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Thought for the Day: On Shabbos You Can Use a Peeler, but Don’t Use the Pot Lid to Strain Your Soup

More about בורר/selecting on Shabbos. As is well known, there are three conditions that make the activity "eating" and not "selecting": (1) using your hand; (2) take the desired entity from the mixture, not the undesired; (3) for immediate use.

Of course there are whole books written on how each term applies specifically and in concert with the others. This last Sunday, R' Fuerst gave his 10th shiur on בורר and he's not just finished. I found the issue using a pot lid when serving food to be the biggest chidush. But first, some background.

In reverse order: (3) the activity needs to be performed for immediate use. In this context, that means for this meal, not "straight into your mouth." (2) you need to take what you want, not push away what you don't want. The exception to that is when the part you don't want is blocking access to what you want. That's why you are allowed to peel a banana or orange on Shabbos (for eating right away, of course). You aren't "selecting" the peel, you are removing it. Finally, "by hand" means "not using a tool/utensil that was specifically designed for the purpose of selecting." Using a fork is still called "by hand" because you are only using the fork to keep your hands from getting dirty and your mom from yelling at you.

What about a peeler? Is that called a utensil designed for selecting or not? Shockingly, there is a disagreement among the poskim. R' Moshe is on the lenient side, noting that it is just a funny shaped knife, but a knife it remains and not a selection tool. I am happy to rely on R' Moshe (almost always, except when R' Fuerst says otherwise). Even better, I understand the logic -- not that whether I understand the logic or not changes the fact that the p'sak is the p'sak and I will abide by it.

R' Fuerst discussed an issue I had not considered before: you are serving chicken soup on Friday night and someone wants only broth and chicken. So you ladle out some soup, being careful to get only liquid; well, mostly, anyway. Then you take a fork to pull out some nice chunks of chicken. No problem -- both the fork and ladle are considered extensions of your hand, you are taking what you want from what you don't want, and you are serving it immediately.

One problem: your customer is a 10 year old who hates vegetables and is not touching that stuff. (Or a 23 year old who acts like a 10 year old, or a 47 year old... you get the picture.) You give the soup to someone else and go back to the kitchen. "I know", sez you -- "I'll use the pot lid to hold back the stuff I don't want! It is still taking what I want from what the brat doesn't want, it is still for immediate use (after all this, the little stinker better eat it!), and what could be wrong with using the pot lid? I mean, it's already a utensil that is used with the pot anyway....

At this point, R' Fuerst says it is a disagreement among the poskim and better to be stringent. I am thinking, "huh... surely R' Moshe is on the lenient side; after all, he permits vegetable peelers. I wonder why R' Fuerst is saying we need to be stringent." At which point I hear the dayan saying: and R' Moshe is stringent. What?!?

After some discussion (some of which you can hear on https://www.torahanytime.com 😁) and some thought. This is how I understand the p'sak. The leniency for the vegetable peeler I described above; it's just a funny shaped knife being used as a knife. The pot lid is something different. It is already used together with the pot and is meant to keep the heat in and bugs/dust out. Once you hold it against the pot with only a narrow slit, you are no longer using it as a lid. Rather you have effectively created a tool that is purpose designed for selecting... and so forbidden to use because of the prohibition of בורר/selecting on Shabbos. In truth, the same could be said about the fork. Notice I said, "pull out some chunks of chicken". If you use it to scoop out chicken in order to not get any broth nor vegetables, then you are using it as an opened ended slotted spoon; again, transgressing the prohibition of /selecting on Shabbos. (If you want some broth, but not all, the CYLOR about possible leniencies.)

Moral of the story: Don't compare one thing to another without consulting a competent rabbinic authority.

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