[Avodah] Is there a permissible way to make tea with a tea bag on Shabbos?

[Micha Berger]

On Tue, Jul 05, 2022 at 12:34:52PM +0000, Prof. L. Levine via Avodah wrote:
> From today's OU Kosher Halacha Yomis
...
>> However, Rav Moshe Feinstein zt"l (Igros Moshe OC 4:74, Bishul 15)
>> writes that he does not believe that tea is kalei ha'bishul, and even
>> if it were, he is not convinced that anything can be cooked in a kli
>> shlishi. Some point out that the Pri Megadim (Aishel Avrohom 318:35)
>> is seemingly lenient to allow placing tea into a kli shlishi, however,
>> others read the Pri Megadim in a way that does not allow for this
>> leniency...

It would be interesting to know how bishul differs from cooking in this
regard; IOW, if there are any differences between the technical definition
of "bishul" when used in hilkhos Shabbos and the word "cooking" is used
colloquially in modern English.

(It is also possible that the melakhah is more about bishul using a derekh
bishul than bishul itself. Like the exclusion of solar cooking, etc..)

Anyway...

I buy whole-leaf teas imported from China, Japan, and Taiwan (which the
tea trade still calls Formosa). And I have asked a few experts this very
question. (I also got a few importers to get hekhsheirim, although Star-K
holds that traditional teas, like the better-known case of traditional
beers don't need one.)

In terms of cooking, making tea doesn't cook the leaves. The teas are
left in the same shape whether the tea is made with hot water in minutes
(or seconds, Google "gungfu tea") or cold brewed over hours. The right
model could well be more like tavlin than kalei bishul. Or, maybe the
acceleration of the tea brewing process via above yad-soloedes-bo heat is
"bishul", even if not "cooking" as they use the word.

:-)BBii!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 A person must be very patient
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   even with himself.
Author: Widen Your Tent            - attributed to R' Nachman of Breslov
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF