kosher kitchen. In addition to purging a used utensil bought from a Goy of its non-kosher absorptions, there is also the halacha of tevilas keilim which is learned from these pesukim. It is a point of debate amongst the Rishonim if obligation to toivel dishes is a full-fledged d’Oraysah requirement, or if it is d’Rabbanan and the reference to the pesukim is an asmachta.
Regarding geirus, there are two steps (nowadays): milah and tevilah. That is the order the Gemara puts it in. There is a machlokes, though, if changing the order would invalidate the conversion. The Ramban holds that even if ger went to the mikveh first, and only afterwards got a bris milah, it still works. However, the Rashba holds that it doesn’t work. His reason is based on that which Chazal say, “Ha’poreish min ha’orlah k’poreish min ha’kever, one who separates from the foreskin is as one who has just come out of a cemetery”.
For Jews, lack of bris milah does not affect the inherent kedushas Yisrael. There were Jewish communities in Europe that wanted to enact that children who were not given a bris milah would not be registered as Jews in the official communal archives. However, Reb Chaim (Brisker) said that you cannot do that. It is wrong. He is still a Yid.
When it comes to a Goy, though, the Rashba holds that the lack of bris milah is inherently contradictory to what tevilah in a mikveh is meant to accomplish. For a ger, it’s not just a particular mitzvah. So long as he still has the orlah (foreskin), according to the Rashba, the tevilah in the mikveh cannot have its effect.
Interestingly enough, the Ritva at the end of Maseches Avodah Zarah says that the same machlokes would apply to toiveling dishes. That, according to the Rashba, so long as a dish still has non-kosher absorptions in it, tevilah in a mikveh cannot have its desired effect. Therefore, the dish absolutely must first be kashered and only then toiveled (whereas according to the Ramban changing the order does not invalidate the toiveling).
The Ramban asks, why is it that this issue of hechsher keilim only arose now by the war waged against the people of Midyan? Why wasn’t it addressed by the conquest of Sichon and Og, wherein there was quite a lot of spoils of war?
The Gemara learns out from “batim m’lei’im kol tuv, house filled with all good things” that during a Torah-mandated war it is permissible to eat otherwise forbidden foods. The Rambam holds that this is true regarding any war being waged within enemy territory (“gvul Akum”), but only if they don’t have kosher food available to eat. The Rambam puts this together with the Torah’s allowance of yefas toar, that this too is a special dispensation of “lo dibrah Torah elah k’neged yeitzer hara”. The Rambam also includes yayin nesech (wine used for avodah zarah) in this heter.
The Ramban, though, argues on all three points. 1) He holds that the heter is only regarding kibush Eretz Yisrael, conquering Eretz Yisrael. 2) It is even if they do have kosher food available; it is simply hutrah. 3) It is not a special dispensation of “dibrah Torah k’neged yeitzer hara”; it is simply completely permissible. Furthermore, adds the Ramban, the heter does not apply to yayin nesech, since yayin nesech is not just non-kosher, but it also has a requirement of expunging all things related to avodah zarah.
Accordingly, the Ramban resolves his own question. The territories of Sichon and Og did not have to be conquered now; it could have waited until the time of Mashiach. However, inherently these territories are part of nachalas Eretz Yisrael. Therefore, once Sichon and Og attacked, and it became necessary to conquer them and their land, it had a full-fledged status of kibush ha’Aretz, conquering and taking over Eretz Yisrael. Therefore, the heter of eating non-kosher food applied. Of course, then, there was no concern of non-kosher absorptions in dishes either. So that is why the topic of kashering dishes did not come up there. However, the war waged against the people of Midyan had nothing to do with kibush Eretz Yisrael – the territory if Midyon is completely chutz la’Aretz – and the heter did not apply over there. That is why it was the very first time that they needed to deal with the halachos of kashering dishes.
The Achronim ask on the Ramban: even though the heter of maachalos asuros applied in the war against Sichon and Og; still, why didn’t they have to be concerned about absorptions of yayin nesech in the dishes? The Ramban himself emphasized that he holds that yayin nesech is not included in the heter?! Many answer – and it is a correct, lomdisheh teirutz – that the halacha of destroying and purging avodah zarah does not apply to absorptions that are inside dishes. It so happens, that the same thing is true regarding absorptions of chametz inside dishes, that there is no requirement of destroying such chametz. The whole reason that the heter of “m’lei’im kol tuv” does not apply to yayin nesech is because of the halacha of biur avodah zarah (destroying and expunging avodah zarah); so, regarding absorptions of yayin nesech inside of dishes, where there is no requirement of biur, the heter does indeed apply.
There is yet another question that we can ask on this Ramban. Even though they didn’t have to kasher the dishes when they conquered Sichon and Og, why didn’t they have to toivel them?! Rav Yerucham Gorelick related an answer in the name of Reb Chaim: the halachah of toiveling dishes is only when you bought it from a Goy. By the war against Sichon and Og, though, they acquired ownership of those dishes from the cheirem. That is what Reb Chaim said, but I am not sure exactly what it means.
