- Shabbat and Holidays
- Separating (Borer)
Question
Dearest Rabbi:
If there was sushi on a container that also has wasabi and vegetables but they’re touching each other. Is it borer to take wasabi onto the fork, and then take sushi (or vice versa? Like with things like that, do I have to take the desired item immediately or can I combine it if its desire to me eat the sushi with wasabi?
Answer
Shalom,
Thank you for your question. Firstly, if each food is clearly defined, then it is not borer, even if they are touching. So, if it is very clear what is the sushi and what is the wasabi, then even though they are resting one bedside the other, it is not an issue of borer, and either may be picked up and taken.
But, even if they were to be mixed, and an issue of borer was to arise, it is permitted to take an item out of a mixture if it is for immediate use. Immediate use does not mean the very next thing you are going to do (ie to immediately eat it), but rather for use in the same or next meal that one will have in the very near future (say in the next half an hour or so). So, one could remove all the raisins from a salad in order to eat them at the end of the meal as a desert. They could then eat the salad, main course, and then turn to the raisins. As they were removed as something desirable (what you want to eat for desert), without a special implement (a sieve for example), for immediate use (that is for the very meal one is eating, or about to eat), it is permitted.
Based on this, it is clear that one may put on their fork the wasabi before the sushi.
Enjoy your Shabbat meals.
Blessings.