We are beginning siman 1. The Chayei Adam writes that if a person performs an act of sifting, they are culpable for the issur deoraysa of merakeid. Parenthetically, the term merakeid comes from the word rikud, dance. When a person shakes a sifter, the particles inside look like they are dancing. If a person does any action with the sifter, whether they shake it or just pour items through it, they will be chayav.
Removing the pesoles from the particles can occur in two ways. In some scenarios, the desirable items remain in the sifter, and the undesirable items fall through the sieve. In other scenarios, the opposite occurs. For our purposes, both are an issur deoraysa. The Gemara discusses whether one is merakeid and the other is borrer, but practically, both are assur mideoraysa.
The Chayei Adam gives an example of merakeid. People would feed their horses oats, and they would shake the feeder so that the chaff falls out. Another, more common example is when a person grinds matzah meal. Sometimes, not all pieces are ground properly, and there are larger pieces in the flour. Sifting the matzah meal to remove these pieces would be assur. On Shabbos, when a person is anyways not baking, the sifting would be for the purpose of eating the fine meal. On Yom Tov, it would be relevant for baking. They are not pesoles in the true sense of the word, in that they are not discard, but since they are unwanted for the current goal, they are the equivalent to pesoles, and it would be an issur deoraysa to sift out the unground pieces from the ground pieces.
In siman 2, we will learn that merakeid is assur on Yom Tov as well. However, we will also learn that if a person sifts flour to make it lighter, the halacha will be different. Thus, the Chayei Adam writes that if matzah meal has no impurities, but it has sat for a while and has begun to clump together, if a person wants to sift it to break it apart, it is assur miderabanan. Even though we do not have an issue of tochain, because ain tochain achar tochain (s456), it is still an assur miderabanan of merakeid. We will discuss this point further in the upcoming shiur, be’ezras Hashem.
Summary
- Merakeid refers to the melacha of sifting through flour with a kli after it has been ground in the millstone.
- Merakeid deoraysa applies both whether the pesoles are kept in the sieve, or whether they are the ones which fall out. It also applies regardless of whether the pesoles is proper discard or whether it is undesirable for the current objective.
- It is assur miderabanan to sift flour for the purpose of making it lighter.
