עברית
Halachot and Customs
Is it permissible to eat a peeled hard-boiled egg that has been left overnight?
Question
Is it permissible to prepare a sandwich with a hard-boiled egg in the evening and send it with the kids to school the next day? It is known that one should not eat a peeled hard-boiled egg the day after, and the same applies to peeled onion and garlic.
(And it is not mixed with other foods. It is only placed separately among all the vegetables).
Thank you
Answer
Shalom,
A peeled hard-boiled egg that has been left overnight is forbidden, as long as it was not mixed with other foods.
Sources: This is stated in the tractate Niddah (17a), where Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai said: 'These are matters for which one is liable to his soul and his blood is upon him, one who eats peeled garlic, peeled onion, and a peeled hard-boiled egg that has been left overnight. And even if they are wrapped and sealed, an evil spirit hovers over them.' This is cited for halacha in the Shulchan Aruch Harav (Laws of Preserving Body and Soul, section 7).
However, in the responsa of Beit Shlomo, part 1 (Yoreh De'ah section 172), it is written that the custom of the world is not to worry except for raw eggs and not for cooked ones. However, the opinion of the majority of the later authorities is to prohibit a cooked egg that has been left overnight, as written in the responsa of Yad Meir (section 19), in the responsa of Degel Efrayim (section 28), in the responsa of Kav HaZehav (section 14), and in the responsa of Pri HaSadeh part 3 (section 61, paragraph 2). See also in the responsa of Yabia Omer part 2 (Yoreh De'ah section 7, paragraph 6).
Blessings,
Hillel Meirs
