Shabbat Nose Picking

So, can you pick your nose on Shabbat?

I have to admit, the question had never really occurred to me.

When I was a teenager in Yeshiva, we'd asked one of our rabbis about popping zits on Shabbat, but not nose-picking.

However, somehow, it came up this past Shabbat. One at the table quoted in the name R' Ovadia Yosef, saying that it was borer (sorting) to pick your nose, and thus forbidden on Shabbat. This makes sense - borer means sorting, and taking away things you don't want from things you want (like taking your unwanted bugger our of your nose) could indeed be construed as borer. Though I would think that for the same reasons we are allowed to wipe ourselves clean after going to the bathroom, we may be allowed to get that snot out of our nose.

So, with a little (post-Shabbat) research, a new reason was arrived at: a few web sites quote Ovadia Yosef as having said in a 1998 shiur that you might inadvertently pull out your nose-hairs in picking your nose on Shabbat. And, as we aren't allowed to trim our hair or nails on Shabbat, this would indeed be a no-no.

However, an AP article (yes, this made it into the news) from shortly after the class says that while R' Yosef did indeed dig into whether or not the risk of hair trimming might forbid nose picking on Shabbat, the conclusion of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef's ruling was apparently that nose picking was indeed permitted on Shabbat. While I have not seen the video of this webcast, he apparently didn't relate to borer/sorting at all, and he ruled that as the hair trimming was inadvertent and not an automatic part of the nose-picking process, nose picking could go on.

So - to answer the question raised at the Shabbat table - doe forbidding Shabbat nose picking mean it would be permissible during the week? Well, obviously yes as it is allowed on Shabbat too according to R' Yosef.

In case you are curious, here is the text of the 11 January 1998 AP article on our topic:

JERUSALEM (AP) -- A leading ultra-Orthodox rabbi in Israel has ruled that it is permitted to pick your nose on the Jewish Sabbath, his aide said Sunday.

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef delivered the ruling Saturday night in a sermon relayed by satellite to his followers in Israel and abroad.

The Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot had reported that Yosef had said nose-picking is forbidden because tiny hairs inside the nostrils might also be pulled out. But a viewing of a videotape of the event confirmed that Yosef had in fact ruled it was permitted.

Yosef is among a select group of rabbis who respond to questions from Jews -- serious or otherwise -- on the minutiae of applying Jewish law to daily life.

The Iraqi-born Yosef, a former chief rabbi in Egypt and Israel and a leading authority on Jewish law, is spiritual leader of the religious political party Shas, which has 10 seats in Israel's Parliament.

So - pick away, but please - show some discretion. Even if it is permitted by R' Ovadia Yosef, that doesn't mean anyone else wants to watch you go at it! Perhaps you could get a tissue and excuse yourself to another room first?