You must tear four vertical inches at the neck of your shirt (and jacket, too, if you wear one) when seeing the ruins of the Temple in Jerusalem for the first time in more than 30 days. You do not need to be close by; do kri'a even if you see the mosques that are on top of the Temple mount.

1. Place arm tefila box (bayit) on center of bicep of whichever arm you do not write with (knot on the arm tefila should touch the side of the box). If you are ambidextrous, put the tefila on your left arm.
2. Say the first blessing, “lehaniach tefilin.”
3. Tighten the strap.
4. Wrap the strap around your arm seven times between your cubit (inside of your arm, opposite the elbow) and your wrist.
   Note If you wrap more times, it is OK.
   Note You may wrap the tefilin strap over a wristwatch or put a watch on top of the tefilin strap.
   Note Tefilin straps should not overlap with each other and should not be wrapped on top of the ulna protuberance, but if they do--it is permitted.
5. Wrap the excess around the palm of your hand (tuck in the end to keep it tight and out of the way).

1. Place the tefila on your head tightly enough so it does not slip off under normal motion.
2. Center the head tefila box on your forehead (as it appears to an average person. There is no need to look in a mirror.)
3. Place the head tefila box with its front edge above your hairline (or where your hairline was when you were 13!), not further back than half-way on your skull from front to back.
4. Ideally, place the knot at the back on your occipital bone (base of your skull), but you may place it lower as long as it is still on top of your hair.
5. Say the second blessing, al mitzvat tefilin.
6. Tighten the tefila on your head and say, Baruch shem kevod malchuto l'olam va'ed
   Reason “Al mitzvat tefilin” is a questionable blessing (safek bracha).
   Note Tefilin head straps should reach at least to your navel (left strap) and mila (right strap).

Mezuza: Placement: Door Frame
Place the mezuza outside the door but within the door frame. If not possible, you may place the mezuza inside the door frame. 
NOte You may recess a mezuza into the door frame.
Note If the doorframe is wider than 4” (10 cm), place the mezuza toward the outer edge of the frame, not centered in the middle.
Note You may attach a mezuza to a piece of wood that extends the doorway.

Mezuza: Placement: Height
Place the mezuza at shoulder height for the average person. Leave at least one tefach (4”, or 10 cm) between mezuza and lintel.
If possible, affix a mezuza just above where the top 1/3 of the doorpost meets the middle 1/3.
Note This rule is superseded by the rule that the mezuza must be near shoulder height.

Mezuza: Placement: Angle
Place the mezuza on a 45-degree angle from the vertical, with the top of the mezuza toward the inside of the main room. If you cannot, any angle toward the entrance is OK.

Outside of Eretz Yisrael, begin saying Tein tal u'matar l'vracha at ma'ariv of Dec. 4. In a secular leap year, begin saying it at ma'ariv of Dec. 5 (but there might be rare exceptions!).

Where: Amida 9^th paragraph
Error:  Said tein bracha or tein tal u'matar l'vracha in the incorrect season
Situation Did Not Finish Paragraph
What to Do You must return to beginning of paragraph (bareich aleinu).

Situation Already Finished that Paragraph
What to Do

• If you said tein bracha in the wrong season, you may add tein tal u'matar l'vracha  in shema koleinu, just before ki ata shomei'a...
• If you said tein tal u'matar l'vracha in the wrong season, you must return to the top of the paragraph.

Situation Already Finished Shema Koleinu
What to Do If you did not correct your mistake in shema koleinu, you must return to the beginning of bareich aleinu.

Situation Already Finished Amida (such as you are ready to take 3 steps backward when you realize your error.)
What to Do You must repeat the entire amida.
Note If you said tein tal u'matar l'vracha in the wrong season but you are in a place that needs rain, you do not need to correct yourself or repeat that blessing. 
 

How To Reheat on Hotplate or Blech: Before Shabbat Begins

1. Cover any cooking controls (knobs, switches, etc.) so no one adjusts them during Shabbat.
2. Cover the heat source with a "blech" (sheet of metal). This will help prevent Torah law violations by serving as a reminder not to adjust the heat.                                      Note Some blechs also block the temperature controls, to help with the previous step.                                                                                                                                Note To use a hotplate, remove the control knob before Shabbat.
3. Turn on the source of heat (hotplate, burner under the blech...).
4. Put onto the hotplate or blech at least one utensil containing food or water.

1. Start with food that is fully cooked and solid (no liquids may be heated on Shabbat!). Note"Solid" food includes cooked meat with congealed jelly or cooked fish with jelly.
2. Place the fully cooked dry food on top of the food- or water-containing utensil that had been placed on the heating appliance before Shabbat began. Remember not to put the fully cooked food directly onto the hotplate, blech, or other heat source after Shabbat begins (even if there is a separation between the heat source and food).

Note After sunset on Friday, you may not put any incompletely cooked food (whether hot or cold) onto the heated part of the heating appliance or move it from a cooler part of the blech to a hotter part.
NOteAt some time during Shabbat, someone must eat or drink from the food- or water-containing utensil that had been on the blech since before Shabbat began.

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.

The Torah forbids cooking on Shabbat.   “Cooking” means making food edible by heating it to above 120° F (49° C).
Cooking includes:

• You may not make a soft food hard (such as cooking an egg).
• You may not make a hard food soft (such as cooking meat).
• You may not, in any manner, heat (to 120° F or above ) liquids that you will drink or foods with liquids—such as sauces and gravies--whether fully cooked or not. 

According to the Torah, you may eat food on Shabbat that had been placed on the heat source Friday afternoon but was not completely cooked by sunset.
ReasonNo action is being taken and the cooking will be completed by itself.
 
According to Torah law, food is only considered to be cooked if it has been directly heated from the heat source, such as a kettle on a fire or a pot on a flame (even if that utensil has been removed from its heat source). This is called a kli rishon.
Once you pour water from a kli rishon into a glass, the glass is a kli sheni. Some foods, such as an egg or tea, get cooked in a kli sheni (kalei bishul--easily cooked). These foods are forbidden by Torah law to be put into a hot kli sheni on Shabbat.

• You must have taken it off with the intention of replacing it, and
• You may not put the utensil down onto a surface; you must continue to hold the food (or the utensil) in your hand.
• The heat source must be covered.

Muktza (“set aside” in one's mind) is an item that normally has no permissible use (or no use) on Shabbat. Muktza items may not usually be moved by hand on Shabbat—even if your hand is gloved—except for certain Shabbat needs, such as you need the space or the item. However, it is ALWAYS OK to move muktza items with any other part of your body.
  Chazal instituted muktza rules to make Shabbat special by requiring that actions be done differently on Shabbat than on weekdays. The basis for the idea of muktza was when Moses/Moshe instructed the Children of Israel in the wilderness to prepare the mun for Shabbat in order to eat it on Shabbat. Chazal extended the idea to prohibit moving by hand on Shabbat anything that was not prepared in one's mind before sunset on Friday.
The several categories of muktza vary according to their purpose and their permissibility to be moved. Purpose Item whose normal purpose is forbidden to be done on Shabbat.
Permissibility To Be Moved You may move this item by hand, without using a shinu'i:

• If you need the space where it is resting, or
• For a permissible use.

• Using a hammer to open a coconut.
• Using pliers to crack open nuts.
• Using a portable radiator to prop open a window.

No prior preparation or thought before Shabbat is required.
Note You may not move it just to protect the item.

Muktza Machmat Gufo: No Use
Purpose An item that has no use. This item is not normally ever designated for use; for example, a rock or stone. However, an item in this “no use” category is rendered non-muktza and usable on Shabbat as long as you had intended--before Shabbat or the festival began--to use it for a permitted purpose. As long as you intended that, you do not even need to use a shinu'i. If you did not intend, before sunset on Friday, to use this normally unusable item, then you may only move it using a shinu'i.
Permissibility To Be Moved Unless you prepared before Shabbat to use it for some permitted purpose on Shabbat, you may not move it by hand even for a permitted use and not even in order to use the space where it is resting.
Note You might need to use the item regularly for the non-standard purpose because for just a one-time use, it might not be permitted. Consult a rabbi.
Exception Garbage has no use. You may move garbage within your house (example: push the garbage across the room with your foot), but if you want to dump your garbage outside and you have a private domain or an eruv, you may pick it up and carry it outside.

Muktza Machmat Chisaron Kis
Purpose A valuable item that you are concerned may be damaged.
Examples Passport, porcelain china, or other expensive and fragile or difficult-to-replace objects.
Such an item may not be moved except for its designated purpose and you may not move it once you have finished using it. But once you are already holding it, you may take it to a place where you want to leave it and you do not need to drop it where it is when you finish with it.  

Basis L'Davar Ha'Asur

Purpose Muktza item resting on a normally permitted item makes the lower item muktza too.
Example A candlestick will render the table on which it stands muktza (unless there are one or more other items that are more valuable than the muktza item, in which case the table does not become muktza).
Situation There are multiple objects; some are permitted and some are not—for example, in a drawer.
What To Do If the permissible objects are more valuable than the non-permitted objects, you may open the drawer.

Non-Muktza on Top of Muktza
If you want a non-muktza item that was left on top of a muktza item from before Shabbat started, you may use it without restriction.

 

Situation

You discover you have coins in non-patch pockets of your pants that you will wear on Shabbat.

What To Do

You may empty coins out of non-patch pockets if you need to use the pants, but not by taking the coins out: you must dump them out of the pockets.
Note If you have coins in a patch pocket, the whole garment is muktza, unless you forgot that the coins were there or if you intended to remove the coins before Shabbat began but forgot to remove them (in which case you may shake the coins out of the pocket and the garment is not muktza).

Non-Patch Pockets

Situations

Pants with muktza items in the pockets are on your bed and you want to sleep on Shabbat afternoon.

What To Do

You may move the pants off your bed using any body part including your hands; no shinu'i needed.

Item that Becomes Muktza
If you are holding a permissible item and it becomes muktza, you may put it in safe place; you do not need to immediately drop it or put it down where you are.
Example You are holding a pot from which you dispense all of the food. The empty pot is now muktza, but you may take it to the kitchen to put it down.

For More Information about Muktza

To see the TorahTots article on muktza, click here.

BAKING IN NON-KOSHER OVEN

An oven that has not been used for at least 24 hours is considered, d'oraita, to be neutral/pareve, but only if it is clean. D'rabanan, it is still not kosher, but this may be useful for when you can be lenient; e.g., if there is a safek.

Note Even when baking in a non-kosher oven, you must cook the food in a kosher utensil.

INTRODUCTION TO BAKING IN NON-KOSHER OVEN

Baking in a Non-Kosher Oven

How To Tell if Oven Is Clean

To determine whether a non-kosher oven with black or brown spots is clean, scratch them:

• If the substance crumbles, the spots are OK and you may bake non-liquid food in that oven without covering the food.
• If the spots do not crumble or they remain immovable or come off in flakes rather than crumbles, consider the oven not clean.

Uncovered Food; Clean (Non-Kosher) Oven

You may cook food uncovered in a non-kosher oven if:

• The oven rack and walls are clean, and
• The food is not “liquid.”
  
  Note Non-liquid is defined as not being liquid before cooking OR not being liquid after cooking, but the food does not need to be non-liquid at both times.  Examples of “non-liquid” foods:

  • Apple cobbler
  • Lasagna
  • Meat (that will create gravy at the end)
  • Pudding
  • Raw fish.

What To DoPlace two layers of foil under the baking utensil.

Double Wrapping

When To Double Wrap

Double-wrap food before baking in a non-kosher radiant-heat oven if:

• The rack and/or oven are not clean;
• The food that you are baking is liquid at any time during the cooking process; OR
• Some of the food you are baking spills onto the rack or oven surfaces.

How To Double Wrap

When wrapping food for cooking in a non-kosher oven, the wrapping material does not need to seal completely, but the:

• Food must be completely covered with two layers of foil or plastic;
• Layers must keep water vapor out from between the layers; and
• Surfaces of the utensil must all be covered.

You may dispose of a lulav in any way that is not degrading. So, you may drop it into a field or put it on a lawn--unless animals might eat it or step on it or if it will be subject to poor treatment before it decays.  Don't dispose of a lulav or etrog directly into the garbage. Burn, bury, or wrap them in a bag or one layer of plastic and you may throw it into normal garbage.

The presence of insects on fruits, vegetables, grains, etc., depends on season, location, crop type, year, and current conditions in the growing area. If more than one bug is usually found in 10 servings, you must wash or soak (preferably in salt water or soapy water) all of the food and carefully check a quantity equal to three servings. You may check the food or the water in which the food was soaked, if such soaking will remove the bugs.
If you do not find any bugs by this procedure, you may use all of the other (uninspected) food.
If you find even one bug, you must either check each piece of vegetable OR soak (preferably in salt water or soapy water) or rinse the entire batch. Then check three more servings and continue until no bugs have been found after one cycle of washing and inspecting.

A spatter is single drops of a substance.

A non-spicy/non-charif liquid or food with any liquid (enough to pour, but that may be even one drop) that sits for 24 hours or more will transfer gender or non-kosher status to its container.
Situation Dairy or meat liquid-containing food is in pareve container.
StatusContainer will become dairy or meat (regardless of intention).