Search results for: ""Jewish festival""

If You Forgot Ya'aleh V'Yavo
Situation
You forgot to say ya'aleh v'yavo in birkat ha'mazon for a meal that you were required to eat on a Jewish festival.
What to Do
If you have already begun the fourth blessing, you must repeat the entire birkat ha'mazon. If you have not yet said the fourth blessing, you may say a special addition that appears in many siddurim.
How Much Challa May Be Missing
Less than 1/48th missing is still considered a whole loaf. So if you only have two challot (or other loaves of bread) for a Jewish festival, you might be able to use one loaf twice:
  • Wash your hands,
  • Say ha'motzi,
  • Cut off a piece that is less than 1/48th of the loaf, and
  • Eat it.
Reason You may consider the remainder of that loaf as still being a full loaf and you may re-use it for your Jewish festival morning meal.
Note If you have pieces of bread or other mezonot, you may:
  • Cut off less than 1/48th of the loaf,
  • Eat the additional pieces of bread to make a total of at least 1.9 fl. oz., and then
  • Re-use the same loaf for Jewish festival morning.

Greeting during Shiv'a
A mourner may not greet someone in return but may acknowledge a greeting to him/her and may say “thank you” back. (This restriction ceases if a Jewish festival occurs during shiv'a.)
 
Digital-Display Ovens and Stoves on Jewish Festivals
You may not adjust digital-display ovens and stoves (and also refrigerators or other electronic devices) on Jewish festivals unless they were designed for Jewish festival use.
Jewish Festivals: Bringing Newspaper inside House
You may bring a newspaper, magazine, or other reading material inside the house on Jewish festivals and read it, UNLESS it was:
  • Printed on Shabbat or a Jewish festival, OR
  • Brought from outside the techum Shabbat, OR
  • Delivered by a Jew.
If any of these conditions apply, you may not move it or use it in any way during the Jewish festival, even if all of the other conditions permit its use. You may use it once the Jewish festival is over.
Note As a policy, you may want to tell delivery services (newspapers, post office, etc.) that you do not need to have the item delivered until after dark.
Reason If delivered on the Jewish festival day, it will not be done at your request and, if it is reading material, you may read the material as long as the other conditions permit it--see above.
Note If you do not know where the reading material came from, you may not use it on the Jewish festival.
Note Although taking possession of the newspaper, magazine, or other reading material is “acquisition” (kinyan), you may do so since you will use it on the Jewish festival.
Jewish Festivals: Adding Water to Cut Flowers
You may add water to cut flowers in a utensil on Jewish festivals as long as there are no unopened buds that will open on the Jewish festival.
 
Jewish Festivals: Candles: Lighting after Sunset
Men and women may light candles after sunset on Jewish festivals, with these conditions:
  • You may light only from an already-burning flame.
  • You may not light Jewish festival candles after sunset on Friday nor on the evening before Yom Kippur begins.
Torah Study during Shiv'a
A mourner during shiv'a may not study Torah, other than:
  • Laws of mourning (aveilut), and
  • Whatever is permitted to study on Tish'a b'Av.
Note This restriction ceases if a Jewish festival occurs during shiv'a.
Kiddush Levana: When To Say: Custom not To Say
It is customary not to say kiddush levana:
  • During the Nine Days before and including Tish'a b'Av;
  • On Friday night, and
  • On the evening of a Jewish festival.
Many people also have the custom not to say kiddush levana during the first 10 days of Tishrei.
However, you should do so if you do not expect to see the moon on any other night (due to weather or other factors), rather than miss the chance to say it that month. If you do say kiddush levana on Friday night or the after nightfall of a Jewish festival, say only the blessing, not the Psalms and other phrases that are normally said.
Volume/Liquid
1 Revi'it = Usually 3.3 fl. oz. (99 ml); but 4 fl. oz. (119 ml) for:
  • Any food requiring bracha achrona.
  • The four cups of wine at the seder.
  • Kiddush for Shabbat and Jewish festival nights.
 
1 Log = Volume of 6 eggs = 4 Revi'ot (a revi'it is 1/4 of a log)  
1 Kab = 4 Login  
1 Se'ah = 6 Kabin
 
40 Se'ah = Volume equivalent to 3 cubes, 24 ½” (61 cm) on each side; minimum requirement for mikva = about 192 gallons/750 liters  

1 fl. oz. = 1.77 cu. inch (about the size of a golf ball)
Building or Fixing a Sukka on Sukkot
A Jew may fix or build a sukka on chol ha'moed.
A non-Jew may fix or build a sukka on chol ha'moed or even on the Jewish festival days. A Jew may explicitly tell the non-Jew how to accomplish the repairs or the building of the sukka.
 
Jewish Festivals: Candles: Adding a Candle
Unlike on Shabbat, on Jewish festivals you do not add an extra candle to the number you normally light for the rest of your life if you miss lighting Jewish festival candles.
 
Jewish Festivals: Marking Pages in Books
You may mark pages in a book, whether secular or holy, on Jewish festivals by:
  • Putting slips of paper in the book (but only if the slips were torn before the Jewish festival began), or
  • Bending the corners.
Jewish Festivals: Opening Metal Bottle Caps
You may not open metal bottle caps on Jewish festivals if a metal ring will be left after doing so. You may break that ring or simply open the bottle before the Jewish festival (or simply open the bottle and reclose it such that when you open in again, no metal will be broken).  
Note If you need the contents for a Jewish festival (such as if it is a bottle of wine), you may ask a non-Jew to open the bottle for you.  But if it is wine that is not cooked/mevushal, the wine will become non-kosher once opened and handled by the non-Jew.
Jewish Festivals: When Is
Jewish festivals (and Shabbat) end at “dark”: when three medium-sized stars are visible overhead.
Note When stars appear in the west (these are “large stars”), medium-sized stars should be visible overhead and the Jewish festival (or Shabbat) will be over.