Women and girls are generally exempt from time-dependent positive commandments (mitzvot), but they may perform these voluntary mitzvot and if they do, they do say the relevant blessings:

• Lulav
• Sukka
• Saying the full shema.

Women and girls may NOT do these time-dependent positive commandments (mitzvot):

• Kiddush levana
• Tefilin
• Tzitzit.

By surrounding ourselves with reminders of the commandments and with objects for observing the various Jewish rituals, we can be constantly aware of what we should be doing to live our lives as Jews.
There are two categories of items used for mitzvot:

• Holy items (tashmishei kedusha), such as tefilin and its boxes, Torah books and commentaries, and Torah scrolls and covers. 
• Items used for mitzvot (tashmishei mitzva), such as lulav, etrog, and talit/tzitzit.

Women
Sacred scrolls (Torah, mezuza, tefilin) may not be written by women for sacred purposes. However, if they were written by a woman, you may study from them. You may not use them for public Torah reading, putting on tefilin, or affixing to doorposts (for mezuza).


Disposal
Both tashmishei kedusha and tashmishei mitzva should be disposed of in a respectful manner. Tashmishei kedusha should ideally be buried. Newspapers with Torah or Torah commentary must be double-wrapped and then may be put in the trash, since they contain material that should not be buried with holy writings (only a newspaper's Torah or Torah commentary contain inherent holiness).
To dispose of tashmishei mitzva, you may wrap in one layer of plastic and throw it in normal garbage.

If you must say shacharit very early:
     1. Say birchot ha'shachar;
     2. When you reach the end of yishtabach, if it is:

• 36 minutes (or less) before sunrise:
  • Pause after the blessing (ending El chay ha'olamim),
  • Put on your talit and tefilin, and
  • Say the appropriate blessings.
• More than 36 minutes before sunrise:
  • Put on your talit and tefilin WITHOUT saying the blessings. Later, after it is less than 36 minutes before sunrise:
    • Hold your tzitzit and say the tzitzit blessing,
    • Move your tefilin slightly,
    • Say the tefilin blessings (if you are in a place in the prayer service where you are permitted to interrupt).

 

Although women and girls are generally exempt from time-dependent positive commandments (mitzvot), they may do some mitzvot for which they are not obligated and it is considered to be virtuous behavior for which they will get a reward. They may say the blessings before each mitzva.

1. These are voluntary mitzvot that women may do:

• Lulav

• Sukka

• Saying the full shema.

2. Women and girls MAY NOT  wear tefilin.

 

3. Women traditionally do not:

• Say tachanun. 

• Wear talit or tzitzit (talit katan).

• Study gemara.

• Say kiddush levana or birkat ha'chama.

But these are not forbidden.

 

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!)

Saying the blessing on a talit gadol, while intending to cover all other talitot (whether talit katan or talit gadol), will cover:

• All talitot that you already put on.
• All talitot that you will put on later that day.
• If you go out of whichever building you are in when you say the blessing on your talit, you must say a new blessing if you put on a talit (even the same talit) in a different building.

Exception You may intend for the blessing NOT to cover other talitot.
Example You say the blessing over your talit gadol on the morning preceding Yom Kippur.  You may intend for your blessing not to cover the talit gadol that you will put on just before Kol Nidrei.

Note If you don't have a talit gadol, say al mitzvat tzitzit over your talit katan.

Note If you remove your talit gadol, go to a different building, and put the talit gadol on again, you DO say a new blessing.

Here is a typical order of waking/morning prayers for weekdays (many people say these blessings at the synagogue instead of at home):

• Wake
  Wake and wash hands (Three-Times Method).
• Bathroom
  Take care of any toilet needs, wash your hands (One-Time Method).
  Say blessings al netilat yadayim and asher yatzar (until l'fgarim meitim).
• Torah Blessings

• Talit Katan
  Put on talit katan (for men).
  Say blessing if not married or if not putting on talit gadol later.
    Note You may put on the talit katan before washing your hands

• Birchot HaShachar

• Talit/Tefilin

 

• Talit (for married men or other men with that custom).
• Tefilin (for men).

• L'olam Yihei Adam/Korbanot

• L'olam yihei adam,
• Short shema,
• Paragraph ending mekadeish et shimcha ba'rabim,
• Readings on sacrifices/korbanot,
• 13 rules.

• Psukei D'Zimra

• Psalm 30/Mizmor Shir Chanukat habayit.
• Baruch she'amar through yishtabach (includes ashrei).

• Bar'chu/Shema/Amida

• Psalms/Alenu

Terms To Know

• Neitz, HaNeitz—Sunrise
• Alot HaShachar—72 minutes before sunrise
• MiSheyakir-- 36 minutes before sunrise in New York in winter and 40 minutes in summer. Nearer to the equator, the maximum time is shorter.

When Things Happen
Before Alot HaShachar (72 minutes before sunrise)
You can put on tzitzit/talit and tefilin without blessings.

Alot HaShachar
You can say:

• Birchot ha'shachar.
• Shema and amida, b'di'avad.

Mi'sheyakir (36-40 minutes before sunrise)
You can say:

• Blessings over tefilin and tzitzit/talit.
• Shema and amida as necessary.

K'Vatikin
You can say shema l'chatchila--and begin saying the amida exactly at sunrise.

By Third Halachic Hour of the Day
You have until the third halachic hour of the day to say:

• The blessing mekadeish et shimcha ba'rabim if you want to include the word Adonai.
• Morning shema.

By Fourth Halachic Hour of the Day
You have until the fourth halachic hour of the day to say any of the prayers from barchu until the end of the amida.

Halachic Mid-Day
You have until halachic mid-day, b'di'avad, to say the shacharit amida.

          

“Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.” Leviticus/Vayikra 19:2
 
Halacha ("The Way To Go" or "Way to Walk") guides proper Jewish behavior in all aspects of life, each day of our lives--not just in civil laws or court situations. Halacha teaches us how to behave with our families, relatives, and strangers as well as how to fulfill our religious requirements between ourselves and God.

To fulfill our role as a holy people, we imitate God's actions. Examples are visiting the sick, welcoming guests, giving charity, refraining from creative activity on Shabbat, and promoting peace between husband and wife (shalom bayit).

The true reason for following halacha is because God commanded us to do so.  We observe halacha to please our Creator and to become spiritually close to Him by doing His will and imitating His actions.

Like the word for the whole body of Jewish "laws," each rule of how to act is called a halacha (plural, halachot).

Where Do Halachot Come From?

Although you will find halachot on this site that were born only a few days or a few decades ago, the body of halacha has been around since before creation.  "God looked into the Torah and created the world," says the Zohar, and so we find the Patriarchs followed halacha even before that great law book, the Torah, was given on Mount Sinai four centuries later.
 
Many halachot are specified in the Written Torah (Jewish Bible). These halachot correspond to fuller and more detailed halachot given orally (Oral Torah) to Moses on Mount Sinai to explain the Written Torah that he received at the same time. Many halachot could not be understood from the Written Torah without the Oral Law (for example, what should be written on a mezuza scroll?) and many common practices such as making kiddush or what tefilin should look like are to be found nowhere in the Written Torah.
 
Since the Torah applies to all generations, the Torah specifies that there be wise and learned people to decide how to apply halacha to the situations of the day.  Halachot can be found in sourcebooks such as the Mishna, Gemara, their commentaries, Shulchan Aruch, Mishna Berura, and responsa (questions and answers originally sent by letter and now, occasionally, by email or SMS!) of later rabbis.
 
Sometimes a custom becomes a halacha, sometimes not.  For example, the original halacha for tzitzit was that a Jewish man who wears a four-cornered garment must have tzitziyot on each corner.  The custom, which has become universally accepted and now has the force of halacha, is that Jewish men wear a four-cornered garment in order to be able to fulfill the commandment of wearing tzitziyot.  An example of a custom that did not become a halacha is that some men and boys wear their tzitziyot outside of their shirts and pants.

Levels of Halachot

In halacha, there are three levels of what to follow or observe. They are differentiated on this website by the following terms: 

• “Must”:  Halachot that are generally non-negotiable except in extreme situations;
• “Should”:  Customs that have been accepted by the entire Jewish world (or major segments of it) and that may be overridden when necessary, sometimes even if not extreme circumstances; and
• “Non-Binding Custom”:  Customs that are not universally followed and that do not need to be followed except by people who have the tradition to do so.