After waking from sleeping more than 30 minutes, don't touch your eyes, nose, mouth, ears, or other bodily orifices until you have washed your hands using the Three-Times Method.
Tum'a: Leather or Synthetic Shoes
Only leather shoes are considered to carry tum'a.
Reason Leather shoes absorb sweat. Note There is no problem with cloth or synthetic material shoes (as long as they are not sweaty--even though they also absorb sweat). Note Soaking and scrubbing leather shoes to remove the absorbed sweat does not remove the requirement to wash hands after touching those shoes.
Tum'a: Leather Shoes and Washing
After touching leather shoes, you must wash your hands using the One-Time Method before saying blessings or prayers or before learning Torah. Note If you do not have any water with which to wash your hands, say the blessing or prayer anyway but wipe your hands off on something before saying the blessing.
Tum'a: Non-Jews
Non-Jews do not have ritual impurity (tum'a) the way Jews do. However:
If a Jew touches or carries a dead non-Jew, tum'a is passed on to the Jew.
If a Jew walks through a non-Jewish cemetery, the Jew should wash his hands the Three-Times Method.
Tum'a: Nail Clipping: Washing Afterward
Wash your hands using the One-Time Methodafter cutting (or having someone cut) your nails (or hair).
Tum'a: Burying Nail Clippings
Burying nail clippings is OK but only if they will not become uncovered later. Clippings are particularly bad for pregnant women to step on or over.
Tum'a: Burning Nail Clippings
Burning nail clippings is OK (but it has kabbalistic complications and is bad for the person from whom the nails were clipped).
Tum'a: Putting Nail Clippings Down Toilet or Drain
Nail clippings, even from children and non-Jews, have ru'ach ra'a and need to be disposed of. The simplest way is to flush them down a toilet or wash them down a drain (but don't put them into the garbage).
Note Hair may be disposed of by throwing it into a garbage can.
Tum'a: Bringing Holy Items into Area of Impurity
To carry a holy item into an area that has impurity, put the item in two nested containers (kis b'toch kis).
Examples
A bag inside a bag.
A bag and a folder.
Tum'a: Hair Cutting: Washing Afterward
Wash your hands using the One-Time Method after cutting (or having someone cut) your hair (or nails).
Wash your hands (without saying the handwashing blessing) before eating wet food, such as a piece of fruit with water on it or simply dry off the food, if possible.
Exception Food that is normally eaten with a spoon or fork (such as cereal or canned fruit) but only if you are eating it with a spoon or fork.
Tum'a: Leaving Cut Produce Uncovered Overnight
Some foods (such as onions, garlic, and scallions/green onions) will pick up ru'ach ra'aif:
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'achra'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.
Tum'a: Cohen and Non-Jewish Cemetery
A cohen should not walk through a non-Jewish cemetery unless he has an urgent need to do so.
Tum'a: Cohen Touching Dead Non-Jew
A cohenis forbidden from touching or picking up a dead body of a non-Jew as well as the dead body of a Jew.
