Cohn, Jacob. The Royal Table - VWC: Faculty/Staff Web

106 THE ROYAL TABLE
crushed and irremovable, the food into which they have
fallen may be eaten except when the volume of the insect
exceeds that of the food! 23
Soaking for twenty-four hours is as damaging as boiling.
Hence any edible food soaked in a trejah dish or with
trejah food for a full twenty-four hours becomes prohibited.
24
Soaking in salt water for a "short period" is also
tantamount to boiling. The length of this period is defined
as the interval in which the mixture could be placed on
the fire and brought to a boil.25 A prohibited food dam-
ages a permissible food only when the two are actually
boiled together, or when one falls into the other when one
of them is still in the very vessel in which it was heated
on the fire QltPfcO ^D). But when both have been trans-
ferred from the vessel in which they were boiled to an-
other dish (W ^3), and are then mixed, the edible food
remains unaffected. 26
It is this principle which we applied
above in the case of meat and milk dishes which were
washed together. 27 When a hot forbidden substance is
poured (iny) from the very pan in which it was heated
upon kosher food, that food must be pared. 28
Some prohibited food can never be annulled. The most
important types of non-annullables are "creatures" (ma);
living things (m 5)n): Things which will eventually become
permitted of themselves (jn^nD 15 VW im): and por-
tions which may be served to guests without further carving
(Tronn? rpiKin fi^nn). The technical term "creature" or
beryah is defined by three criteria. It must be something
"YD 103, 2.
24 Pesachirn 76a; Hulhn 97a; HSb, Y. D. 105, 1.
35 Ashen to Kol Habasar; Y. D. ibid.
26 Y. D. ibid. 3.
27 See above, page 97.
28 Y. D. ibid ; Shock ad loc.