“Abba loves drinking tea on a Friday night,” said Meir to his brother Yitzy on erev Shabbos, “Let’s prepare tea essence for Abba!” Yitzy showed thumbs up and the process began...
Meir put tea leaves in the snap ball tea strainer and then put the snap ball in a little kettle. Afterwards, Yitzy poured boiling water into the little kettle.
“Remind me in five minutes to take the snap ball out and cover the kettle,” said Meir. But that did not happen...
In the evening, the boys realized that the kettle is still uncovered. “Let’s take the snap ball out and cover the kettle,” said Meir.
“But as we will be taking it out, the tea essence will drip from within the tea leaves of the strainer into the cup! Wouldn’t that be a Melacha of Borer?” asked Yitzy.
“Hmm...good point!” said Meir.
“Maybe we should take it out with a spoon!” proposed Yitzy.
Question: What would you suggest that they should do?
Hints & Answers
SHMIRAS SHABBOS: The Shemiras Shabbos Kehilchosa (3:64) writes, “It’s proper to take out the tea bag or the ‘snap ball tea strainer’ using a spoon, and not to take it out by hand, because if one will hold the bag (or the ‘snap ball tea strainer’) over the cup after taking it out form there, the drops of the created essence will drip back into the cup, which could be the melacha of Borer.”
RHYME: “love”
RIDDLE: The name Yona (יונה) has the letter yud in the beginning and the letter hei at the end. Together they form Hashem’s name. The significance of having Hashem’s name (yud-hei) “surround” a name is discussed by Rashi in this week’s parsha (Bamidbar 26:5, “... but in the case of יִמְנָה it is unnecessary for it to say מִשְפַּחַּת יִנְמִיַּה since the Divine Name is already affixed to it - the ‘yud’ at the beginning and the ‘hey’ at the end”.)
PARSHA: Although, just like Midian, Moav was also guilty in stumbling Bnei Yisroel in the sin of Baal Peor, Hashem told us not to destroy Moav because Ruth was destined to come from Moav in the future. She saved the entire nation (see Rashi to Bamidbar 25:18).
*Note: Menucha’s answer are not to be taken as final decisions in halacha, but rather as a springboard for discussions, and further study.
