Non Jewish babysitters

Senior Member Joined: Dec 03 2009 Posts: 213

Can anyone tell me some basic Halachos of a non-Jew cooking for you? I know about turning on the stove, what about the microwave or toaster? Slow cooker? I know it is preferable not to have a gentile in your kitchen but I will be working very long hours ands don't have much choice

Platinum Member Joined: Feb 20 2009 Posts: 7944

My nanny uses the microwave. Sorry, I don't know about the others. There may be different opinions, but we were told microwave is ok.

I'm assuming that you can set a timer for the slow cooker. So lets say it goes on at 1 pm, you can have her put the food in anytime after that. It seems as though it would be considered as if you "turned on the fire." You should ask a rav, but I thought I'd throw that idea out.

Posted: Mon, Jun 04 2012, 6:53 pm Post subject: re: Non Jewish babysitters

I let our non-jewish nanny use a microwave or reheat food in an oven, but ONLY for reheating alrady cooked foods rather than cooking from a scratch. We also got ok to let her use a toaster oven because bread is edible without toasting.