[Avodah] superstition

[T613K at aol.com]

From: Eli Turkel _eliturkel at gmail.com_ (mailto:eliturkel at gmail.com) 

I am just  reading in one the daily halacha messages that
one should not cut ones  fingernails and toenails on one day
either because it is dangerous or else  (in the name of
rashi yashan - whatever that means) because of "lo yilbash  gever"
(implies a woman can do it).


Didnt understand that either - a woman does something reasonable
and  so a man can't do it??

 
 
....To me it sounds like a superstition




>>>>>
 
A woman cuts her fingernails and toenails in preparation for the  mikva but I 
don't think there's a time when a man /has/ to cut all his  nails all at the 
same time.  BTW I heard in a shiur once that even for a  woman who is 
preparing for tevilla,   it is preferable that she cut  one set of nails before sunset 
and the other after dark so as to avoid  technically cutting all her nails at 
the same time.
 
I agree with RET that this sounds like something superstitious, as does  
cutting all your nails out of order (and also making sure to gather all your  nail 
parings lest a pregnant woman step on one and miscarry) but what I have  done 
all my life I continue doing for fear that it really does make some cosmic  
difference somehow.
 
I once heard that cutting your nails out of order is to avoid doing what is  
done for the dead, viz, cutting all the nails in order, but I don't know if  
there's anything to that.   1. our chevra kadisha  does  not cut the nails of 
the niftar at all -- do other chevras cut nails?  and  2. doing something 
because it is logical is not "doing for the dead" -- cutting  in order is just 
logical.    And so why do we davka cut  our nails out of order?   Mystery.  (We 
wash the niftar  starting from the head and going down to the feet, but I never 
heard anyone say  that when you take a shower you should davka wash in a 
different order.)

--Toby  Katz
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