Search results for: ""Jewish festivals""
Introduction to Shabbat and Selecting/Boreir
Selecting Good from Bad and Bad from Good
Boreir Principle #1: You may eat anything in the manner in which it is normally eaten.
ExamplePeeling an orange.
Boreir Principle #2: You may not use a specialized tool.
Boreir Principle #3: You may not remove “bad” from “good.”
What To Do Take good (edible or desired food) from the undesired (bad) components.
Note You may do this only when you are ready to eat it or when you are preparing the food to be eaten soon afterward.
Note Boreir is a complicated area of halacha. Because issues of boreir are almost always from the Torah (d'oraita, not d'rabanan), we are stringent in applying restrictions concerning boreir. Consult a rabbi for specific questions.
Selecting Undesired from Desired Food
On Shabbat, you may not usually separate totally undesired from totally desired food in a standard way, even without a specialized tool.
SITUATION You want remove dirt from a carrot's surface on a Shabbat.
WHAT TO DO You may remove the dirt with an altered method (shinu'i), such as scraping the peel with a knife (which is a tool not specialized for separating food)-- but not by using a peeler.
REASON The normal way to eat the carrot is to peel it.
Selecting Desired from Undesired Food
While eating food (and some time before--within the amount of time you would normally need to prepare a meal), you may select desired food from undesired (or inedible) substances by hand or non-specialized tool. You may not use a specialized implement.
EXAMPLE You may remove fish from its skeleton even before eating it, but you may not remove the skeleton from the fish (because you have removed bad from good).
NOTE Once Shabbat has begun:
Boreir Principle #1: You may eat anything in the manner in which it is normally eaten.
ExamplePeeling an orange.
Boreir Principle #2: You may not use a specialized tool.
Boreir Principle #3: You may not remove “bad” from “good.”
What To Do Take good (edible or desired food) from the undesired (bad) components.
Note You may do this only when you are ready to eat it or when you are preparing the food to be eaten soon afterward.
Note Boreir is a complicated area of halacha. Because issues of boreir are almost always from the Torah (d'oraita, not d'rabanan), we are stringent in applying restrictions concerning boreir. Consult a rabbi for specific questions.
Selecting Undesired from Desired Food
On Shabbat, you may not usually separate totally undesired from totally desired food in a standard way, even without a specialized tool.
Undesired Mixed with Desired Food
However, you may separate undesired elements from desired food—even with a specialized tool--if the undesired food is mixed with some desired food (any amount that you would use or eat is enough). This is called “taking some good with the bad.”
Situation You want to remove fat on gravy.
What To Do You may remove fat along with some gravy.
Reason Boreir is separating bad from good. Here, the junction area is still intact, so separating fat from gravy is like separating good from good (gravy from gravy, not fat from gravy).
Removing Easily Removable Food in a Non-Standard Way
Situation The undesired food is easily distinguishable and easily removable from the desired food.
What To Do You may separate totally undesired food elements from desired food in a non-standard way--using only your hand, fingers, or implement that is not designed for separation. That is, you may not use a utensil that is designed to separate food from other foods, substances, or parts of foods, such as a slotted spoon, peeler, or sieve. But you may pick a lemon seed off a serving of fish, for example.
NOTE As on Jewish festivals, an action needed to eat a food normally (derech achila) does not violate the prohibition of boreir on Shabbat. So you may peel a food that is normally separated from its peel or shell in order to be eaten, as long as you do not use a specialized instrument to do so. For example, on Shabbat, you may do the following by hand without a shinu'i:
- Peel an orange
- Remove the shell of a hard-boiled egg
- Separate peanuts from their shells.
SITUATION You want remove dirt from a carrot's surface on a Shabbat.
WHAT TO DO You may remove the dirt with an altered method (shinu'i), such as scraping the peel with a knife (which is a tool not specialized for separating food)-- but not by using a peeler.
REASON The normal way to eat the carrot is to peel it.
Selecting Desired from Undesired Food
While eating food (and some time before--within the amount of time you would normally need to prepare a meal), you may select desired food from undesired (or inedible) substances by hand or non-specialized tool. You may not use a specialized implement.
EXAMPLE You may remove fish from its skeleton even before eating it, but you may not remove the skeleton from the fish (because you have removed bad from good).
NOTE Once Shabbat has begun:
- You may remove fish bones from fish while you are eating the fish, but not before you are eating the fish.
- You may cut open a melon such as a cantaloupe and shake the seeds out (this is because some of the seeds remain), or take a bite of the melon and spit out the seeds. But you may not remove any remaining seeds using your hand or an implement.
Introduction to Shavuot
Shavuot (Yom HaBikurim in the Torah) celebrates and commemorates the giving of the Ten Commandments to the Israelites at Mt. Sinai.
Beginning with the second night of Passover, the Israelites who left Egypt underwent 49 days of spiritual improvement and purification until they were ready to receive the Torah from God (Shavuot ends this 49-day “omer” period). We can undergo a similar process of spiritual development each year during these 49 days (how to do that is beyond the scope of this website). According to our tradition, the Israelites in Egypt had sunk to the 49th level of spiritual impurity (tum'a). The Israelites had to raise themselves in 49 daily stages to be worthy of receiving the Torah. Several books and siddurs portray the 49 days of the omer as corresponding to the Seven Sefirot embedded in the seven weeks. This awareness can help us work on and maximize the power inherent in each day of the omer to fix that particular sefira in ourselves. We thus relive this transition from slavery to freedom and the service of God each year as we try to perfect our midot (personal characteristics) to again be worthy of receiving the Torah on Shavuot.
Symbolism of the Shavuot Offering
In the Temple in Jerusalem, the only communal sacrifice of leavened bread was on Shavuot. Leavening in dough is compared to arrogance in humans (people puff themselves up to look more important than they actually are). During Passover we destroy, and refrain from eating, leaven--just as we try to destroy/remove arrogance from our personalities. After Passover, we continue to work on our personal traits (midot) until we reach Shavuot, when we celebrate receiving the Torah. At Shavuot, we Jews have a right to feel important, since we are spiritually elevated by virtue of having been given the Torah.
Shavuot: Universal Customs
The universal custom is to eat at least one dairy food during Shavuot.
Possible reason At the time the Israelites received the Torah, they did not have any kosher meat (they had not been required to eat kosher until then) and so the only food they were permitted to eat was dairy food.
Another universal custom is to stay awake all night (if possible) studying Torah.
Shavuot: Symbols
Unlike other Jewish festivals, Shavuot has no concrete symbols and no specific unique commandments/mitzvot, other than sacrifices that were brought in the Temple in Jerusalem.
Beginning with the second night of Passover, the Israelites who left Egypt underwent 49 days of spiritual improvement and purification until they were ready to receive the Torah from God (Shavuot ends this 49-day “omer” period). We can undergo a similar process of spiritual development each year during these 49 days (how to do that is beyond the scope of this website). According to our tradition, the Israelites in Egypt had sunk to the 49th level of spiritual impurity (tum'a). The Israelites had to raise themselves in 49 daily stages to be worthy of receiving the Torah. Several books and siddurs portray the 49 days of the omer as corresponding to the Seven Sefirot embedded in the seven weeks. This awareness can help us work on and maximize the power inherent in each day of the omer to fix that particular sefira in ourselves. We thus relive this transition from slavery to freedom and the service of God each year as we try to perfect our midot (personal characteristics) to again be worthy of receiving the Torah on Shavuot.
Symbolism of the Shavuot Offering
In the Temple in Jerusalem, the only communal sacrifice of leavened bread was on Shavuot. Leavening in dough is compared to arrogance in humans (people puff themselves up to look more important than they actually are). During Passover we destroy, and refrain from eating, leaven--just as we try to destroy/remove arrogance from our personalities. After Passover, we continue to work on our personal traits (midot) until we reach Shavuot, when we celebrate receiving the Torah. At Shavuot, we Jews have a right to feel important, since we are spiritually elevated by virtue of having been given the Torah.
Shavuot: Universal Customs
The universal custom is to eat at least one dairy food during Shavuot.
Possible reason At the time the Israelites received the Torah, they did not have any kosher meat (they had not been required to eat kosher until then) and so the only food they were permitted to eat was dairy food.
Another universal custom is to stay awake all night (if possible) studying Torah.
Shavuot: Symbols
Unlike other Jewish festivals, Shavuot has no concrete symbols and no specific unique commandments/mitzvot, other than sacrifices that were brought in the Temple in Jerusalem.
Introduction to Mourning
Who Is a Mourner
A mourner is defined in halacha as someone mourning during the 12-month mourning period for parents or the 30-day mourning period for the other five relatives (spouse, brother, sister, son, daughter). After 30 days, one is no longer a mourner for anyone but one's parents.
Mourners' Restrictions
If the mourner goes about business as usual, it may show he or she doesn't care about the close relative who died. The mourner should ideally not want to do these things. The mourner honors the dead person by refraining from pampering him/herself and refraining from going about his or her life as usual.
Public Meals
A mourner may not attend a public meal for any purpose. For example, if the mourner attends a lecture or Torah class at which food is being served, he or she may not eat the food. This only applies to sit-down meals; snacking is permitted.
Siyum/Brit/Bar Mitzva
After 30 days after a parent's burial, a mourner may:
- Attend a siyum or bar mitzva and eat there.
- Attend a brit but not eat there.
Weddings
A mourner may not eat at a wedding and may not even be in the wedding hall after the ceremony took. The mourner may also not hear the music at a wedding.
Exceptions- If the mourner is the parent of someone getting married, the mourner can fully participate in the wedding.
- If the mourner is the bride or groom, he or she must normally wait to get married until after shloshim/30 days.
Kiddush and Shabbat or Festival Meals
A mourner may not publicly (noticeably) mourn on Shabbat or festivals so he or she may attend Shabbat or festival meals and kiddushes if he or she would be expected to attend. If the mourner always or routinely invites some person or a lot of different people on Shabbat or festivals, it is still permitted. If the mourner does not routinely invite some person or a lot of different people to a Shabbat or festival meal, then he or she may not, for his or her own enjoyment, invite guests for meals. However, the mourner is permitted to do so for other purposes (for the benefit of the invited person or people), such as kiruv or hachnasat orchim. There is no limit to how many guests the mourner may host.
The mourner may attend or host a sheva brachot in his/her home.
A mourner should not be invited to meals, even for Shabbat or festivals; but if he/she was invited, he/she may go.
Holidays
A mourner does eat at a Purim or Jewish festival seuda, since there is no mourning on Purim nor on any festival (except Chanuka).
Jewish Festival: Item from outside Techum Shabbat
You may not use, on a Jewish festival, any item that was outside the techum Shabbat when the Jewish festival began--even if a non-Jew brought it to you.
SITUATIONYou arrive on a flight but your luggage is delayed and delivered on Shabbat or a Jewish festival. Or, a package is delivered to you then.
WHAT TO DO If the airport or delivery warehouse is within techum Shabbat, you may use whatever is brought to you. If the airport or warehouse is outside techum Shabbat, you may not use the items until enough time has passed after Shabbat (or the Jewish festival) for them to have been delivered from the airport or warehouse.
SITUATIONYou arrive on a flight but your luggage is delayed and delivered on Shabbat or a Jewish festival. Or, a package is delivered to you then.
WHAT TO DO If the airport or delivery warehouse is within techum Shabbat, you may use whatever is brought to you. If the airport or warehouse is outside techum Shabbat, you may not use the items until enough time has passed after Shabbat (or the Jewish festival) for them to have been delivered from the airport or warehouse.
Jewish Festival: Inviting Non-Jews to Meal
You may not cook food specifically for a non-Jew on a Jewish festival. You may only invite a non-Jew for a meal on a Jewish festival if you inform him or her ahead of time that you will not cook something special for him or her.
Jewish Festival Havdala at Night or Next Day
Say Jewish festival havdala at night. If this is impossible, say it the next day but only until sunset on the day after the Jewish festival.
Note This is different from havdala after Shabbat!
Jewish Festival Day: When To Say Yizkor
Yizkor is not required to be said at all, but it is the custom in most places. Yizkor is normally said on Yom Kippur (and the final day of Passover, the second day of Shavuot and on Shmini Atzeret), when many people attend the synagogue prayer services.
Yizkor may be said anytime you wish—even when it is not a Jewish festival--and does not require a minyan.
Yizkor may be said anytime you wish—even when it is not a Jewish festival--and does not require a minyan.
Jewish Festival Day: Reason for Yizkor
Yizkor on Yom Kippur serves as a type of elevation for the souls of dead people.
Jewish Festival Night Kiddush Beverage
Wine (or grape juice) is the only drink permissible for Jewish festival (or Friday) evening kiddush. See Challot for Kiddush, below, if you do not have wine or grape juice with which to make Jewish festival (or Shabbat) evening kiddush.
Jewish Festival: One Day for a Year Plus in Eretz Yisrael
If you are living in Eretz Yisrael for one year and might stay longer, ask a rabbi if you must keep one or two days of the Jewish festival.
Jewish Festival: One Day in Eretz Yisrael
To keep one day only of a Jewish festival in Eretz Yisrael, you must live most of year in Eretz Yisrael and fulfill certain other requirements. Consult a rabbi for details.
Jewish Festival: Dateline Considerations
If unsure which day to start the Jewish festival because you are near the International Dateline, follow guidelines for Shabbat; see Introduction to Shabbat, IDL, and Region of Safek/Doubt.
Women: Jewish Festival Havdala
For women and saying/hearing Jewish festival havdala, see Baruch HaMavdil Bein Kodesh L'Chol To Do Melacha.
Appetite for Jewish Festival Dinner
Do not eat a full meal (meaning, do not eat bread or a lot of mezonot) after halachic midday on the afternoon before a Jewish festival.
Reason To have an appetite for Jewish festival dinner.
Note You may eat other food after halachic midday the afternoon of (before) the Jewish festival but you should not eat foods which are filling.
Note You may eat other food after halachic midday the afternoon of (before) the Jewish festival but you should not eat foods which are filling.
When Shiv'a Resumes: Jewish Festival
Shiv'a that is interrupted by a Jewish festival does not resume after being interrupted.