A Mouse In The Brew

Please note: The following article is based on a true story recorded in the Gemara. No halachic conclusions should be based on this story. No animals were harmed during the writing of this article. Reader discretion is advised. You may not want to read this article while eating or on a full stomach.

Reuvain: Boruch, you’re not going to believe what I found in my home! I found a mouse doing laps in my keg of beer.

Boruch: That’s disgusting. Why are you telling me this?

Reuvain: Well, I never imagined I would have this shailah. I took the mouse out of the beer and I want to know if the beer is still kosher.

Boruch: You must be poorer than a church mouse to want to drink that beer. But for all kashrus questions, you should really see the Big Cheese.

Reuvain: Well, I was just thinking that since there is less than sixty times the volume of the mouse in the beer, the beer should be forbidden. The taste of the non-kosher mouse was imparted into the beer and the taste would be noticeable in the beer due to the small volume. We hold that even if there are no actual pieces of treifus, the taste of treif is enough to render an item non-kosher.

Boruch: Just wait a second. The beer was cold, right? It’s a good thing that you didn’t look at your gift mouse in the hearth, because it is heat that generally causes taste transfer. The non-kosher mouse cannot impart a taste into cold beer. Don’t you know that Haman told Achashveirosh, “You are considered by Jews to be lower than a fly. If a fly falls in their wine, they just take it out, but if you touch their wine you render it non-kosher!” From Haman’s true statement we can see that since the wine is cold, you can simply remove the fly and the wine is still kosher. (This proof is offered by the Rosh.) So here too, you can remove the mouse and the beer will still be kosher.

Reuvain: Are you a man or a mouse? Didn’t you ever hear of the concept of kavush k’mevushal? Sometimes a taste transfer can be effectuated even in cold liquids. When a non-kosher item soaks in a kosher liquid for the requisite amount of time, the non-kosher item can impart its taste to the liquid and render it non-kosher.

Boruch: Right. I remember that difficult passage in the Rambam you are referring to. The Lechem Mishneh explained that the Rambam holds that beer is considered a sharp-tasting liquid and can absorb tastes rather quickly. So even if the mouse was in the cold beer for only a short time, it could still impart its non-kosher taste. But wait! I smell a rat! Do we even pasken like that Rambam?

Reuvain: Actually, we might not, but still . . . I’m a little embarrassed to admit this, but I live in a rat hole. That mouse was in the beer for three days. The Ritzva says that if a non-kosher item soaks in kosher liquid for 24 hours, non-kosher taste is imparted. But I fulfilled even the opinion of Rabbeinu Tam who says that a three-day soak is needed to impart flavor. That mouse was in the beer for three days.

Boruch: But you said that the mouse was doing laps! A live mouse cannot impart a non-kosher taste!

Reuvain: Well the mouse obviously died eventually, but the Chasam Sofer holds that even a live creature can impart a non-kosher taste.

Boruch: So you got yourself into a really ratty situation. It would seem that the beer is non-kosher. I hope you always keep extra beer in your house just in case of situations like this. You know the proverb “A mouse that has but one hole is quickly taken.”

Reuvain: I’m glad you’re ready to abandon my beer like rats running from a sinking ship. I, however, was thinking maybe we could just taste the beer to see whether or not it has any non-kosher mouse flavor.

Boruch: You are thinking like a rugrat! How could you taste the beer? If it does in fact have non-kosher flavor then it is treif and you weren’t allowed to taste it!

Reuvain: Yes but we could get a gentile to taste it.

Boruch: A gentile who doesn’t keep kosher is not believed to render an opinion on the kashrus status of food.

Reuvain: Yes, but an expert gentile chef who would never lie because he doesn’t want to ruin his reputation may be believed.

Boruch: If you are a Sefardi that may very well be true. But you’re an Ashkenazi. Ashkenazim only believe people who keep kosher to render an opinion on kashrus issues. Just give up. Your cheese has moved.

Reuvain: I thought you were my friend; you’re really a rat-fink. You know very well that a mouse doesn’t taste too good and may very well only impart a negative flavor to the beer. We hold that a treif flavor that negatively affects the kosher food does not render it non-kosher.

Boruch: The fact that a mouse imparts a negative flavor has not been ratified by all the poskim.

Reuvain: Admittedly, that’s true, and to ratchet up the bad news, it wasn’t actually a mouse. It’s what the Gemara refers to as an achbira d’dabra—a wild mouse which Rashi identifies as a squirrel. It was actually a squirrel in my beer.

Boruch: Before you squirrel away the beer, are you sure that squirrels impart a good flavor?

Reuvain: Yes, the New York Times last year ran a story about how squirrels are making it to the menu of many restaurants in England. In fact, Walker Chips, a UK potato chip manufacturer introduced a new flavor last year: Cajun squirrel. Squirrels are eaten even in the United States. A headline of an article in the New York Times in 1997 read, “Kentucky Doctors Warn Against a Regional Dish: Squirrels’ Brains.”

Boruch: I know I’m arguing both sides and being rather erratic. However, just because squirrels taste good when eaten by themselves does not necessarily mean that they impart a good flavor into beer!

Reuvain: Well, just to be on the safe side, I’ll chuck the beer. As the proverb goes, “Burn not your soul and imbibe the mouse anyway.”

Boruch: I’ll drink to that. And just remember not to throw stones because people with a mouse in their glasses . . .