To be halachically considered “bread,” the item must have been baked and have air holes in it. To determine whether a food made of the Five Grains qualifies as bread (ha'motzi) or mezonot (borei minei mezonot), decide whether the food had been made to be eaten as a meal or as a snack.  If it was made to be:

• Bread (that is, for a meal), say ha'motzi.
• Mezonot (but you will eat a full meal), say ha'motzi.
• A snack, say borei minei mezonot.

As on Jewish festivals, the minimum total volume of Shabbat kiddush beverage that must be drunk--usually by the kiddush-maker (mevareich) but it may even be by several people combined--is a cheekful (m'lo lugmov), as follows:

• 2 fl. oz. (59 ml) within 30 seconds of beginning to drink for d'oraita cases such as Shabbat evening kiddush (as well as first-night Jewish festival kiddush and all havdalas), and
• 1.7 fl. oz. (50 ml) within 30 seconds of beginning to drink for d'rabanan cases such as Shabbat lunch kiddush (as well as first-day Jewish festival lunch kiddush and all second-day Jewish festival kiddushes).

You should not be naked or have intercourse in a room with holy books, unless:

1. There is a wall or divider between yourself and the holy books within 10.5 inches of the ground and at least 40 inches tall (or as tall as needed to block a line of sight between yourself and the book), or
2. You cover the books with two layers of paper or some other material.

Reason It is not proper respect to the holy books.
Note This is true even if the couple is covered, as is the proper practice, and even if they are more than 4 amot/7 feet away, since the entire room is considered to be one domain.

The general rule for yichud is that a man and a woman who is not his wife or a woman and man who is not her husband may not be secluded together. If another adult can enter the room at any time without knocking, there is no problem with yichud, even if the adult is not present initially. Yichud does not apply whenever:

• A woman has a lockable door that only she controls, which is locked (in this case, men are permitted elsewhere in the building).
• Direct descendants or ancestors are in a room together (in this case, all other men/women combinations are permitted--even if the other people are not related).
• Three (or more) women and one man (or more) are in a room, except when they will be sleeping. At those times, four (or more) women and one man (or more) are permitted in a room or enclosed area.
• Two (or more) men and one (or more) woman/women are in a room.
• Other people have keys to the room and may enter at any time.
• One (married) woman is with one or more men and the woman's husband is in the same area (RMH looks at the local business district as the “area,” so wherever businesses would be advertising or marketing would be a local area).
• For other cases, consult a rabbi.

 

Food preparation forbidden on Jewish festivals includes these forbidden melachot:

• Preparing soil for planting (choreish)
• Causing plants to grow (zorei'a)
• Harvesting (kotzeir)
• Gathering (mi'ameir)
• Threshing (dash; such as milking a cow into clean container or squeezing juice for drinking)
• Winnowing (zoreh)
• Selecting (boreir) (for exceptions, see Introduction to Jewish Festivals: Selecting/Boreir)
• Grinding (tochein) (Grinding may be OK with a shinu'i; ask a rabbi for specific cases)
• Sifting (merakeid).

However, you may do all food preparation necessary for baking or cooking food for that day--from kneading dough (kneading, or lash) to cooking and baking (ofeh) from an existing flame.

Some foods (such as onions, garlic, and scallions/green onions) will pick up ru'ach ra'a if:

• Peeled, AND
• Cut at both ends, AND
• Left overnight in a home, AND
• Raw (OR cooked) and not mixed with other foods, spices, or salt.

Note Under the above conditions, the food will pick up ru'ach ra'a even if stored in a sealed container after being cooked. However, if such an onion (raw or cooked) that is peeled and cut at both ends is mixed with something else--whether other foods, oil, spices, or salt--the onion will not pick up ru'ach ra'a.

Problematic foods:

• Onions,

• Garlic,

• Eggs (hard boiled or raw once they are out of their shell).

Not a problem:

• Unpeeled onions

• Cut and open lemons or other produce(excluding onions, garlic, and eggs).

• Raw onion, garlic, or eggs that were cut or peeled in a commercial facility and remain uncovered overnight.

Note You may not use an onion that has been left overnight under any circumstances (even if wrapped in clear plastic wrap, put into the refrigerator, etc.):

• That has been cut at the top and bottom, and

• Whose brown layer has been removed.

Note Spring/ green onions also attract ru'ach ra'ah, but only if you cut off all of the green and also the roots.

Note If the onion or garlic had been peeled and cut at both ends but you sprinkled some salt on it, then you may use it even if it has been left out overnight.

Restrictions during the Nine Days before Tish'a b'Av are the same as for Three Weeks, plus:

• You may not eat meat or drink wine.
  Exceptions

  1. You may drink wine on Shabbat (but not on Rosh Chodesh Av or erev Shabbat.)
  2. You may drink wine for havdala (but ideally give the wine or grape juice to a child between ages 6 and 10).  
  3. You may eat meat or drink wine at a brit, siyum, or pidyon ha'ben.
• You may not wear freshly laundered clothes, or wear or buy new clothes.

• You may not wash yourself for pleasure.
  Note Showering or bathing to clean one's soiled body is permitted (except on Tish'a b'Av).  So you may bathe or shower during the Nine Days if you are dirty, sweaty, or smelly.
• You may not do any activities that involve luxury.
• You may not say she'hecheyanu except on Shabbat.
  Note Therefore you should not buy new fruits or new items that you will enjoy during the Nine Days.  But if you DO eat a new fruit or buy something new, you must say she'hecheyanu anyway.

These holy writings (tashmishei kedusha) may not be thrown directly into the trash, but should ideally be buried with like items (sheimot):

• Holy writings that contain God's name.
• Parts of Tanach (24-book Jewish Bible).
• Explanations of the Torah or commandments.

However, if a printed or written page (in contrast to parchment scrolls such as tefilin, Torahs, or mezuzas) contains God's name plus secular content, it must be double wrapped in plastic before being thrown in the trash.
Do not throw into trash, even if double wrapped:

• Handwritten scrolls of Torah, tefilin, mezuza.
• Printed Torah, Talmud, siddur, books of halacha, or Torah commentaries.

Rather, put them into a sheimot collection box or wrap in plastic and bury in a place where they will not be dug up. It does not need to be a cemetery.

Double wrap and throw into trash:

• Newspapers and flyers that have Torah psukim or Torah commentaries and also have non-Torah content.
  Reason Non-Torah material should not be buried as sheimot. 
• Children's school handouts with psukim from the Torah or halachot that also contain non-Torah content (if they ONLY contain words of Torah, they should be buried as sheimot).

For disposal of items used for mitzvot (tashmishei mitzva), you may wrap in one layer of plastic and throw it in normal garbage:

• Lulav,
• Etrog, or
• Talit/tzitzit (but NOT tefilin!)

You may not do any action that may cause religious Jews to do something wrong or cause people to think that an observant Jew is doing something forbidden (mar'it ayin). Mar'it ayin is doing something that might lead people to:

• Violate a Torah law by thinking that an observed action that is permissible under special circumstances may be applied to other cases, or
• Think that the person doing the action is violating Torah law (since the observer might not know that the action is actually permissible).

If no one can see you, you may do activities that might look like violations of rabbinic laws. If the action is forbidden by the Torah (d'oraita), you may not even do it in private (but you may not actually violate either type of law!).

Shabbat: Easy to Remove
If each unwanted element is easy to identify and remove, there is no issue of boreir. Consult a rabbi regarding what is halachically considered easy to remove.

Shabbat: Removing Cantaloupe Seeds
You may remove cantaloupe seeds only by shaking, not by scooping, them out.

Shabbat: Removing Lemon Seeds
You generally may not remove lemon seeds (pits) from food. However, if you are squeezing a lemon and some pits get partly squeezed out, you may:

• Shake the lemon in order to shake off the pits, or
• Use your hand to remove the pits from the surface of the lemon.

Once the pits fall onto food, you may use your hand to push the seeds to the side of the plate. But you may not use any instrument to do so, not even a non-specialized instrument such as a spoon.

Note If there are only one or two seeds and they are easily differentiated from the food, you may remove them by any means, except by using an instrument that is intended to separate food from non-food or from undesired food, such as a sieve, strainer, or slotted spoon.

You may directly instruct or ask a non-Jew to do melacha d'rabanan for you on Shabbat, but only:

• To prevent a large financial loss.
  Note A large loss is subjective to the individual's actual wealth and also to that person's perception of what is a large loss. Consult a rabbi.
• For Shabbat needs.
  Example You may ask a non-Jew to unlock an electric hotel door or trigger an entrance door on Shabbat, since this is for a Shabbat need and the action is not prohibited d'oraita.
  Situation A new guest arrives and you need the space on the table occupied by your Shabbat candlesticks.
  What To Do You may not move the candlesticks, but you may ask a non-Jew to do so.
  Situation You left a non-muktza item that you now need for Shabbat on a tree branch (or a child left one in a tree house!).
  What To Do You may not climb the tree to retrieve the item, but you may ask a non-Jew to retrieve it. Example You may ask a non-Jew to turn on air conditioning.
  ExampleYou may ask a non-Jew (directly, no need to hint) to turn off a light if it interferes with someone's sleeping.

  • To allow doing a mitzva.
  • For other pressing (and certainly for life-threatening) needs, such as health, even if the person not sick.

  Note All of these are d'rabanan cases!

Gender/Kashrut Status Transfer
Foods and kitchenware (pots, pans, dishes, utensils, and containers) can absorb taste from each other and so adopt a new gender or kosher status. They can change from:

• Kosher to non-kosher,
• Kosher pareve (neutral) to kosher dairy or kosher meat, or
• Kosher Passover to kosher (or non-kosher) non-Passover.

 
Note You can sometimes change a utensil/container to kosher-pareve (see Kashering, below), but you cannot change a

• Gendered food to neutral-pareve, or
• Non-kosher food to kosher.

 
Taste Absorption
Taste gets absorbed in three ways: Heat, pressure, and soaking. 
 
Heat
To absorb taste, and therefore gender or kashrut status, through heat, a food or utensil must be heated to 120° F or more while:

• Steamed with a halachically “liquid” food, or
• In wet physical contact with the food or utensil.

Examples

• Two hot pans, which are clean on their outsides, only transfer taste from one to the other if they are wet on the outside and are touching each other.
• A hot utensil placed onto a counter only transfers gender to the countertop if there is liquid or food at the point of contact.

Note  All liquids plays a major role in facilitating taste transfer.
NOTE Taste, gender, or non-kosher status do not travel upstream into the utensil that food is being poured from. Even if you pour hot liquid (pareve or of one gender) from a pot onto a non-kosher or opposite gender food, the genders are not transferred back through the stream of liquid to the pot, even if any or all of the elements are more than 120 degrees.
Situation You pour hot liquid from some pareve vegetables into a non-kosher sink that had hot in it within 24 hours. There are dishes or utensils in the sink.
Status The dishes do not change gender unless the hot liquid fills up from the sink onto them. If so, the dishes or utensils become non-kosher. But no gender change occurs through the stream of liquid back to the pot of vegetables.
 
Note If the non-kosher sink had not had anything hot (120 degrees or above) in it for at least 24 hours, no change of gender or kosher status happens at all.
 
Note On Passover, gender and chametz status DO get transferred through a stream of hot liquid.
 
Pressure
To absorb taste, and therefore gender or kashrut status, through pressure or short-term soaking, one of the items must be spicy/charif.
 
Soaking
To absorb taste, and therefore gender or kashrut status, through long-term soaking, the food must soak for specific amounts of time.
 
Note If the food or utensil is not hot (120° F or more), is not spicy/charif, and is not soaking for a long time, there is no gender or kashrut-status transfer.
Examples
You may use a non-kosher utensil for any cold food of the opposite gender, so you may:

• Eat cold (kosher) cereal out of a meat or non-kosher bowl, or
• Use a meat or non-kosher spoon to eat kosher ice cream.

Note Even though these are permissible, they may not be done regularly but only on an ad hoc basis.
 
Food and Kitchenware: Which Influences What
Hot or Spicy/Charif Foods
With hot (more than 120° F) or spicy/charif foods:
Foods and utensils/containers transfer taste to each other.
 
Cold or Non-Spicy Foods that Soak
With cold (less than 120° F) or non-spicy/charif foods that soak:

• Foods do not transfer taste to utensils/containers;
• Utensils/containers do NOT transfer taste to foods.

NOTE No substances (not salt, or any food...) absorb gender from the open air.
 
 
The 24-Hour Rule: Eino ben Yomo
Torah Law: Reverts to Kosher-Pareve
By Torah law, a utensil/container always reverts to kosher-pareve after 24 hours (since the taste of any absorbed food becomes ruined with time). 
 
Rabbinic Law: Must Be Kashered
However, by rabbinic law, the utensil/container must be kashered before using.
 
NOTE Even by Torah law, a hot or spicy/charif food can revive the milk-meat or non-kosher status of another utensil/container (see below) even after 24 hours.
 
Accidentally or Intentionally
Food Hot and Accidentally Placed; Utensil Not Hot for 24 Hours
Kosher food hotter than 120° F (49° C) remains kosher if accidentally placed into a non-kosher, clean utensil that has not been heated to 120° F or more for at least 24 hours.
REASON After 24 hours, b'di'avad, the utensil has reverted to being kosher-pareve.
NOTE If the utensil had been “used” (heated to 120° F or more) within the preceding 24 hours, the hot food that accidentally entered the utensil would be non-kosher. Ask a rabbi for possible exceptions.
 
Food Hot and Intentionally Placed
If the hot food had been put into the utensil intentionally, the food would not be kosher.
REASON Chazal made a rule (takana) that if you intentionally place food of one gender into a utensil of the opposite gender and heat it to 120° F or more, the food is not kosher.

A mourner may not generally enter a hall of joyous celebration and may not eat at any public meal. During the year of mourning for parents, you may not join any public festivities (even if it is not a simcha) that have a meal, including any meals celebrating a mitzva (se'udat mitzva) such as for a brit mila, wedding, or redemption of a son (pidyon ha'ben). After 30 days, you may attend a bar mitzva or a siyum meal, since a bar mitzva is similar to a siyum since the child's parent's commandment to educate his/her child in Jewish education has been completed.
ExceptionA mourner whose child is getting married, does attend the wedding and does eat at the meal with everyone else, even if mourning for a parent. He or she does not need to leave the room when music is being played. To attend the wedding of anyone other than one's child, regardless of who died, a mourner must eat alone and outside the main dining area.

To fulfill the commandment of lulav and etrog, you must hold them together the way they grow: stems down. But since you fulfill the commandment as soon as you hold the Four Species together this way, you must first pick up the etrog inverted (stem up) and then say the blessing, as follows:

• Hold the lulav with the spine facing you and the myrtle on the right, willows on the left, and the etrog with the pitom (opposite the stem) down;
• Say the blessings for the lulav;
• Turn the etrog right side up (stem-side down) and hold the lulav and etrog together; and
• Shake the Four Species together.