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We are beginning siman 10. The beginning of siman 10 discusses borrer to color. The example given by the Chayei Adam is of coloring mustard in order to make it more yellow. We will skip that part of the siman.
The next part of the siman discusses a person who has milk which has sat for long enough that it has separated, and the person wants to remove the cream from the rest of the milk. Although the specific scenario may not be relevant to us, there is an important halachic concept we will extract from it.
The Chayei Adam writes it is assur to remove the smettena (cream) from the milk. However, if the borrer is done for immediate use, by hand, and by taking the part which the person wants, it would be muttar, because it fulfills the criteria for borrer. And as we have learned, a fork or spoon is assumed to be an extension of one’s hand, and it is only considered a kli when the utensil used specifically makes the breirah better. (For example, it would be assur to use a slotted spoon in a salad which has a lot of liquid, or to use a funnel to allow heavier items to fall to the bottom quicker.) Thus, the issur borrer applies to the cream, and one would only be allowed to separate it if they fulfill the criteria of borrer.
The Chayei Adam points out that if one does not need all of the cream, it would be assur to remove more than what they need, even though the cream will spoil because of hachana. Additionally, he stresses that one must be careful to only separate it for immediate use, because of borrer.
The Chayei Adam stresses that even if one needs all of the cream, they should still leave the layer of cream which is touching the milk on the bottom. This point goes back to the idea we have discussed that the taroves is limited to the area in which the cream and milk meet each other. The cream and milk which are further away is not a taroves at all, and would not be an act of borrer. Therefore, the Chayei Adam suggests leaving some of the cream which is next to the milk in order to avoid borrer.
However, if one is anyways avoiding the taroves, they are avoiding the issue of borrer in its entirety. If so, why does the Chayei Adam stress that the borrer must be done for immediate use? If there is no borrer involved, there should be no issue of taking cream for later. The answer is that since it is not always so clear which parts are considered taroves and which parts are not, the Chayei Adam recommends avoiding any issue of borror to avoid any potential issur. Nevertheless, the Piskei Mishnah Berurah points out that if one is careful to leave the layer which touches the milk, there will not be a borrer issue, but if they are taking more than what they need for Shabbos, there will be an issue of preparing for the weekday, which is assur itself.
The Chayei Adam adds that if one is concerned the cream will spoil, they could ask a non-Jew to remove it, since inherently it is not borrer because both are edible items. We will discuss this point further in the next shiur, be’ezras Hashem.
Summary
- A taroves is assumed to only be in the area in which two items actually mix. If, further away from the point of contact, there is more of each item, those parts are not included in the issur of borrer. Therefore, cream and milk only have a borrer issue at their point of contact, and the cream or milk which are further away can be removed without issue.
- One must still be careful about taking more than necessary, to avoid preparing for the weekday.
- If they wish to take from the point of contact, they would need to fulfill the conditions which make borrer muttar (immediate use, by hand, good from bad).
