Merakaid

Merakaid is the action of sifting and removal of unwanted matter from a mixture using a sifter, sieve, or the like.

1. One can only violate this melacha using a sifting or straining device.
2. Using a strainer or colander, one may not separate noodles from soup, vegetables from a pot of water, or coleslaw from salad dressing.
3. One may not sift out clumps of powdered baby cereal from the finely ground cereal, clumps of sugar from finely ground sugar, or clumps of salt from finely ground salt. However, in these cases it is permissible to crush the clump.
4. One may not sift out clumps of confectioner sugar from powdered confectioner sugar, however, one may use a sieve to scatter the confectioner sugar on a cake. However, since a sieve is Muktzeh, if one has a non-Muktzeh scattering utensil in the house, one should use that.
5. According to Ashkenazim, one may not use a salt shaker which has rice kernels in it, placed there to absorb moisture, because in using the shaker one will be separating the salt from the rice.However, according to Sephardim, it is permissible to use such a salt shaker.