Is it permitted to eat peeled garlic that was inside a sealed container?

Hello,

If it was left overnight, meaning until dawn, when it is completely peeled, it is forbidden to eat it, and it does not help that it was stored in a sealed container.

In order for peeled garlic not to become forbidden - the advice is to leave part of the skin or root on it or mix it into other foods before dawn.

Sources: This is indeed stated in Tractate Niddah (17a) in the name of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, that whoever eats peeled garlic, peeled onion, or peeled egg that has been left overnight is liable for their life and blood is on their head. Even if they are sealed, a harmful spirit rests upon them. This is brought down as halacha in Shulchan Aruch HaRav (Laws of Protection of Body and Soul, paragraph 7).

The advice to mix them into other foods comes from Semak (Paragraph 191). And it is also mentioned by Ben Ish Chai (Year Two Parshat Pinchas Letter 14) and in Chafetz Chaim, part Yoreh De'ah (Paragraph 216, Letter 72) and in Responsa Yabia Omer, part 2 (part Yoreh De'ah, Paragraph 7, Letter 9) and in Responsa Even Yisrael, part 9 (Paragraph 126, Letter 3). It is also mentioned in the name of Chazon Ish zt”l in the book of Protection of Body and Soul, part 1 (at the bottom of page 25).

Regarding what is explained above that the dawn hour is the one that prohibits, indeed in Responsa Divrei Yatziv, part 2 (Paragraph 16) it is held that only peeled garlic, onion, and eggs that were in this state all night are forbidden to eat. This seems to be the opinion in Responsa Shiraga Me'ir, part 8 (Paragraph 90, Letter 7).

However, according to the opinion of Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef zt”l, the hour that defines the night's lodging is the hour of dawn, therefore factories that are open twenty-four hours, and onions were peeled there before dawn, should be fried before the time of dawn passes (Shulchan Yosef, page 95).

It is also mentioned in Responsa Shevet HaKehati, part 2 (Paragraph 249) that care should be taken not to peel eggs and garlic at the end of the night, so that at the moment of dawn the garlic and egg will be peeled. And I have heard from a reliable source that the righteous Rabbi Yaakov Landoy zt”l, Av Beit Din of Bnei Brak, was strict that in factories under his supervision, they should not leave peeled eggs at the hour of dawn and should not open them then.

Best regards,

Hillel Meirs