Rabbi Mendel Agranovich
Continuing our discussion of returning food to the heat and warming food that was not on the heat, we need to examine another question.
If, before Shabbat, we finished cooking the food until it was fully done and placed it on a blech or hotplate, may we move the pot closer to or farther from the flame, or place it back over the burner?
It is important to emphasize that this entire question assumes we have not relied on the permission to leave food on the heat before Shabbat even when it is only a third or half cooked. It is also possible that we left cholent on the blech before it was fully cooked, and it finished cooking there. In any case, at the moment when we want to move our pot, the food in it is fully cooked.
There are then two possible approaches:
First. If the food is on the blech but not over the flame, returning it to a spot above the burner is considered placing food on the heat when it was not on the heat before.
Second. The entire blech is considered one large burner, simply with varying levels of heat. Obviously, if the temperature of the blech in a particular spot is below 45 degrees, the cholent is not considered to be on the heat at all. And even if the blech itself is hot enough, but cannot heat the food to 45 degrees, that too means the food is not on the heat. So how do we regard the blech: as a single whole, or is the area above the burner considered “on the heat,” while all the other areas of the blech have the status of “beside the heat”?
In the Talmud (Shabbat 37a), the description of a kirah—a two-burner earthenware stove—introduces the concept of “beside the kirah.” What does this mean? Food can be placed on a burner, or beside the hot wall of the stove. There, too, one can warm food, finish cooking it, or finish slow-cooking a roast, provided the stove has been thoroughly heated. This position has its own distinct halachic status and is called “beside the stove.” According to Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, our pot on the blech, when it is not above a burner, is considered to be “beside the heat,” rather than on it. Rabbi Moshe Feinstein and Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, on the other hand, held that the entire blech is hot enough to bring food to 45 degrees and is considered one large burner.
What, then, is the halachah concerning the status of “beside the heat”?
The Mishnah Berurah holds that food may be placed “beside the heat” even on Shabbat, while the Chazon Ish holds that this may not be done on Shabbat. On the other hand, the Mishnah Berurah writes that food may not be moved from “beside the heat” onto the stove, whereas the Chazon Ish permits this. Thus, according to the Chazon Ish, “beside” has the same status as the usual position, and it makes no difference where the food is placed—on the stove or beside it. According to the Chofetz Chaim, however, placing food “beside” means placing it somewhere that is not used for cooking, and this is permitted even on Shabbat itself. Placing it on the heat on Shabbat, however, is clearly forbidden.
Therefore, if we consider the area of the blech away from the burner to be “beside the heat,” placing or returning food to a spot above the burner would be forbidden according to the Mishnah Berurah. On the other hand, that same opinion would permit placing food in the area beside the heat on Shabbat itself. According to the opinion that considers the blech one large burner, however, placing food on it on Shabbat would be forbidden, but moving food from the side to a spot above the burner would be permitted.
Practical Conclusions
1. If food on the blech is at least partially over the flame, it may be moved to a spot entirely above the flame, provided it is fully cooked. Otherwise, you are speeding up the cooking, which is prohibited by Torah law.
2. If it is not above the flame, Rabbi Elyashiv and Rabbi Feinstein permit moving it above the flame, while Rabbi Auerbach forbids it. When necessary, one may rely on these rabbis’ opinions.
3. Fully cooked food may be moved around on an electric hotplate without restriction.