Tearing

Tearing, the tenth of 39 Melachot. It encompasses undoing any form of sewing. and includes tearing a garment or piece of cloth (such as to make rags). Separating glued papers falls under this heading, too.

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Most of this information is taken from the book "SABBATH Day of Eternity" by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, published by NCSY. In the book itself, there are notes that refer the reader to detailed footnotes. I am lucky to have found such a clear, concise manual with these brief overviews of laws so vast and complex there are Rabbis that specialize in them.

This is one of the first things you scrutinize at a wine tasting - before actually tasting any wine, but after appraising the refractive properties of the wine against the white background of a tablecloth or napkin - you give the wine glass a little swirl and examine how the drops on the glass' side now trickle back down to the main body of wine in the bottom of the glass. These trails are referred to as "legs" or "tears" and the effect is known as tearing.

The tearing of any given wine can tell you some important things about the wine before even putting any in your mouth - quick tearing indicates a relatively light body and a lower alcohol content.

As well, of course, your eyes may begin tearing up if you're about to start crying... but you already knew that.