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!).

You may not do any action that causes other people to lessen their observance of, or respect for, the Torah.

In Eretz Yisrael, Shmini Atzeret and Simchat Torah are observed on the same day. Outside of Eretz Yisrael, Simchat Torah is the second day of what becomes a two-day festival.

We begin mentioning rain in the second paragraph of the musaf amida of Shmini Atzeret and continue until the first day of Passover.
 
The universal custom is to complete the reading of the Torah and to begin reading it again on Simchat Torah. Dancing and singing with the Torah scrolls is also a universal custom.

You may not feed your pet anything that Torah law says you may not benefit from, such as food containing meat and milk that have been cooked together.

You may be a minority owner or shareholder in a business that violates Torah law, but not if the majority of the business is owned by Jews (even if they are not shomer Shabbat Jews). Consult a rabbi for details and exceptions.
 

See Attire: Man's Head Covering for Prayers or Torah Study.

Wearing a hat for prayer (for men) is formal wear that shows honor to God. Men do not need to wear a hat but must have some type of head covering when saying blessings, when praying, or when studying holy texts (this is halacha). If a man said a blessing or prayer without a head covering, b'di'avad, it is OK and he does not need to repeat the blessing or prayer.     
 

If you are not certain that you have said any of the morning blessings on studying Torah (from la'asok b'divrei Torah to notein haTorah), you should not say them later.  But when you say “ahava raba” before the morning shema, you may intend it to cover such blessings; then after the amida, you should say some Torah verses (psukim).

We must be honest in business. We may not cheat or mislead the customer or misrepresent what we are selling. We may follow whatever are the accepted norms for honest people in our area of business.

When returning the Torah to the ark in the synagogue, the word is hodo (His glory), not ho-DOO (praise Him).

When returning the Torah to the ark in the synagogue, the word is hodo (His glory), not ho-DOO (praise Him).

When reading the Torah, do not pronounce the name Yissachar as it is spelled (Yissaschar).

Certain lines from the Torah (psukim) are said during the purification.
 

The Torah requires everyone to give charity (tzedaka), and even people who are so poor that they receive charity must also give something to charity. The giving of charity engenders consideration for people who have less than we do.

The Torah commands us to be kedoshim (holy, or set apart), requiring purity in what we eat, how we speak, what we wear, and how we behave. Tum'a is spiritual impurity generally resulting from transitions from life to death (even in a small measure; for instance—sleep or cutting nails). Tum'a inhibits or blocks us from achieving holiness.
Since we do not have a “red heifer” with which to make purifying water solutions, all people are considered to have some level of tum'a today.
Although there are three reasons to ritually wash hands--to add kedusha; to remove tum'a; and to remove dirt--tum'a normally has nothing to do with physical dirt. There are many types and levels of tum'a, with no exact progression. The following guideline is approximately in descending order from most impure to least:

Sources of the Different Levels of Tum'a

• Dead body (touching or being in same building with a dead body);
• Cemetery;
• Carcass of any dead animal not slaughtered by shechita;
• Women during and after menstruation or after childbirth (but before they immerse in a mikva);
• Sleep;
• Possibly a bathroom;
• Your hands' transferring tum'a to wet food;
• Your hands' transferring tum'a to bread;
• Food from under a bed on which someone slept;
• Intercourse or seminal emission;
• Having your beard, hair, or nails cut;
• Leather shoes;
• Touching body parts.

Depending on the level of tum'a, purifying may require:

• Washing your hands by the Three-Times Method.
• Washing your hands by the One-Time Method.
• Immersion in a mikva. OR
• Sprinkling with water that had been treated with ashes from a red heifer (which we do not have now).