Using a Pot Cover or Teapot for Borer on Shabbos

Using a Pot Cover to Strain Soup

• Rav Moshe Feinstein ruled that one cannot use a pot cover to strain soup through the opening while keeping the vegetables or noodles inside.
• Even if one desires the soup, this is still prohibited since using a utensil for selection is considered borer.¹

Using a Teapot with a Slotted Spout

• Chazon Ish² permits pouring tea through a slotted spout, allowing the liquid to pass through while tea leaves remain inside.³
• Ketzos Hashulchan⁴ and Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach⁵ are also lenient because:
  • A utensil designated for immediate consumption after borer is not considered a kli borer.
  • A teapot is always used for borer before immediate consumption, making it permissible.
• However, some poskim—including the Rav of Debrecen—disagree and forbid using a teapot with a slotted spout.⁶

When Is Pouring Tea Through a Slotted Spout Permitted?

• All opinions agree that one may pour tea through a slotted spout if:
  • The tea leaves have already settled at the bottom.
  • One pours slowly and leaves some tea at the bottom.⁷

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1. Halachos of Shabbos (Borer fn. 241) quoting Rav Moshe Feinstein; Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach (Shemiras Shabbos K’hilchasah ch. 3 fn. 176) and Rav Elyashiv agree. Ayil Meshulash (ch. 7 fn. 103) and Orchos Shabbos (1:3:76) also agree. However, Orchos Shabbos (v. 1 ch. 3 fn. 83) quotes Rav Shmuel Auerbach, who held that this is not a kli borer but merely a way to avoid getting one’s hands dirty.
2. Chazon Ish 53 s.v. Min ha’amur.
3. Ayil Meshulash (ch. 7 fn. 84) explains that Chazon Ish was lenient because:
   • A teapot is designed to pour tea, not specifically to separate leaves from tea, so it is not a kli borer.
   • Rav Chaim Kanievsky (Taama D’kra n. 41, cited in Orchos Shabbos v. 1 ch. 3 fn. 86) testified that they were lenient in Chazon Ish’s home.
   • Rav Ovadia Yosef (Yachava Daas 2:51) is also lenient, reasoning that most people do not mind if tea leaves enter their tea.
4. Ketzos Hashulchan 125 Badei Hashulchan 21.
5. Shemiras Shabbos K’hilchasah (ch. 3 fn. 140).
6. Piskei Shabbos vol. 3, p. 10; Kaf Hachaim (319:113) also seems to prohibit using such a teapot. Orchos Shabbos (v. 1 ch. 3 fn. 85) quotes Rav Shmuel Auerbach as forbidding it, arguing that the lenient opinions lack a strong basis.
7. Ayil Meshulash (7:30) and Orchos Shabbos (1:3:77), based on se’if yud daled.