Borer - Immediate Use

QUESTION: When getting ready for a meal, what is considered immediate? Can I set the table more than an hour before the meal?

ANSWER: Rishonim (Hagahos Mordechai and Meiri) write that if one does borer for use “in an hour,” it is as if he did borer for storage, which is forbidden. Igros Moshe (OC 4:74:Borer 13) explains that “in an hour” is not meant to be taken literally. If one does not need the item right now, even if one will need it in a few minutes, it is still a violation of borer. How do we define what is for right now? It is the amount of time beforehand that a normal person would begin preparing and separating these items. When it comes to preparing for a large meal, especially if there is no one else to help, the preparation time can easily be more than an hour, perhaps even several hours. If, for example, setting the table and cutting the salad will take an hour, then borer in the permitted manner (taking good from bad) for the meal is permitted from that point. If one needs to separate soda bottles in order to place them in the fridge two hours before the meal, this separation may be done two hours before the meal. However, if the only reason one is beginning these preparations which involve borer early is because they will be unavailable to do them at the normal time, such as if one will be in shul and therefore cannot set the table immediately before the meal, this is not allowed.

___________________________________________________

The Gerald & Karin Feldhamer OU Kosher Halacha Yomis is dedicated to the memory of Rav Yisroel Belsky, zt"l, who served as halachic consultant for OU Kosher for more than 28 years; many of the responses in Halacha Yomis are based on the rulings of Rabbi Belsky. Subscribe to the Halacha Yomis daily email here.