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Tum'a: Leaving Cut Produce Uncovered Overnight

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.

Refrigerators and Hot Pots of Dairy/Meat
Hot pots on a refrigerator shelf with pots of the opposite gender that touch each other are only a problem if wet. There is no problem if they are:
  • Both cold, or
  • Even if they are spicy.
Jewish Festivals: Walking between Trees/Bushes
You may walk between bushes or trees on Jewish festivals, even if they are close to each other, and you may use your body to make space for yourself to walk. But you may not push the trunks or branches away using your hand.

Reason The trees are muktza.

Leaning To Left while Drinking Four Cups
Every male at the seder is required to lean to the left side while drinking each cup of wine.
 
Paying Day Laborer
You may pay a laborer at whatever time intervals you agreed upon; you do not need to pay the laborer each day before sunset unless you agreed to do that. If you did not make any agreement, follow local custom. If there is no local custom, pay by the end of the work day.
Who Must Hear or Make Havdala
Men and boys older than 13 years old and women and girls older than 12 years must each hear or say havdala for themselves.
Introduction to Taste (Ta'am) Transfer
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” foodor
  • 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.
Laundry before Jewish Festivals
You should not do laundry on chol ha'moed.
Reason Due to a takana so people would do their laundry before each holiday and not wait until chol ha'moed.
Note If you had already done the laundry before the Jewish festival began and now no clean clothes remain:
  • You may do laundry for babies and small children (3 years old or less) on chol ha'moed.
  • You may not do laundry for adults.

Jewish Festivals: Musaf: Additions for Sacrifices: Sukkot
In the amida of musaf for Sukkot, there is a different line added about the sacrifices for each day.
Being Together
Neither the husband nor the wife should be alone for the first seven days after their marriage.  If they are apart, they should each be accompanied by someone else. This is a custom and not a halacha.
Note There is no requirement for bride and groom to be together all of the time during the seven days after their wedding if they don't want to be together.
Tefilin: When To Touch: Shacharit
When praying on weekday mornings, touch and “kiss” the tefilin at:
  • Places in the shema that mention tefilin, and
  • Potei'ach in ashrei.
Reason  When wearing tefilin, you should be constantly conscious that you are wearing them. One way of reminding ourselves that we are wearing tefilin is to touch them at these times.
Note To “kiss” tefilin, touch the box with one or more fingers and then kiss those fingers.
Leaning to the Left
Every male (13 years old and above) at the seder is required by halacha to lean to the left side while:
  • Drinking each of the four cups of wine.
  • Eating matza for each of these mitzvot: motzi, matza, koreich, afikoman.
Ideally, lean onto something to your left, such as a chair or couch. A pillow is nice but optional.
Note Women and girls are not required to lean at any time during the meal.
Yahrzeit: Candle: How Many Candles: One per Household
For a deceased parent on a yahrzeit or yizkor day, only one candle needs to be lit in each home where any of a parent's children are at sunset of that evening.
Examples
  • If two siblings (or more) are in the same residence on the night of the yahrzeit, just light one yahrzeit candle.
  • If all siblings are in different homes, each sibling lights one yahrzeit candle.

Tefilat HaDerech: How Often: Once a Day/Once a Trip: Vehicles
When riding in a vehicle on a trip, you should say tefilat ha'derech once each day, as long as:
  • You have gone--or will go--at least 2.8 miles past any populated area, and
  • You will be breaking your trip at night.
Note If you will be living in an RV or other vehicle, only say tefilat ha'derech once for the entire trip.
Jewish Wedding: Witnesses: Four Pairs
A Jewish wedding requires four pairs of witnesses, but the same witnesses may be used for all four parts: tanayim; ketuba; kiddushin; yichud. Each witness must be:
  • A shomer-Shabbat, adult male,
  • Not related to the bride or groom,
  • Not related to each other, and
  • Known to be an honest person.
Note There is no requirement to have only people who were born into shomer-Shabbat families as witnesses.
Note For more on relatives as witnesses, see Witnesses: Relatives in Jewish Courts.