The Prohibition of Borer on Shabbos - Rabbi Yitzchok Muzgurashvili shlita

00:02 Speaker 1 You’re listening to the Lema’an Yishme’u podcast from Machon Halacha Chabad.

00:09 Speaker 2 With Hashem’s help, we’ll learn a little about the laws of borer, sorting, on Shabbos, and, if time allows, on Yom Tov as well. As everyone knows, there are thirty-nine categories of work on Shabbos, along with their derivatives, and one of them is borer. As everyone knows, the prohibited forms of work are based on those performed for the Mishkan. Right now we’re reading the parshiyos that discuss the building of the Mishkan. The Shabbos prohibitions are derived from all the work that was needed to build it. Where did sorting take place in the work of the Mishkan? The Alter Rebbe says that borer is one of the primary categories of work, because in the Mishkan they would sort the waste from the ingredients. There were ingredients used to make dyes and for the incense, and they would sort the waste from those ingredients. Sorting in the way it was done in the Mishkan is forbidden on Shabbos; that is the melacha of borer. There are several ways in which sorting is prohibited by the Torah, there are also rabbinic prohibitions, and there are permitted ways. We’ll learn about them, of course. The guiding principle in the laws of borer is this: the Torah did not prohibit what is done in the normal course of eating, but it did prohibit what is done as an act of sorting. The big question is: what counts as the normal course of eating, and what counts as sorting? The Alter Rebbe writes in siman 319 that anyone who sorts waste from food, even with one hand and even in order to eat immediately, is liable. In other words, if there is a mixture of waste and food, and a person now removes the waste from the food—even with one hand, and even in order to eat the food left on the plate or in the bowl—it is nevertheless prohibited by the Torah. He is liable. The word “liable” refers to the three types of liability under Torah law for violating Shabbos. First, someone who does so unintentionally is liable to bring a sin offering. Second, someone who does so deliberately, without a warning from witnesses, is liable, heaven forbid, to kareis. Someone who does so after a warning from

02:34 Speaker 2 witnesses is liable to stoning. So whenever we say “liable,” we mean that the act is prohibited by the Torah and carries one of the forms of liability just mentioned. Sorting waste from food, then, is prohibited by the Torah even if you do it by hand and intend to eat what remains on the plate, because that is plainly an act of sorting. But the Alter Rebbe goes on to say that someone who sorts food from waste in order to eat it immediately is not liable—unless he sorts with a sieve or a sifter, which is the normal way to sort. Say a person has a mixture of food and waste, and he now removes the food from the waste, but does it with utensils made specifically for sorting, such as a sieve or a sifter. A sieve has finer holes and a sifter has larger holes, but both are utensils made specifically for sorting: you put something on top and sift it, so that the sifted portion falls through while the rest stays on top. If someone does that on Shabbos, even in order to eat immediately, it is prohibited by the Torah, despite the fact that he is removing the food from the waste. Since he is using a utensil, it is a Torah prohibition. If he uses utensils that are not made specifically for sorting, such as a kanon or a tamchui, which are mentioned in the Mishnah and cited by the Alter Rebbe, it is prohibited rabbinically. In other words, even when a person removes food from waste, if he does so not by hand but with a utensil that is not designed for sorting yet can be used for it, that too is prohibited rabbinically. Why did the Sages prohibit this? Because they said that if you allow a person to sort with utensils that are not made specifically for sorting, he may come to sort with utensils that are. And if a person removes the food from the waste in order not

04:46 Speaker 2 to eat it immediately, then even if he removes it by hand, it is considered an act of sorting and is forbidden. So the only way a person may sort in a manner permitted by the Torah is to remove the food from the waste by hand in order to eat it immediately. To sum up what we’ve said so far, three conditions must be met for a person to sort food from waste. First, he must remove the food from the waste, not the other way around—that is, not the waste from the food. Second, he must remove the food from the waste by hand, not with a utensil. And third, he must do it in order to eat immediately. What is the definition of “immediately”? There are a number of opinions among the later authorities, but the Rema writes, and the later authorities cite this as well, that when a woman expects her husband to come home from shul and begins preparing the table, that is considered close to the meal. In other words, “immediately” does not mean that everyone must already be seated at the meal. It is enough that she expects her husband to arrive home shortly. There is a dispute about precisely what time frame counts as “immediately.” The later authorities say that, ideally, one should not do this more than an hour before the meal. Rather, it should be close to the meal: between half an hour and an hour beforehand is considered “immediately.” Earlier than that is no longer considered “immediately.” Someone once asked me a question. He served on an air force base, and he said the pilots were pampered: their eggs had to be peeled for them. Peeling eggs was beneath their dignity. This was on Shabbos, and he was a cook. He said, “I have three hundred soldiers on the base. If I start peeling half an hour

07:00 Speaker 2 before the meal, I won’t finish. So what do I do? When am I allowed to start?” Shemiras Shabbos Kehilchasah addresses this situation. It can also come up in anyone’s home when guests are coming. When there are many people in the house, sorting and preparing the food takes longer than it does for a small number of people. Therefore, the halacha says that you may begin as early as you think you need to in order to have the food ready close to the time of eating. Say you need half an hour or an hour to peel all those eggs—that is considered close to the time of eating. So even if you think you need more than an hour, as long as you are planning the time you need to prepare the food, not trying to free up time for yourself afterward, that falls within what is permitted. And since we mentioned peeling eggs, I’ll give this halacha here as well. Since you cannot eat an egg without first peeling its shell, peeling it close to the time of eating is considered the normal course of eating, not an act of sorting. But if, say, a woman peels the eggs long before the meal—in the morning, so that they’ll already be peeled when her husband comes home at lunchtime—that is plainly an act of sorting, because it is not close to the meal. The same applies not only to eggs but to anything one wants to peel, even if it can be eaten as it is, with the peel. Take a cucumber, for example: you can eat it with the peel, and you can eat an apple with the peel. Peeling is not essential, but that makes no difference here. If a person peels it, he shows that, for him, the peel is not being eaten now. Accordingly, the halacha says

09:07 Speaker 2 That is how the halacha is decided in practice; the Alter Rebbe rules that way too. Even when something has a peel and you remove it—yes, it is all one kind of food and so on, but since you do not want the peel right now, if you remove it right before eating, that is the normal way of eating. If you do it long before eating, it is no longer considered the normal way of eating; it is considered sorting, and is therefore forbidden. A practical example is a woman who wants to prepare a fresh salad for the whole family to eat on Friday night after Kabbalas Shabbos, or on Shabbos morning for the morning meal. When can she start peeling and preparing everything? The halacha says: when she expects her husband to leave shul and come home soon—roughly half an hour, or at most an hour, before the meal, but not earlier. If it is done earlier, it is no longer considered immediate. As we said, three conditions must always be met for sorting to be permitted: you take what you want out of what you do not want—that is, the food out of the waste; you do it by hand; and you do it for immediate use. Now we will discuss some of the details. The prohibition of borer also applies when we have a mixture of different kinds, even two kinds of food. Yes, a mixture of two kinds of food—and as the word “mixture” suggests, they are mixed together. Say there is a salad with cucumber, tomato, onion, bell pepper, and all sorts of other vegetables, according to what everyone likes. Say someone does not like onions. So the question is, what

11:17 Speaker 2 does he do? If he takes what he does not like out of what he does like, then even though both are food, the Alter Rebbe rules that because they are two different kinds mixed together, what he does not want is considered waste in relation to what he does want. All the laws of borer apply to it, so he may not do that even right before eating. What does he do instead? He takes out what he wants. Say he likes cucumber and tomato but does not like onion: he should take out the cucumber and tomato and leave the onion there, not the other way around. Often, because we are so used to eating a certain way, we move what we do not want to the side and so on, and we could inadvertently, G-d forbid, violate the prohibition of borer. Borer is one of the prohibitions that is very, very hard to observe properly unless a person really learns these halachos as he should. Hakadosh Boruch Hu also gives heavenly help: when a person is careful about these things and knows the halacha, he is protected from violating it. The Alter Rebbe says—I will read his words and then explain: “The prohibition of borer applies only when one sorts waste from food, or the reverse. But if one sorts food from food, even if he does not want to eat one of them at all and takes it to throw it away, it is not considered waste for that reason, since it is fit to eat. Therefore, he may sort it out from the food he wants to eat, and this is not considered sorting waste from food.” Let me explain. When we have food and waste, and you sort the food from the waste but not for immediate consumption, and so on,

13:34 Speaker 2 that is considered the manner of sorting. But if we have food—two kinds of food—and you do not intend to eat either of them, and you want to separate them not in order to eat or for any other use, the Alter Rebbe says that this does not constitute borer, because you are not sorting here for a particular purpose. Borer is when you separate one from the other in order to eat one and not the other. But if, in separating them now, you do not intend to eat either one and simply want them separated, there is no problem. One point about the prohibition of borer is that it applies not only to food, but also to utensils, clothing, and books. I will explain. For example, there is a mixture of knives, forks, spoons—cutlery, as it is called—and a person wants to put things in order. They are all mixed together, and he wants to separate the knives, forks, and spoons. If he is taking out what he needs now, there is no problem with taking it out and using it, just as with food. The principle is this: when two kinds are mixed together, the kind you want is considered the “food,” and the kind you do not want—even if it too is fit to eat—is considered “waste.” The same applies to utensils. If you take out a fork to use it, there is no problem. If you take out a knife to use it, there is no problem. But if you separate them in order to put everything in its place—knives where the knives go and forks where the forks go—then you have to be careful, because that is forbidden: it is the manner of sorting. But suppose you do not sort through them. Instead, you immediately put away whichever one comes to hand. A knife comes to hand? You put it where the knives go. A fork comes to hand? You put it where the forks go, and so on. That is no longer considered the manner of sorting. The problem is when you sort through them, moving one thing here and another there, separating them into categories, and so on. Similarly, if laundry has piled up in the laundry room or a clothes closet—it does not matter where—and it is all mixed together, and you want to sort it and put each kind of clothing in its place, separating it is a problem because it is borer. The sorting you are doing right now is precisely that, and you have to be careful. But if you take whichever item comes to hand, without sorting through the pile, and put each thing in its place, that is also fine, as we said about the spoons and forks. This applies to books as well. The Vilna Gaon, of blessed memory, rules in a book of responsa, I believe in section 8—these are his words: “Just as the prohibition of sorting applies to foods, so it applies to other things mixed with their waste, or to two kinds mixed together. For example, if two kinds of utensils were mixed together before him and he wanted to sort one kind from the other in order to use it, that kind is considered the food and the other is considered waste. He must sort the food from the waste and not the reverse, even if one is larger than the other and individually recognizable. He must also sort it in order to use it immediately, as explained regarding two kinds of food.” The explanation is this: suppose clothes are piled one on top of another and a person wants a particular garment. They all fall under the general heading of clothing, but they are different garments. So a person who wants to take out a garment

15:49 Speaker 2 needs to know that he must take out what he wants, not what he does not want, and he must do so close to the time he will wear it. In other words, if a person wants to wear a particular shirt in the morning because the shirt he wore at night is [unclear], or for any other reason, he cannot move aside the shirts he does not want to get to the shirt he does want, then prepare it or leave it there so it will be ready in the morning. I will speak in a moment about clothes on hangers, where the law is a little different, but this is the basic principle. It is very simple: it is like two things, one of which you want and the other you do not. We said that what you do not want is considered waste and what you do want is considered food. The same applies to clothing, because once we rule that the prohibition of borer applies to utensils as well, a person must also be careful with clothing and take out what he wants close to the time he will wear it. But what about clothes hanging on a hanger? There is a rule about that; the Mishnah Berurah brings it. What is the rule if, for example, we have large fruits lying one on top of another—apples, pears, and other kinds of fruit—and an apple is lying on a pear? You want to eat the pear, but you do not want the apple right now. May you move the apple aside to get to the pear, or not? He explains that since each fruit here is individually recognizable and they are not mixed together, the fact that one is lying on top of the other does not make them a mixture. A mixture is when one thing is mixed in with another, like legumes and similar things—small items mixed together.

17:53 Speaker 2 So he needs to know that he must take out the one he wants, not the ones he doesn’t want, and he must do that shortly before putting it on. In other words, if someone wants to wear a particular shirt in the morning because the shirt he wore at night is [unclear] for him, or for any other reason, he can’t take a shirt off the shelf—or off a hanger; I’ll talk about hangers in a moment, because the situation there is a little different. But in principle, that’s how it works. He can’t move aside the shirts he doesn’t want to get to the shirt he does want, and then set it out or leave it ready for the morning. It’s very simple: you have two things, one you want and one you don’t. We said that what you don’t want is considered waste, and what you do want is considered food. The same applies to clothing. Since we rule that the prohibition of borer, sorting, applies to utensils too, a person must also be careful with clothing: take out the item he wants shortly before putting it on. But what about clothes hanging on a hanger? There is a ruling about this, which the Mishnah Berurah brings. Suppose we have large fruits resting on top of one another—apples, pears, and other kinds of fruit. Say an apple is on top of a pear, and you want to eat the pear but don’t want the apple right now. May you move the apple aside to reach the pear, or not? He explains that because each fruit here is individually distinct and they are not mixed together, the fact that one rests on the other does not make them a mixture. A mixture is when things are mixed together, like legumes and similar things—small items that are mixed together.

19:51 Speaker 2 One on top of another. So the Mishnah Berurah says there is no mixture here, and you may move the upper fruit to reach the lower one. It is like peeling a fruit—for example, an orange. You want to peel it. What is the halachah? If you do it right before eating, it is permitted, because that is the normal way of eating, not an act of sorting. As we said at the beginning of the class, the rule in the laws of borer is that the normal way of eating is permitted, while an act of sorting is forbidden. What counts as the normal way of eating? Peeling it right before eating. You remove the peel, and the peel is inedible waste. Nevertheless, since you cannot get to the food without peeling the fruit, doing it right before eating is considered the normal way of eating. The same applies here: you cannot get to the fruit you want without moving the upper fruit. As long as you do it right before eating, it is permitted. Likewise, say a person has five shirts hanging on a clothesline and wants one particular shirt that is farther in. There is no problem reaching that shirt and moving the outer shirts if he does it right before wearing it. Since each shirt is distinct, they are not considered a mixture. A mixture is when things are mixed together without any order, not when one is resting on top of another, or even hanging in front of another. So Shemiras Shabbos Kehilchasah writes that one may be lenient about this right before getting dressed: move the outer shirts, take the shirt farther in, and put the outer shirts

21:33 Speaker 2 back. This does not constitute borer. By the way, when it comes to books, one should take out the book one wants, not a book one does not want. Now, if books are on a shelf at home or in shul, and you take out exactly the book you want without moving other books and so on, according to the vast majority of opinions there is no problem. It is permitted, because you are not sorting anything; you simply go to the shelf and take out the book. But what if books are stacked one on top of another, and you specifically want a book at the bottom? If you move all the other books, you are moving what you do not want for the sake of what you do want. So if they are in a mixture, you should be careful and try to take out the bottom book, if possible, without disturbing the others. What can you do? Usually there are not ten books stacked on top of one another, but two or three. So if you cannot get to the bottom book, you can open the top book and read a word from it. Then you have used it, and moving it is for the sake of your use. That is the normal way of using a book: just as we spoke about the normal way of eating, here we are speaking about the normal way of using it, and it would be permitted. But some say that books are also like the fruit we discussed earlier. When the fruits are large and each one is distinct, with one merely resting on top of another, there is no borer involved in reaching the fruit underneath. So too with books stacked one on top of another: each book is distinct,

23:38 Speaker 2 and if they are stacked neatly, there is no problem removing the upper books to reach a book at the bottom of the pile. But if the books are simply in a jumble, piled on top of one another in no particular order, that is where the problem arises. There you must be careful to take out the book you need, not one you do not need. For example, a person needs a Chumash to follow the Torah reading with the baal korei, but many other books are piled on top of it in a mixture, so he has to move them. The halachah is that he should take out the Chumash close to the time when he will use it to follow the Torah reading, not well beforehand, because then it would no longer be considered immediate use. There is also another solution: when you take out the Chumash, read a verse with Rashi’s commentary, or another commentary you want to study. Then you have used the Chumash immediately, and afterward you can put it down and use it again when you need it. The Turei Zahav discusses a case in siman 319, paragraph 9: What if some dirt falls into a drink, or a fly gets into it? How can you remove the dirt or the fly? The Taz writes that you should not remove the fly or the dirt by itself, because that is plainly sorting waste from food. What should you do? He says you can take a spoon and remove a little of the drink together with the fly. That way you are removing both food and waste. The Alter Rebbe, in Shulchan Aruch itself,

25:47 Speaker 2 did in fact rule like the Taz, the Turei Zahav. However, in Piskei Hasiddur the Alter Rebbe retracted that ruling and expressly forbade removing the dirt together with some of the food or drink using a spoon. He says not to use a spoon, because when you do, it is as though you are sorting with a utensil. So what should you do? Move the dirt in the cup or plate toward the rim, and then tip the vessel by hand, pouring out the dirt together with a little of the drink. In other words, you cannot remove the dirt by itself, because that is plainly sorting out waste—even though it is floating on top. Some opinions say this does not constitute borer, because it is not considered a mixture when it floats on top: a mixture is when the two are mixed together, not when one stands out from the other. But the Alter Rebbe and the Taz are stringent about this. The difference between them is whether you may remove a little of the drink together with the dirt using a spoon. In Piskei Hasiddur, the Alter Rebbe writes not to remove it with a spoon. Rather, you can push it toward the rim of the vessel and then pour it out by tipping the vessel. In practice, what remains in your hand is the part that was mixed in. What practical difference does this make? Say a person opens a can of food on Shabbos, a can of tuna, and there is a little oil inside. Now, we are not discussing how one may open a can, since that raises the issue of making a utensil fit for use. There are well-known differences of opinion about this. Some people make a hole

27:54 Speaker 2 in the bottom as well, so that the container is no longer usable, but that is not the subject of this class. A person opens the can in a permitted way. There is oil inside, or he opens a can of olives, a jar of pickles, or any other preserved food, and he does not want the liquid or oil. Certainly, the best thing to do is take out the food and leave the liquid inside, because then he is taking the food out of the waste. But some opinions say that, according to the Alter Rebbe, what remains in your hand is the part that was mixed in. As with dirt that falls into a drink: you pour out a little of the drink with the dirt by hand, not with a utensil, and the food remains in your hand. Based on this, they want to permit pouring the oil out of the can while leaving the food inside, because the food is what remains in your hand. There is discussion of this among the later halachic authorities for anyone who wants to rely on it. I believe the Aruch Hashulchan also permits it, and one can rely on this understanding of the Alter Rebbe’s ruling to pour out the oil or other liquid, because the food remains in your hand. But there are also those who disagree: does this permission apply when no dirt has fallen in, and instead the liquid is part of the food as it comes? So if someone wants to know what is best to do in order to satisfy all opinions and avoid a clear prohibition, it is preferable to take out the food he intends to eat immediately and leave the liquid as it is. He can take out the pickle, the olives, the salted fish, or the tuna—whatever each person has, because…

29:53 Speaker 2 Put the good part on top of it, and then it will be permitted according to all opinions, even those who explain the Alter Rebbe’s view differently. There are some more laws connected with this. For example, suppose someone separated the unwanted part from the food without knowing it was forbidden. May the food be eaten now or not? With regard to cooking on Shabbos, it is known that in siman 318, both the Beis Yosef and the Gra rule that if someone cooks on Shabbos in a forbidden way, the food is forbidden to everyone on Shabbos itself, whether he did it inadvertently or deliberately. After Shabbos, if he did it deliberately, it remains forbidden to the person who cooked it, whereas if he did it inadvertently, it is permitted even to him. The question is whether the same rule applies to separating. Someone separated in a forbidden way on Shabbos. Is the food permitted to him after the fact, or is it forbidden? This is discussed in halachah. At the beginning of siman 318, the Biur Halachah brings opinions on both sides. What emerges is that cooking changes the nature of the thing being cooked: it was uncooked before, and now he has cooked it, improving the food. But with separating, even if someone separates the unwanted part from the food without knowing that it is forbidden, he has not done anything to the food itself. It was fit to eat before and is fit to eat now. His action may have brought it closer to being ready to eat, but it was fit to eat before, too. In short, he has not changed its nature or made any change to the food itself. That is why there are those who permit eating it after the fact if someone separated it in a forbidden way. Another point, which I touched on earlier:

32:13 Speaker 2 The separating that is permitted is not only for your own needs; it is also permitted for others. For example, you want to separate something to feed a child, for guests, or for the family—often it is the woman preparing the food. So where it is permitted, it is permitted not only for yourself but also for others. Of course, this is on condition that you take the food from the unwanted part, by hand, and close to the time of eating. In one of the earlier classes, I asked: If someone transgressed the prohibition of separating, may the food be eaten or not? I said, citing the Rema and the Magen Avraham, that it would be permitted; that is what can be inferred from their words. However, in siman 318, the Alter Rebbe writes about someone who cooks on Shabbos, and adds, “or performs any of the other melachos.” If it was inadvertent, no one may eat it on Shabbos itself. Only after Shabbos is there a distinction between the person who did it and others; on Shabbos itself, there is none. Since he writes “or performs any of the other melachos,” it sounds as though separating is no different. After all, separating is one of the melachos, so even if it was inadvertent, the food would be forbidden on Shabbos itself. But as I said earlier, the Rema seems to distinguish it from cooking: cooking changes the food being cooked and improves it, whereas separating does not improve the food itself. All it does is bring it closer to being eaten. No change was made to the substance of the food. The Biur Halachah also discusses this and seems to permit it. I know there is a disagreement about this among Chabad rabbis who rule on halachah. So if someone wants to be stringent for himself, he is to be commended. But since there are those who permit it, one can certainly rely after the fact on the opinions that permit it

34:19 Speaker 2 after the fact in this case. They also say that the whole reason the Sages prohibited food on Shabbos even when the melachah was done inadvertently was as a safeguard against deliberate violation: someone who acted deliberately might claim, “I did it inadvertently.” But, they say, this concern applies to cooking on Shabbos. Cooking can benefit the person, so they had to prohibit the inadvertent case as a safeguard against the deliberate one. With separating, what would he gain by claiming that he did it inadvertently? Therefore, many opinions are lenient. Someone who wants to be lenient after the fact, if he separated in a forbidden way on Shabbos, may do so; but if someone wants to be stringent for himself, he is to be commended. To complete the discussion of separating, there are several more situations. For example, someone is eating chicken that has skin on it. He may remove the skin from the chicken close to the time of eating, of course. He may also use a fork for that, because a fork is not a utensil normally used for separating; it is an eating utensil. As we said, doing it in the course of eating is permitted, just as one may use a knife to peel any fruit or vegetable that needs peeling close to the time of eating. The same applies here. And why is it permitted to remove the skin? Because we said that the prohibition of separating applies to two different kinds of food, but not to one kind, and the chicken and its skin are considered one kind. Incidentally, what counts as two kinds, and what counts as one? If they differ in their basic nature or in taste, they are considered two kinds. For example, chicken and beef differ in their basic nature, so they are two kinds. Or you might have chicken that is partly boiled and partly roasted. Since roasted and boiled chicken taste different, they too are considered two kinds. But if, for example,

36:31 Speaker 2 they are the same kind of fish, only one is large and one is small, or the same kind of meat—the same kind of chicken or beef—only one piece is large and one is small, selecting a small piece from a large one, or a large one from a small one, is not considered separating. So chicken and its skin are considered one kind, and one may remove the skin close to the time of eating. Incidentally, adults generally do not eat candy, but if you give a child a candy and the child wants to eat it, you should remove its wrapper close to the time of eating. The wrapper, too, is something that prevents you from reaching the food. We said that three conditions must be met for separating to be permitted: you take what you want from what you do not want. But here you have no choice—you have to remove it. It is like a fruit that you have to peel. We said that this is permitted if you do it close to the time of eating, so that applies here as well. Similarly, if someone eats things that come wrapped, such as salami or sausages, with plastic or paper around them, he may remove the wrapping close to the time of eating, but not long beforehand. The same applies to an ice pop given to a child: you may remove the paper from it close to the time of eating, but not long, long beforehand, because otherwise you enter into the prohibition of separating. Incidentally, since we are talking about children, if toys are mixed together—not when each toy is clearly separate, but when they are jumbled together—and you want to put them in order, you may not sort them, as we said earlier. Toys, too, are among the objects that may not be sorted. We said that the prohibition of separating applies not only to food, but also to utensils and clothing. But if each toy is separate and you simply have different kinds

38:39 Speaker 2 of toys, and you want to put each toy in its place, with none of them mixed together—just lying there—and you want to pick them up from the floor or the table, wherever they are, there is no problem. Similarly, if you pick up spoons and forks one at a time, without sorting through them, and put each one in its place, there is no problem, as we said in one of the earlier classes. The same applies here. But if the toys are mixed together and you want to put them in order, then you are beginning to sort them. That does raise a problem of separating, and you have to be careful. Now, someone eating fish. One reason people eat gefilte fish—not just because it tastes good—is to avoid the problem of removing bones on Shabbos. A bone is something you do not want to eat. Although it is part of the fish, you cannot eat it. So people try to have boneless fish. That is best and avoids the issue according to all opinions: there are no bones in it at all. What problem could there be? But suppose someone is served fish with bones. Ideally, he should take the flesh of the fish off the bone and eat it, not the other way around. But I think it is brought in the name of the Tzemach Tzedek, in Piskei Dinim: What if someone cannot get the flesh off the bone? He says it is like a fruit that you have to peel to reach the fruit. So here, too, you can remove the bone to get to the flesh of the fish. That seems to be the Tzemach Tzedek’s meaning, and it is a leniency one can rely on. Similarly, for example, when eating melon. Inside the melon there is—on the outside there is

40:35 Speaker 2 The peel of the melon, and inside are the melon seeds. Nobody eats the seeds or the peel. So first of all, if it is right before eating, you may certainly peel the melon. But what about the seeds inside? We say that the seeds are not considered mixed with the melon; they are resting on it. The prohibition of borer applies only when things are mixed, not when one is next to or on top of the other. So you may remove the melon seeds, of course right before eating. I want to qualify this. Many poskim outside Chabad have written rulings—I remember this from many decades ago—that someone who wants to eat melon must cut it open before Shabbos and remove all the seeds. Of course, to keep the melon fresh, they say to put it in a plastic bag and keep it cold, and so on. But as we learn from the Alter Rebbe, that is not necessary. One may be lenient, provided it is done right before eating. The same applies to watermelon. Most watermelons today are seedless, but as we remember, there are also watermelons with seeds. Especially if you do not want a child to get a seed stuck in their mouth or [unclear]. So what do you do? It is permitted to tap the watermelon so the seeds fall out, provided, of course, that all this is done right before eating. There is no problem, because the seeds are not considered mixed in; they are considered to be resting there. So there is room to be lenient. Anyone who wants to be stringent for themselves may do so. We are discussing what is permitted and how to do it in accordance with the Alter Rebbe’s opinion as well. There are fruits with pits, such as apricots, dates, and olives. So according to most opinions, it is

42:30 Speaker 2 permissible to cut open the fruit and remove the pit. Although the pit is inside it, it is not considered mixed in; it is merely resting inside, and you cannot eat the fruit with the pit. With olives, however, there is a special tool for removing the pit, and here you must be careful not to use that tool. As we learned, one of the conditions is to select what you want from what you do not want by hand, right before eating. If you use a special tool to remove the pit, that is no longer by hand. It is a tool made specifically for removing pits, so even if it would not be a Torah prohibition, it would certainly be a rabbinic prohibition. You must be careful about that. You may eat olives with pits, but not remove the pits with the special tool. You can remove the pit by hand, cutting the olive with a knife and taking out the pit. There is no problem with that. What is the law about peeling fruits and vegetables with a peeler made for that purpose? With fruits whose peel is not edible, according to the vast majority of opinions, one should not use a special fruit peeler. That is very much a form of borer, and it is prohibited. But there are fruits whose peel is eaten, as we said, such as apples and pears. There are also cucumbers and various other fruits that can be eaten with their peel. Some opinions do hold that since you can eat them with their peel, there is no prohibition against peeling them with a tool made for peeling. After all, it is like a knife—what is the problem? Some, however, refrain from doing so. They say it is prohibited as uvdin dechol, a weekday activity—not because of borer or anything like that, but because they see it as something done on a weekday.

44:28 Speaker 2 On Shabbos, besides borer, one of the things we have to be careful about is that the Sages added many prohibitions and safeguards, including uvdin dechol: not doing things on Shabbos the way we do them during the week. So one should be careful about this, even though some opinions permit it for fruits and vegetables whose peels are edible. We said that borer does not apply to a single type of item. Say someone has a bunch of grapes, and some of the grapes have started to rot. What is the law? Since each grape is separate rather than mixed in, you should not remove the rotten grape. Instead, take a good grape and eat it, and the rotten grapes will remain on the bunch. What about leafy greens? Someone has parsley, cilantro, celery, or whatever they like—lettuce and so on. Say some of the leaves have started to rot a little around the edges. What should they do? We said borer does not apply to one type of item, but here, although the items are the same type, some are rotten and some are not. Or say part of an apple has begun to rot. What do you do? Ideally, of course, a person should take the good part away from the bad part. That is best according to all opinions. But if you have no choice, since it is one type of item, it is like an orange, which you may peel right before eating. Even though the orange peel itself is not edible, you cannot get to the fruit

46:31 Speaker 2 without removing it. The same applies to fruits or vegetables that are partly rotten. If you cannot separate out the good part, you may remove the rotten part, because it is like a peel that you have to remove to get to the fruit. That is considered the normal way of eating, not the manner of borer. When fruits come home, it is advisable for health reasons to always wash them before use. This has nothing to do with honoring Shabbos; we are talking about health. Fruits are treated with pesticides while they are in the fields, and those pesticides are poisonous. It is not healthy to eat fruit without washing it first. During the week, a person can wash it however they like. The question is how to wash fruit on Shabbos. Some fruit has this residue on it—this poison, which is indeed a poison, though in a small enough amount to kill insects and not... But if a person eats a lot of it, Heaven forbid, it could harm them. It needs to be washed. There is no problem with washing it under a running tap. You can wash it under the tap and so on. Ideally, one should not put it in a container of water to soak it and make the residue easier to remove. But since this is not actual dirt stuck to it, only pesticide and the like, some poskim permit putting it in water if there is no other option.

48:15 Speaker 2 But if, for example, you have a vegetable such as a fresh radish, and you can see clumps of earth still around it, it is certainly forbidden to put it in a container and soak it in water so that the clumps of earth or dirt float away. That is an actual manner of borer, and it is prohibited. So what is permitted? If someone wants to eat a radish, they should turn on the tap in the sink and hold it under the running water so the water flows over it and washes it, but not soak it in water. Now, there is no problem with using a filter attached to the tap. Of course, on Shabbos you may not attach the filter to the tap, because of making a vessel and building, and various other prohibitions that we are not discussing here. But usually the filter is already attached to the tap, and there is no problem with turning on the tap and having filtered water come out. Water is generally fit to drink even without filtering, and it says in Hilchos Borer, section 19, that there is no problem with passing clean water through a filter and so on. The same applies to a strainer in the sink. When you pour leftover food there to throw it away, what happens? Usually, the liquids go down into the drain, and the solid food scraps stay on top of the strainer. That is not considered borer. First of all, it is waste being separated from waste: both are waste, since you do not want to eat either of them. Nor are you interested in separating them; you are simply pouring everything out. Separating waste from waste is not prohibited as borer. So on Shabbos you may pour leftover food into the sink, with the liquids going down the drain and the solids remaining on top. And also, the solids are mixed with

50:28 Speaker 2 Even if there are small pieces in it, that is not a problem, because you do not intend to strain anything here. You simply intend to pour it out. As for making tea on Shabbos, I am not going into the laws of cooking now, but the various opinions are well known. Ideally, of course, you should prepare the tea concentrate before Shabbos and keep it hot. But if, for some reason, a person did not manage to prepare it before Shabbos, there are those who permit putting a tea bag into a third vessel. First you put water into a third vessel: the urn is a first vessel, the vessel you pour from the urn into is a second vessel, and then you pour from that into another cup, which is a third vessel. The Pri Megadim and other halachic authorities write that this does not cook on Shabbos, and therefore some permit putting a tea bag into a third vessel on Shabbos. We are not discussing the laws of cooking now. Some people do this on Shabbos, and most permit it. As I said, if a person put in a tea bag and now wants to take it out, is there an issue of borer? In the book Shabbos Kehilchasah by Rabbi Farkash[unclear], and in several other books, I saw this discussed. They say not to take it out by hand, because when you do, drops of tea drip from it, and it is as though you are separating them. Rather, take it out with a spoon or something similar. Now, some people prepare cooked tea before Shabbos. They have a small, special teapot containing tea leaves that were actually cooked before Shabbos. There is a strainer in its spout, so that only the water that has absorbed the flavor of the tea enters the cup, and not the tea leaves.

52:24 Speaker 2 This does not involve borer on Shabbos. Our rabbis permitted it because each part is distinguishable on its own, and they permitted this in a liquid mixture. Suppose a person peeled a fruit intending to eat it, but in the end changed his mind and did not eat it. He peeled an orange because he wanted to eat it, but then decided not to. That does not involve borer, because when he peeled it, he intended to eat it. Similarly, when peeling fruits and vegetables, a person should estimate the amount needed and not peel large quantities for no reason, only to have them left over. But when a guest comes to your home and you are [unclear] to peel just one apple or one orange for him, you peel several, knowing from the outset that you are doing so to fill out the fruit plate and the like. Even if some are left over, that is permitted, because it is the normal way of eating. We cannot know exactly how much will be eaten, provided a person does not use this as a pretext—peeling extra now so that some will remain and he will not have to peel later. There are many, many laws involved in preparing food on Shabbos, and borer is one of them. We have tried to go over the laws of borer fairly briefly and concisely. May Hakadosh Boruch Hu help us, amen, to observe many Shabbosos properly and in accordance with halachah. One thing is well known: our rabbis say that someone who does not study the laws of Shabbos will find it difficult to observe Shabbos properly. If he does not know the laws, how can he observe them? So

54:57 Speaker 2 each and every person should set aside regular times to study. I did not come to lecture anyone; I am [unclear]. But everyone should set aside times to study halachah in general and the laws of Shabbos in particular. “The laws of Shabbos are extensive”—the Alter Rebbe writes that each person must be well versed in them so that he knows how to instruct his family, and they will all observe Shabbos properly and in accordance with halachah. May it be Hashem’s will that we merit the true and complete Geulah through our righteous Moshiach very soon, amen.