[Avodah] Making Tea on Shabbos

[Micha Berger]

On Fri, Jan 15, 2021 at 11:07:27AM -0500, Prof. Levine via Avodah wrote:
> I have seen many people use a tea bag in a Kli 
> Shelishi on Shabbos. Is this Allowed???
> 
> From
> <https://www.torahmusings.com/2020/08/making-tea-and-coffee-on-shabbos/>
...
> As a general rule, a keli sheini (a secondary 
> vessel, not the one which was on the fire) does 
> not cook for Hilchos Shabbos purposes. [17] 
> Tosafos [18] explain that since a keli sheini was 
> never on the fire, its walls are cooler and it cannot cook.

> However, if something is considered mikalei 
> habishul (easy to cook), it will cook even in 
> a keli sheini. [19] The Ran, [20] Magen Avraham, 
> [21] Mishna Berura, [22] and R. Moshe Feinstein 
> [23] rule that we do not know what foods are 
> mikalei habishul, and therefore we need to 
> be concerned that all foods fall into this 
> category unless explicitly excluded in the 
> Talmud. [24] According to this view, one is 
> forbidden to put tea leaves even in a keli 
> sheini, because they might be mikalei 
> habishul...

This interestingly touches on the topic I raised in my earlier email
about the difference between the halachic concept of "bishul", which is
defined by a set of experiences, and the scientific concept of cooking.

Tea leaves don't cook easily. I spoke to importers. Making tea doesn't
cook the tea leaves. Never mind "easily cooked", they don't cook at all.
Which is why one can cold brew tea or make sun tea, without the water
being warm, nowhere near yad soledes bo.

One could make an argument that tea leaves are tavlin, flavorings that
don't cook. After all, when it comes to halakhos like drinking before
davening, tea is just flavored water.

And from a scientific perspective, what is happening isn't cooking.

BUT, is it bishul? Without a rigorous definition of bishul, we cannot
rule out the idea that it includes the speed-up of making tea from hours
to minutes that is caused by the water's heat. And for all I know, that
as-yet-unspecified defining feature of bishul happens easily with tea
leaves. (Or at least the crumbs of those leaves found in tea bags.)

So, even while the tea experts say that making tea doesn't cook the
leaves, that is not enough to force the conclusion that they aren't
qalei bishul!

Gut Voch!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 "Man wants to achieve greatness overnight,
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   and he wants to sleep well that night too."
Author: Widen Your Tent            - Rav Yosef Yozel Horwitz, Alter of Novarodok
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF