Rabbi Mendel Agranovich
The question raised in our title does not come up very often in practice, but it still needs to be discussed. What should you do if your cholent is sitting on the blech and starting to burn, or perhaps just drying out? How can you add water to it so that its flavor is not spoiled? But let us take things in order...
To address our question, let us identify the problems we face if we want to add water to the cholent.
1. Cooking the water. We may not add cold water or water that has cooled to below 45 degrees, because that would mean cooking it on Shabbat in our pot of cholent.
2. Stirring cholent that is on the flame with a stream of water. We may not pour water in a way that stirs the ingredients of our cholent again, even if it is fully cooked.
3. Returning the water to the flame: if it has already been removed from it, we would be putting it back on the flame. We may not place something that has been removed from the flame back on it, as we have already discussed in all the previous articles in this series.
In other words, if the water has cooled below 45 degrees Celsius and has already been removed from the flame and left off the flame, even while hot, or has been poured into a cup or a pot, it may not be added to the cholent.
Practical conclusions
1. Hot water may be added from a pot or kettle that is on the flame to a pot of cholent, provided all the rules for returning it to the flame are observed:
– the food is fully cooked;
– we intend to return it;
– we keep hold of it and do not set it on the floor;
– the flame is covered.
2. There are two possibilities here: bringing the pot of cholent to the kettle or bringing the kettle to the pot. Make sure that steam from the meat pot does not rise toward the kettle, since otherwise, according to some opinions, the water will acquire “meat” status and may not be drunk with milk. You may also pour water into a cup and then pour it into the pot that is on the flame (Orchot Shabbat, 2, 60, 102, only for Ashkenazi Jews, Biur Halachah 318, citing Pri Megadim).
3. Pour the water gently and carefully, without creating a strong stream that could stir the cholent while it is on the flame.
4. Obviously, if the kettle is plugged into an outlet, care must be taken that the cord does not come unplugged. In general, it is best not to move such an appliance in the first place, because its heating element may be muktzeh—an object that may not be moved on Shabbat.