Siman 319 – Borer

370. Selecting in any one of the following 3 ways is “derech brayra” during the week and considered a bonafide melacha –

1. Selecting out the scraps from the food (even by hand for immediate consumption.)
2. Selecting by using a specially made utensil. (If you use a utensil that is not normally used for what you are selecting – it is still ossur.)
3. Selecting for a later use.

What emerges is that you are exempt from Borer only when you select the food that you want – with your hand – for immediate use. (MB intro.)

371. This hetter of selecting food from the scraps for immediate use applies to animal food and bird food as well. (BeH “K’day”)

372. “Immediate use” is defined as near the beginning of the meal. This time frame is allowed even if the actual food will only be eaten many hours later, at the end of the seuda. (MB 4)

373. If you select a larger quantity than necessary and your intention is for a later meal – Chayav ! However, if some of your selection is unintentionally left over – it is okay. (MB 5)

374. Is one person allowed to select for others? Yes. As long as he follows the other conditions, he may select the good from the bad even if he isn’t eating at all. (MB 6)

375. You are allowed to select the good leaves of a head of lettuce from the rotting ones. Don’t select out the bad leaves, even if they are somewhat still good. (MB 7)

376. Other Borer mixtures: Good and rotting beans – or fruit. Fruit that fell into the dirt and gravel. (MB 8)

377. The Elya Rabba says that a beracha will come upon someone who does all the Borer preparations before Shabbos – to play it safe. (MB 11)

378. A mixture of two good foods is subject to the conditions of Borer. The one you want now is “ochel” – and the one you want later is pessoles. (MB 12)

379. If the two types are organized side by side – it is not subject to Borer since they aren’t considered “mixed”. (MB 14)

380. Other Borer mixtures: Different types of fish. Same type, but some pieces are burnt and others not. Apples, some of which are too sour to eat. Boiled meat with roasted meat. Chicken cutlets with turkey cutlets. (MB 15)

381. Large and small of the same type of food is not a Borer mixture. (Rama 3)

382. Mixtures of different dishes or clothing are subject to the laws of Borer. Remove only what you want to use now and leave alone the rest. (MB 15)

383. If the article that you want is underneath those that you do not want, you are allowed to lift off and remove the undesired ones to gain access to the one you want – it is not considered Borer. (MB 15)

384. When eating meat on the bone, make sure to peel off the meat and leave the bones. To remove the bones from the meat, even in the process of eating, would be Borer. If this is difficult, you may remove each bone, suck it a little bit and then throw it away. (BeH “haborer”)

385. Peeling produce (e.g. garlic, onion) early in the day for eating at Shalosh Seudos is Borer. (BeH “chayav”)

386. Removing peas from a pod is not the melacha of Mefarayk if the pod is edible. (MB 21)

387. Another forbidden method of Borer is to dump the mixture into water, either making the pessoles sink to the bottom or float to the top. (MB 28)

388. Using a strainer to separate sediment from liquid is Borer. (ShA 9 – MB 32)

389. Clean water (or other drinks) may be passed through a filter as long as most people would drink it as is, without filtering it. However if you are finicky about drinking the unfiltered drink, you may not filter it on Shabbos in any case. (ShA 10 – MB 35 – BeH “ho’eel”)

390. Pouring clear wine through a cloth is allowed. It’s not Borer. It’s not laundering. There is no worry that you’ll wring out the wine since it won't clean the cloth from its smell. . It is also not the normal way to strain wine during the weekday which is through the strainer. (ShA 10 – MB 37, 39, 40, 41)

391. Even pouring clear wine through a strainer is allowed. We don’t pasken like the Rambam who is worried about uvdin d’chol. (MB 41)

392. When pouring wine from a bottle that has sediment on the bottom – there is not a problem of Borer so long as the sediment has not risen to the stream coming out of the bottle. Once you get to the bottom of the bottle and the stream becomes drops and drips , you must leave those drops inside with the sediment. If you plan on drinking those drops immediately, it’s okay since you’re taking ochel mitoch pessoles and your hand is doing the gentle selection – not the bottle. (ShA 14 – MB 53, 54, 55)

393. If there is a strainer at the mouth of the bottle it is of course ossur to pour the drops out of the sediment. (MB 55)

394. You aren’t allowed to pour the floating grease off the gravy because that grease is pessoles mitoch ochel. If you pour some of the gravy out with the grease, it’s muttar. (MB 55)

395. Are you allowed to remove the egg yolk (pessoles) from the egg white that you will eat? Poskim argue. Some say it is all one specie of food and therefore Borer does not apply. Be machmir, though. (MB 58)

396. You may separate the white from the yolk by pouring the yolk from one half of the eggshell to the other. It’s considered Borer with your hand. (MB 38)

397. You are allowed to strain worms from drinking water by putting a cloth on the mouth of the cup and letting the water pass through it.

1. Melabain is not a problem – no dirt on the cloth / no kavanna. (Some poskim are machmir – be maykil if you need to.)
2. Borer is not a problem – you are fixing the food as you drink, not from beforehand.
3. You won’t come to wring out the cloth since it’s such a small part that gets wet. (ShA 16 – MB 59, 60)
4. Do not use the shirt that you are wearing to strain the worms. The water will make you uncomfortable and you might come to wring it out. (MB 60)

399. If a fly falls into your drink – do not remove it alone. Take out some of the drink together with it. (MB 61)

400. It is not permitted to skim off the cream that floats on top of milk. It is Borer unless you remove some of the milk with the cream . (MB 62)

401. If you do not need the milk until after Shabbos, skimming off the cream is ossur in any case because of Hachona. If you are worried that the milk will spoil, you can ask a non-Jew to scrape off the cream. Since Hachona is only d’rabbonon and there will be a loss, you are allowed to instruct the gentile. (MB 62)

402. The Rama brings that it is ossur to spit in the wind in a way that the wind will spray apart of the spit – it’s Zoreh. However, we haven't seen anyone else concerned about this unless you are using the wind to carry the spit 4 amos in a public domain. (Rama 17 – MB 67 – BeH “m’fazair”)