Skip to main content

Thought for the Day: Borrer on Shabbos Is Never Permitted, But Eating Is

Here is something that is oft stated: The only permissible way to do בורר/selecting on Shabbos is:

  • select what you want from what you don't want; aka אוכל מן הפסולת
  • do not use a utensil specially created for selction; aka ביד (literally: by hand, but forks and spoons are fine also; just as long is it is not a special tool for selecting, such as a sifter)
  • for immediate use; aka מיד

That statement could not be more wrong. There are no circumstances in which performing the malacha of בורר/selecting is not a violation of Shabbos. בורר/selecting is one of the 39 categories of creative labor that are forbidden by the Torah to be performed on Shabbos.

Clearly though, we certainly are permitted stab a bit of chicken/scoop some cholent (אוכל מן הפסולת) with a fork (ביד) and put it in his mouth (מיד). Yum! Right -- that is not called בורר/selecting, that is called "eating".

Now, in case you are rolling your little eyeballs at that statement (are any of my children reading this?), please know that this is an important distinction. I mean, even more than the usual importance in speaking precisely about halacha.

You are certainly allowed to sweep your floor on Shabbos. Of course, there are issues with sweeping on a dirt floor, because of the malacha בונה/building. However, no one mentions problems with בורר/selecting. And why not? You are, after all, removing what you don't want. What about washing your hands or dirty dishes? There are other examples. My favorite is removing lice from clothing. The Shulchan Aruch makes a big deal about being careful no to kill the little critters -- not a PETA issue, but the malacha of שחיטה/slaughtering. But nary a word -- not by anyone -- about בונה/building.

R' Fuerst, shlita, brought up this issue in his most recent (as of Nov 11, 2023) Sunday morning shiur. He has seven cases. The answer to all of them is a statement from R' Shlomo Zalman Auerbach (חכם אחד), which is brought in Shmiras Shabbos k'Hilchaso, Chap 3, footnote 7. It's a long footnote, the punch line (for this TftD) is about 2/3 of the way through (nine lines from the end in my edition). The statement is one can infer from the Shiltei Giborim that when it comes to the malacha of בורר/selecting, it all depends on what people call the activity whether it is בורר/selecting or something else.

In case you haven't already, please re-read that. Let's unwind those examples in reverse order. When someone is removing lice from a garment, it is called "delousing" and not "separating lice." It is "cleaning the dishes"; not "separating the dirt." It is "washing your hands"; not "separating dirt from your hands." It is "sweeping up the dirt"; not "separating the dirt from the floor."

If you are using a special utensil, then you are clearly separating/selecting. If you are removing what you don't want, then you are clearly separating/selecting. If you taking what want (אוכל מן הפסולת) without using a special utensil (ביד), but are not going to eat/consume/use it right away, then you are separating/selecting for later.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thought for the Day: אוושא מילתא Debases Yours Shabbos

My granddaughter came home with a list the girls and phone numbers in her first grade class.  It was cute because they had made it an arts and crafts project by pasting the list to piece of construction paper cut out to look like an old desk phone and a receiver attached by a pipe cleaner.  I realized, though, that the cuteness was entirely lost on her.  She, of course, has never seen a desk phone with a receiver.  When they pretend to talk on the phone, it is on any relatively flat, rectangular object they find.  (In fact, her 18 month old brother turns every  relatively flat, rectangular object into a phone and walks around babbling into it.  Not much different than the rest of us, except his train of thought is not interrupted by someone else babbling into his ear.) I was reminded of that when my chavrusa (who has children my grandchildrens age) and I were learning about אוושא מילתא.  It came up because of a quote from the Shulchan Aruch HaRav that referred to the noise of תקתוק
Post a Comment
Read more

Thought for the Day: Love in the Time of Corona Virus/Anxiously Awaiting the Mashiach

Two scenarios: Scenario I: A young boy awakened in the middle of the night, placed in the back of vehicle, told not to make any noise, and the vehicle speeds off down the highway. Scenario II: Young boy playing in park goes to see firetruck, turns around to see scary man in angry pursuit, poised to attack. I experienced and lived through both of those scenarios. Terrifying, no? Actually, no; and my picture was never on a milk carton. Here's the context: Scenario I: We addressed both set of our grandparents as "grandma" and "grandpa". How did we distinguish? One set lived less than a half hour's drive; those were there "close grandma and grandpa". The other set lived five hour drive away; they were the "way far away grandma and grandpa". To make the trip the most pleasant for all of us, Dad would wake up my brother and I at 4:00AM, we'd groggily -- but with excitement! -- wander out and down to the garage where we'd crawl
Post a Comment
Read more

Thought for the Day: What Category of Muktzeh are Our Candles?

As discussed in a recent TftD , a p'sak halacha quite surprising to many, that one may -- even לכתחילה -- decorate a birthday cake with (unlit, obviously) birthday candles on Shabbos. That p'sak is predicated on another p'sak halacha; namely, that our candles are muktzeh because they are a כלי שמלאכתו לאיסור and not  מוקצה מחמת גופו/intrinsically set aside from any use on Shabbos. They point there was that using the candle as a decoration qualifies as a need that allows one to utilize a כלי שמלאכתו לאיסור. Today we will discuss the issue of concluding that our candles are , in fact, a כלי שמלאכתו לאיסור and not מוקצה מחמת גופו. Along the way we'll also (again) how important it is to have personal relationship with your rav/posek, the importance of precision in vocabulary, and how to interpret the Mishna Brura.  Buckle up. After reviewing siman 308 and the Mishna Brura there, I concluded that it should be permissible to use birthday candles to decorate a cake on Shabbo
Post a Comment
Read more