Interruptions in preparing a meal with borer

Question:

My understanding is that the requirement of “miyad” by borer requires that one immediately use the item selected from a mixture. And when borer occurs in the context of preparing for a meal, the selection may be done in advance of the meal, but only an amount of time that is necessary for the preparation time for the meal. That means one must not plan to take a break in the middle of meal preparations, since the selection done prior to the break would no longer be “miyad” to the eating of the food at the meal.

I’m wondering if you clarify the scope of “miyad’:

1) Specifically, can you explain what to do if something comes up in the middle of meal preparation where a person already selected food from a mixture for the upcoming meal. For instance, let’s say the person preparing the meal gets tired in the middle of the preparation and would like to take a break. Or lets say a family member asks for their assistance in the middle of preparation. Would the person preparing the meal be allowed to stop in these situations?

2) If he is allowed to stop in the above instances, must he immediately resume food preparations after he is finished?

3) Finally, let’s say the one preparing the meal begins to daydream and temporarily stops the food preparations after they have already selected food from a mixture for the upcoming meal. Have they done an aveira, since the selection ends up not being “miyad” to the meal?
Thank you

Answer:

Hello,

When one is selecting when it isn’t in the context of the meal, or pat of preparing for what you will do shortly, it does not have to be used immediately, but if it selected to use in the next half hour or so, it is also considered for now.

1. Regarding borer when preparing a meal, as you so nicely wrote, if you started preparing for the meal, and you are planning to eat the meal right after finishing your preparations, it is considered to be for now. This is because at the time that you selected it, it was for now. If something came up in the middle that was not planned, that will not change the fact that the act of selecting was or now. Therefore, if you are in middle of preparing the meal and one of your young children needs help going to the bathroom, or putting on his clothes, you may help him, and it isn’t considered “doing something” in the middle of the preparations, and it is still considered miyad.
2. After finishing whatever you had to take care of, yes you should continue finishing to prepare the meal. Do you have to run back to the kitchen? No, there is no need to get nervous about it, but when you finish what you are doing don’t get sidetracked and do other things, but finish preparing the meal. As it is the reason you can do borer before the meal is because you are planning on eating right afterwards, keep to your plans.
3. There is no need to get nervous about this, and the person’s movements when preparing the meal do not have to be non-stop, in order for it to be considered miyad. Just do the preparations as you would normally do, and then stat the meal.

Sources:

ע’ איל משולש פ”ח הערה כ”ד.