We're continuing here with the daily halacha (Jewish law) that we learn suddenly from Hilchot Shabbat (Laws of Shabbat). Can one squeeze a lemon over a fish or over a salad? A person made Israeli salad for himself. Can they squeeze the lemon over the vegetables? And can they use a lemon squeezer? So the halacha is, Rabotai (my rabbis), we know: a person cannot squeeze fruits or vegetables on Shabbat for their juice. If a person wants to make lemonade, tomato juice, or squeeze oranges, and he squeezes an orange on Shabbat, and then the orange juice comes onto a plate or into a cup and he wants to drink it, that is assur miDerabbanan (rabbinically forbidden). It could even be assur min haTorah (forbidden by Torah law) when it comes to oranges and these types of fruits that we make many drinks from.
However, if a person wants to squeeze a lemon or an orange onto solid food—let's say you have a fish on your plate, you take the lemon, and you squeeze it onto the fish—that's allowed. Why? Because when the juice goes onto the fish, you didn't squeeze the lemon to make a drink. You squeezed it in order for the juice to go straight onto the fish. So we look at the juice that's coming out of the lemon while you're squeezing it onto the fish as if it's a solid, as if it's food and not a drink. The only time you're not allowed to squeeze a lemon is when you're trying to make lemon juice out of it, or to squeeze an orange to make orange juice out of it. But as long as you squeeze over a solid, directly onto food—which means the fish is on the plate—you squeeze the lemon directly onto the fish or an orange directly onto the salad, whatever it is, it's allowed.
However, if you don't do it directly, let's say a person wants to make a certain type of sauce. He takes a lemon or an orange and squeezes it onto a small bowl or cup, and it's empty. There's no salad or fish in there. Then he takes that juice and tries to pour it on the salad. That's not allowed. It's not allowed to do that on Shabbat. It's assur miDerabbanan. According to some rabbis, it could even be assur min haTorah to squeeze that lemon or orange onto an empty plate or an empty cup. The only time it's allowed to squeeze a lemon is directly onto solid food at that moment, whether it's fish or salad. So too with an orange: you want to squeeze an orange on Shabbat. It's not allowed. You're not allowed to do that. It could even be assur min haTorah. When is it allowed? When you squeeze it onto a salad or onto a solid.
When it comes to squeezing onto... When it comes to sugar, that's a Machloket Acharonim (a big dispute about that). The rabbis have a very big Machloket (a big dispute about that). For example, that's that person has a cup, and he wants to make a certain type of tea or a drink, a hot drink. So he puts sugar in the cup. After he puts sugar in the cup, he takes a lemon or an orange and squeezes the lemon and the orange onto the sugar. A lot of rabbis say that's fine because the sugar is considered a solid, a food. And you're allowed to squeeze lemon juice or orange juice from the orange onto a salad. Why is it any different from squeezing onto—onto a salad, onto a fish? Sugar is the same exact thing.
However, the reason there are chachamim (rabbis) who are machmir (stringent), which Hacham Ovadia brings down, is that a person puts a little amount of sugar in his cup. The amount of juice that the person squeezes out of the orange or lemon is more than the sugar in the cup. That ends up making everything a liquid at that moment from squeezing the juice out of the lemon onto the sugar. The sugar is not a solid anymore. It becomes a liquid like the lemon. So it's not as if you're squeezing a lemon into a solid when you're squeezing it into sugar. It's as if you squeezed a lemon into a drink, into a regular liquid, or into an empty cup, which is not allowed. The sugar is not considered a solid when you squeeze so much lemon juice or so much orange juice onto the sugar. That's why there are many rabbis who are machmir.
So from here we learn in the Halacha Lema'aseh (practical halacha): the one is not allowed to squeeze a lemon or orange to make orange juice or lemon juice, or onto an empty plate or empty bowl. The only time you're allowed to squeeze fruits or vegetables like that is only if you do it directly. And that's onto solid food at that moment.