#295: Borer with Non-Food Items - Applying the General Rules

1. According to the strict opinion mentioned in the previous post (which we said was the more accepted one), the rules of borer apply to clothing mixed in a drawer or close together in a closet (more about how to define a mixture next week). In such cases, one may only remove the clothes one wants to wear (“ochel”/”food”) and only for immediate use (“miyad”).

2. A similar rule applies for books that are mixed up in a pile – one may only take out the one one wants for use at that time. Poskim disagree as to whether books stacked upright (like on a bookshelf) are considered to be a mixture for this purpose.

3. One who wishes to put back a bunch of books in a mixture (which is not defined as for immediate use) should ideally open up each of them to use, read a short piece inside it, and then one may put it away.

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Dedicated by Fran Broder as a zechus for the hostages to be released safely to their families and may everlasting peace come to Eretz Yisrael in the merit of learning Hilchos Shabbos.