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If we kiss our hand after touching a Mezuza or a Seder Torah, the certainly we should do it after shaking hand of a fellow Jew. Thoughts?
You should kiss the hand of a tzaddik.
Isn’t the kissing of the hand a sanitary alternative to kissing the object itself? I’ve seen people actually kiss the Seder Torah.
Does shaking a fellow Jew’s hand and then kissing it, mean that you would like to kiss the person himself, except that you don’t want to spread germs?
I’ve only seen the sefardim in my neighborhood kiss the hand of the Rabbanim.
After shaking hands use hand sanitizer.
I hear your logic and want to go down that road and see where it leads:
If a mezuza or sefer Torah is not brought into a bathroom, certainly a fellow yid shouldn’t be allowed to go into a bathroom…
YO – there is a HUGE difference between a Mezuza or a Seder Torah with even a tzaddik. The treatment of a chefetz of kedusha is such that one cannot take the sefer Torah into a washroom c”v. But a tzaddik can go into the washroom. Why? Because the sefer torah is a chefetz shel kedusha (an OBJECT of joliness), while the tzaddik is kedusha (holiness) but not an object, rather a human being, and as such does not have the dinim of a chefetz shel kedusha. The sefer HaRambam cannot be taken into a bathroom, even though the Rambam himself went to the bathroom..
So wait, someone shakes another person’s hand, kisses his own hand and then wants to shake my hand. I’m supposed to be happy with this.
The kissing of one’s own hand implies that some keduaha was transferred by the hand shake. Like the gartel of a sefer Torah or the tallis that touches the klaf, and then the gartel or tallis is kissed becuae it retained the kedusha of the Sefer Torah.
Kissing the hand shows indirectly respect.
Make sure to get vaccinated before you kiss somebody’s hands!
Never mind that the show of “respect” does not always look genuine, in this time of measles outbreak among the Orthodox, and now hepatitis A in South Florida, let’s be more sanitary. Other ways can be employed to show deference to the riteous. Please!
Stop spreading allergies.
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