#827: A Kerfuffle with Kiddush or Coffee
Some people have the custom of pouring the wine from Shabbos Kiddush—a kos shel brachah (a cup of blessing)—back into the bottle so that it can be reused for Havdalah, a practice that is a segulah (propitious act) to inherit Olam Haba (the World to Come).
Wait! Don’t pour it back yet…the leftover wine in the bottom of the cup is considered pagum (defective) because it was drunk from—it can’t be used for kiddush or havdalah.
A person who follows this practice should pour some new wine into the cup before pouring it back into the bottle to avoid the status of pagum wine. Now it can be used for any purpose.
Hold it! That wine bottle has never undergone tevilah (immersion in the mikvah [required for new vessels]—see Halachah #12). How can you pour wine back inside? And, give me a sec…remember yesterday morning? I poured some coffee granules from that new space-age Taster’s Choice container directly into my mug and had to spoon some of it back into the (glass!) jar. Can I use that jar of instant coffee again? Come to think of it, how can you use a wine bottle or coffee jar in the first place since it hasn’t been toiveled?
There are various answers that would allow coffee granules or wine that are stored in a glass container—or poured back inside—to be used without tevilah. First of all, there is leniency with regard to the bottle in general, since the contents are only there temporarily to dispense into another kli (vessel) for drinking, and when the contents are finished, we dispose of the kli. The act of pouring wine or another substance back into its original kli is simply restoring it to its previous status. In addition, there is a halachic opinion that a container used exclusively for storage does not require tevilah in the first place. Even among those keilim used strictly for serving food, a utilitarian wine bottle or coffee jar is not used as a serving dish to require a more stringent approach to tevilah. This is especially so considering that it is ill-mannered in today’s day to eat or drink directly from the original container, so we are not concerned, even in the case of wine, that a person will drink the leftovers directly from the bottle.*
In these cases, we can rely on these lenient opinions with using consumer packaging l’chatchilah (in the first place), and also when needing to return some of the product to its original container.
*see Halachah #395 regarding drinking directly from single-serving glass bottles and the requirements for tevilah.