#291: Machshavah

Rav Eliezer Melamed writes that the idea of taking the food (ochel) from the waste (pesolet) in borer teaches us a very important lesson in machshava.

“The proliferation of melakhot that deal with separating psolet from okhel shows us how central acts of selection and differentiation are in our lives. The world in general is confused and mixed up, and the ability to separate the good parts from the bad allows man to develop and improve the world. These melakhot also allude to man’s spiritual work, because the world is confused and mixed up morally as well, and our job is to distinguish between good and evil. The great challenge that God presented to mankind is to choose the good from the evil, to put everything in its proper place, and thus repair the world.

All this applies throughout the week, when we must engage in the complicated work of separating the bad from the good. But on Shabbat we must focus on the inner goodness of existence, enjoy it, and connect with the foundations of faith. When we draw on the sanctity and faith that we absorb on Shabbat, we gain the ability to distinguish between good and evil all week, and to engage in the work of refinement that is required to repair the world.”

According to Rav Melamed, the halachot of borer remind us that many elements of life include a mixture of “ochel” and “pesolet,” and we must learn how to identify those elements of pesolet and remove them from the ochel. On Shabbat, though, we should focus on identifying the good in the world and attempt to connect to it. May we all be successful in our quest to sort out the complexities of the world and discover all of the good while removing the bad.

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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.