Search results for: ""Chol ha'moed""

Chol HaMoed: Cutting Nails
You may not cut your nails (fingernails or toenails) during chol ha'moed.
Exception Women before going to mikva may cut their nails on chol ha'moed.
Chol HaMoed: Exceptions for Shaving
It is best not to shave during chol ha'moed.  You MAY shave if:
  • You normally shave every day, and
  • You shaved before the Jewish festival began.
Note Even if you only shave 2 or 3 times per week instead of every day, it is still considered as if you shave regularly.
Note You may shave during omer if not shaving might cause you to lose your job or otherwise incur financial loss. A large financial loss is subjective to the individual's actual wealth and also to that person's perception of what is a large loss.
Chol HaMoed: No Expert Work
You may not do “expert” or “professional” work of certain types on chol ha'moed, and some types of expert craftsmen/women may not do their trades on chol ha'moed.
Examples
  • You may sew or lay bricks or other such labors, but not if you are an expert or professional in those fields and you are doing expert work.
  • Skilled writers and artists may not do their professional writing, calligraphy, or drawing (even for free!) on chol ha'moed. They may not do calligraphy or sofer work (Torah, tefilin, mezuza), but they may write normally.
  • If you are not a professional writer or expert craftsman/artist, you may write on chol ha'moed but the preferred practice is to use a shinu'i --an altered method of writing, such as:
    • Using your other hand,
    • Holding the pen/pencil differently from normal, or 
    • Writing diagonally across the paper.
Tefilin: Chol HaMoed: In Eretz Yisrael
If you move to Eretz Yisrael (where no one wearstefilin on chol ha'moed) to live there permanently, do not continue to wear tefilin on chol ha'moed (if that was your custom).
If you are only visiting Eretz Yisrael but not living there permanently, follow your custom.
SituationYour custom is to wear tefilin on chol ha'moed, You are in Israel during chol ha'moed.
What to DoYou still put on tefilin, but only in private, not in public.
Tefilin: Chol HaMoed: Blessing
If you wear tefilin on chol ha'moed (German and Lithuanian customs), do as follows:
  • Jews of German descent: Say the tefilin blessings, and
  • Jews of Lithuanian descent: Omit the tefilin blessings.
 
Tefilin: Chol HaMoed: Remove before Hallel
Remove tefilin before hallel on chol ha'moed.
Exception On chol ha'moed Pesach, on the day when tefilin are read about (kadeish li…), many people keep tefilin on until after the Torah has been read.
Introduction to Chol HaMoed
The intermediate days of Passover and Sukkot (between the first and last days, which are festival days) are called “chol ha'moed.”  Passover has four chol ha'moed  days outside of Eretz Yisrael and five days in Eretz Yisrael. Sukkot has five chol ha'moed days outside of Israel and six inside Eretz Yisrael.
The restrictions that apply to the Jewish festival days generally do not apply to the chol ha'moed days (see below for exceptions).
Women: Cutting Nails on Chol HaMoed
For women and cutting nails on chol ha'moed, see Chol HaMoed: Cutting Nails.

 
Laundry before Jewish Festivals
You should not do laundry on chol ha'moed.
Reason Due to a takana so people would do their laundry before each holiday and not wait until chol ha'moed.
Note If you had already done the laundry before the Jewish festival began and now no clean clothes remain:
  • You may do laundry for babies and small children (3 years old or less) on chol ha'moed.
  • You may not do laundry for adults.

When Grain Becomes Yashan
You may use grain as “yashan” after the first day of chol ha'moed Passover.  "After" means the third day of Passover in Eretz Yisrael and the fourth day outside of Eretz Yisrael.
Shaving/Hair Cuts and Jewish Festivals
You should not shave or cut your hair on chol ha'moed.
Reason Chazal made a takana so people would do those types of grooming before each holiday and not wait until chol ha'moed.

Kabbalat Shabbat and Jewish Festivals
Kabbalat Shabbat is mostly omitted when Shabbat falls on:
  • Jewish festivals,
  • Chol ha'moed, and
  • Right after the last day of a Jewish festival. 
On these days, only Mizmor shir... and Adonai malach... are said.
 
Building or Fixing a Sukka on Sukkot
A Jew may fix or build a sukka on chol ha'moed.
A non-Jew may fix or build a sukka on chol ha'moed or even on the Jewish festival days. A Jew may explicitly tell the non-Jew how to accomplish the repairs or the building of the sukka.
 
Shortened Hallel on Seventh Day of Passover
We omit parts of two of hallel's psalms on chol ha'moed and the seventh (and eighth) day(s) of Passover.
Reason The Egyptians drowned on the seventh day. We thus dampen our celebration of God's saving us because we feel sorry that people had to die, even though they were evil.
Note Since chol ha'moed is less important than the final days of Passover, we diminish hallel on chol ha'moed by omitting the same passages.
Passover: When To Finish Kashering
When kashering an oven or utensils for Passover, you may kasher:
  • By Libun
  Anytime, including on chol ha'moed (but not on Jewish festivals or Shabbat).
  • By Hag'ala
  Until one hour before halachic midday on Passover eve (but b'di'avad it is OK until
  just before sunset of Passover eve).