New York – Anyone who has ever tried to heat up a kugel on Shabbos morning by balancing it on the lid of their urn will understand the brilliance of Rabbi Chaim Weissman’s new invention, appropriately titled the Pelleh Platte. In fact, it was a dripping pan of spaghetti and meatballs, heated on top of an urn, that gave rise to the Pelleh Platte in the first place, when a young man serving as a baal korey in a Long Island City shul was concerned that the dripping sauce had rendered the urn fleishic and turned to Rabbi Weissman for guidance.
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Rabbi Weissman, a 73 year old Beit Shemesh inventor and shadchan who received smicha from Reb Moshe Feinstein, began to wonder if there was some way of combining an urn with a hot plate so that food could be heated up easily and without any halachic issues on Shabbos. Three years later, the first patented Pelleh Plattes debuted, a flat horizontal urn that holds 40 cups of water and doubles as a hot plate. A heating element originally developed for use by NASA is embedded in the steel bottom of the unit, heating the water which in turn heats both the air inside the unit and the metal hot plate above it. The hot plate is considered to be a k’daira on top of a k’daira, making it an acceptable surface on which to heat foods on Shabbos. The Pelleh Platte has received the approval of Rabbi Yisroel Belsky and numerous poskim in both Israel and the United States.
The first run of 100 Pelleh Plattes, which retailed for $195, is almost completely sold out, with only two of the seven inch high,16 by 21 inch units remaining. They have been enthusiastically received by commercial kitchens such as restaurants and nursing homes and exceptionally large families. A smaller, lighter five inch high version of the Pelleh Platte, measuring 14 by 18 inches with a 28 cup capacity, is expected to be available around Pesach. Additional tops for the unit for Pesach or milchics are available as well.
Unlike many products that are available these days, Rabbi Weissman says the Pelleh Platte is exceptionally durable and strongly suggests covering it in foil and keeping food in pans to not only protect the hotplate but to keep the water inside pareve. “The Pelleh Platte is made to last a lifetime,” said Rabbi Weissman in an exclusive interview with VIN News. “Not only does it save electricity by eliminating the need to run a separate urn and hotplate, it also saves space on your counters over Shabbos. Most importantly the steam heat warms up food perfectly without ever burning it.”
For more information about the Pelleh Platte, contact Rabbi Weissman at [email protected].
I believe u can just put the food in a doubled aluminum pan and put it on the blech.
I fail to see the invention here!
With all the tzoros confronting klal yisroel, its exciting to know that some rav has the time and energy to focus on such monumental issues…me kamachoa yisroel…no more cold chulent on shabbos.
I don’t understand, al gabi kedeira is permitted only something dry like kugel and not spaghetti and meat balls.
secondly; even a dry food is assur on a hot plate because people would confuse cooking or reheating so you put it on a pot so people know you are heating only (its not the usual way to cook on a pot) but a pot that looks like a hot plate why is it different then regular hot plate, just because the mechanics are different?
the Pelle plate is a great thing for those who are machmir like the chazon ish on a regular “Blech” here you have less heat and is a great invention but to reheat cold food I don’t see it as a savior.
hey! why cant you just put a pot of water on a normal shabbos platte? thus elliminating having to waste $200 on this new invention!
a real waste of time and money. what if you finish all the hot water Friday night, what happens to the food, it isn’t getting heated by the steam anymore
Did I miss it here or am I wrong? Doesn’t fleishig food on top make the water in the urn fleishig?
this almost seems to good to b true! warming up food on shabbos! why wasnt this invented earlier is my question. where do I buy this? anyone?
One major item which I think should be addressed, is the safety aspect.
The old hot water urns caused many dangerous burns to young children who pulled them down off the kitchen counter & the water spilled over them.
Firstly, this design looks like it is a lot more stable and less likely to be knocked over, and secondly probably a lot harder to be pulled off the coutertop by young children. Can anyone verify this?
Also, this new urn/hotplate should have a lockable seal so if it does accidentally fall over, no water will spill out. (Like the pressure urns – outside plastic, where you push the top to get water out.)
#4 is correct. reheating is only allowed by dry foods. Sauce is a liquid, and by a liquid we hold yesh bishul achar bishul, unless the sauce was still warm when placed on top of the blech.
fantastic invention now lets start working on an antigravity combustion engine that will save humanity
The Chochma (i.e. “invention”) is not “the device” pictured here.
I think the price is sky high, highway robbery for such a simple device to be priced at $200
The real Chochma here is eliminating the am-horatzus, in torah and the am-horatzus in science.
Simply stated is can be done for $10 to $50 by using a double boiler pot.
The “invention” is simply that hardly anyone knows the Halacha in this matter and how exactly to make it permissible.
He is really charging you $200 for “A HALACHA IN BOX” – that instead of you breaking your head to learn a din in Shulchan Arch and not knowing what is permissible and what is not, he put it all together and says “this is kosher” so pay me $200 because without me doing it for you, you would never know for sure what is Kosher and What is not.
Double pot cooking is also generally not known to most housewives and hardly anyone does it during the week either because they just never THINK about it and don’t realize how easy it is during the week and that it can keep food hot all day and all night and never burn the food – a great idea for wives who want to keep food hot for a husband who comes home to eat super late at night.
How does this constitute a gerufa uketuma, there is no aditional heker for shabbos and it does not look ‘not derech bishul’ why would even chazora be mutar?
Btw Is the tempiture adjustable?
And what about all the schmaltz and cohlestorol from the UNNECESSARY Kugel. It is well known that the Chevra Kadisha is exeptionally busy on Sunday mornings. So save the $200 and eat something healthy.
This reads like a PR piece to revive an item that didn’t sell when it first came out, because so many Rabbonim said that this item should not be used.
Besides that it doesn’t look too safe, its good to know that we can now eat that Age old shabbos food spaghetti and meatballs
New? The spiggot is the same type used for the past 50 years that has sent hundreds of children to the burn unit! It also looks like a mouse trap.
It is interesting to see how many of you am oratzim are arguing halacha on something bigger rabbonim than you have already given their psak on.
I also assume that not one of you poskim is authorized to give a halachic psak.
So what are you trying to show off here for? To do one better on Rav Belsky and others?
You are all idiots for doing this. read the article, which by the way is a puff-piece for an overpriced piece of trash, and buy it, or don’t (I haven’t even checked how easy it is to empty and replace water each week, as re-boiled and re-boiled water is not very tasty OR particularly healthy). This is an advertisement, for those of you who haven’t figured it out, and not an invitation to argue halacha. If you want to do that, get off the internet and get a chavrusa to learn with.
Looks like something Ralph Cramdem kept under his ice box.
The Rambam even permits the reheating of cold soup on Shabbos, as there is no bishul after bishul. Ask your rov, not your fellow bloggers about halacha.
Was there UL testing and was approval given?
I think it’s brilliant. A regular blech always has heating issues – one thing burns, one thing’s too cold, you have to rotate, etc… The Shabbos hot plate I have now burns everything so I have to put the food on overturned cookie sheets or baking pans to prevent that… My best option was the kedaira blech I had (double blech that you fill with water) which was scary to empty out after Shabbos, even after the water cooled off, but things warmed very well & nothing burned. If this is easy to empty, AND it saves me the counter space of an urn (which I switch weekly for the cd player/radio in my kitchen), I think I like it.
I don’t like the price that much though.
Oh, and I might add that whoever thinks you can do the same job with a double boiler pot might know the halachos & all that but will probably be stuck with only one warm dish for Shabbos lunch. I need more surface than the top of a pot!