Question: If one selects food in a forbidden manner on Shabbat, for instance, if he had a plate of walnuts and shells before him and he removed all of the shells from the plate and only the walnuts remain in the plate, may one partake of these walnuts on Shabbat?
Answer: Several weeks ago, we have discussed that one may not select “waste from food” on Shabbat; rather, one may only select “food from waste.” We have also explained that even this is only permissible when this is being done by hand (not with the use of a vessel designated for selecting) and the selecting must be done in order to eat the food immediately (not after a half-hour’s time).
The Reasons to Prohibit Eating the Walnuts
In our scenario where walnuts and shells were mixed together on a plate and one came and removed all of the shells, one has essentially selected “waste from food” and has transgressed the Torah prohibition of selecting on Shabbat.
In the previous Halacha, we have mentioned the words of Maran Ha’Shulchan Aruch and the Rama (in Chapter 318) who write that it is forbidden to benefit from anything which has been done in a forbidden manner on Shabbat. For example, if a certain food was cooked on Shabbat, others may not partake of this food until Motza’ei Shabbat. The one who cooked the food, however, may not eat this food forever.
It seems that the same should apply to our situation, for since the forbidden work of selecting has been done to this food, the walnuts may not be eaten by others until Motza’ei Shabbat and the one who did the forbidden selecting cannot eat them forever.
The Reasons for Leniency
Maran Rabbeinu Ovadia Yosef zt”l discusses this matter at length and quotes the opinion of Hagaon Rabbeinu Yosef Haim in his Responsa Rav Pe’alim who prohibits eating the walnuts on Shabbat. However, Maran zt”l also discusses several reasons for leniency in this matter, for in our situation the person selecting did not gain anything from his forbidden manner of selecting as he could have just as easily selected in a permissible fashion by selecting the walnuts from the shells (which would constitute selecting “food from waste” and not the opposite). In this way, no prohibition would have been performed at all.
If so, nothing was gained by performing the forbidden work here at all. This cannot be compared to a food which was cooked on Shabbat, for there, there is no possibility of cooking it in a permissible manner and the actual prohibition is what caused the food to be cooked. However, in our case, the forbidden work did not result in any gain. This that one is now eating the walnuts cannot be considered a classical case of “benefitting from a forbidden work on Shabbat.”
After delving into the words of the Poskim with regards to this reason, he quotes the view of Hagaon Harav Eliezer Yehuda Waldenberg zt”l in his Responsa Tzitz Eliezer who writes that there is room for leniency in our case when the shells and the walnuts are once again mixed together and only then will one be permitted to remove the walnuts from among the shells. In this way, one is certainly not “benefitting from a forbidden work on Shabbat” in any way. Although Rabbeinu Yosef Haim rules stringently in our situation, others nevertheless rule leniently.
Summary: If walnuts were mixed with shells on a plate and one then selects the shells from the walnuts, which is indeed forbidden on Shabbat, if the shells are later re-mixed with the walnuts, one may partake of the walnuts on Shabbat since no benefit was achieved as a result of the forbidden work on Shabbat.
