In order to clarify question on washing fruit with cylinder on shabbos.The fruit is placed in cylinder, and washed over the sink. The fruit remains in the cylinder as the water is washing it and then the water goes through the cylinder. Is this permitted? For grapes.
Answer:
If the cylinder is a purpose made instrument for separating dirt from fruit, or for separation of dirt in general, it may not be used on Shabbos.
Sources: The Shulchan Aruch (319:8) writes that it is forbidden to soak fruit on Shabbos, thereby causing dirt to float to the top. This appears to imply that the dirt on the fruit is considered a taaroves, a mixture. Yet, Iggros Moshe (1:125) gives a number of reasons for why it would be permitted to wash fruit under running water, one of them being that this is comparable to removing a peel. Based on this reasoning, it would be forbidden to use an item that is a specialist ‘borer’ utensil, and only permitted to do the minimal action of removing the dirt by means of running water.
According to another rationale mentioned, the dirt on fruit is not considered pesoles at all, and according to this, it would be permitted even to use the cylinder. However, if there is enough dirt to warrant the use of the cylinder, it can perhaps be assumed that there is, indeed, pesoles, and therefore the specialist borer utensil should not be used.
