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other than being a bad habit, is it bad as halacha goes to bite your fingernails?
if you normally cut your nails, what are rules of disposing them?
and whats the story with fingernails and pregant women???
hmm no idea about the finger nail BITING but if you cut your nails you should do it over a tissue and then throw the tissue away
pregnant women supposedly should not be around(on top of or next to)nail fragments it is assumed to be bad for the unborn child
but who knows
I don’t think there’s any Halachic issue with biting nails.
You should throw them out, burn them, or flush them down the toilet (some have a preference to burn them but there’s probably no actual difference). Don’t ever leave them lying around.
The Gemara says that a woman who walks over a fingernail can lose her baby. I once heard a wonderful P’shat that it probably means that if she steps on it she might think she was just bitten by a scorpion and the fear/trauma will cause her to miscarry. But we assume that it’s a Kabbalistic Inyan and therefore you should never leave them lying around, even though scorpions are not present around us nowadays in most places.
biting nails can be problematic because if its a habit it can be hard to avoid on shabbos/yom tov
Whst hsppens if a person throws their bitten/cut nails on the floor where pregnant women don’t walk?(i.e. behind a wall)
Saysme: If it’s actually done without thought or realizing it then one would be a Misasek and it would be Muttar. I’ve been saying this for years then I was very happy when I saw that R’ Zilberstein in Chashukei Chemed on Shabbos (at the very end, I think) agrees.
Putting yourself in a situation where it’s Misasek? People have all sorts of idiosyncrocies and compulsions, as well as unconscious habits. That’s what the Halachic category of Misasek is. If not biting your nails then someone will have a different one. It’s very different than making a conscious choice to put yourself in an Oneis on Shabbos.
On a slightly related note, I once heard someone say that he avoids doing a certain action on weekdays so that he won’t do it on Shabbos. I said, “That’s very nice, but I think you’ve missed the point of what Shabbos is.” Have you ever thought that it’s weird that we have no G’zeiros Chol Atu Shabbos? It’s because (in my opinion) when you turn weekdays into Shabbos, you defeat the purpose of Shabbos.
I hear, was asking for a source. I seem to remember a machlokes if there’s any room/need for teshuva for a misasek. Gotta check it up.
It’s not weird that there are no such gezeiros, life couldn’t function. And what would be with the mitzvah of “Sheshes yomim ta’avod” (lashon tzi’vui) ?
I swallow them. They are probably healthy. And they taste like whatever I hade for my most recent meal, because I eat with my hands.
If its a bad habit, it can be done consciously too. Having a jagged nail or hangnail-thats not painful or a chatzitza, etc- can be much harder for someone with the habit to avoid, knowing even they shouldn’t.
I had this problem when I was younger. I was told by R’ Yitzchok Berkowitz that there is a problem with biting nails because of the tumah. What do we wash negel vasser for in the mornings? “Negel” means nails. The ruach ra’ah in the mornings settles on the fingertips, particularly the nails. That’s why you wash your hands. When you cut the nails off (either with scissors or your teeth), then there is a certain tumah that is with them. Just like you should wash negel vasser after a hair cut, you should also wash negel vasser after cutting your nails.
Sam2, I like your point about assuring things during the week just because you might do it on Shabbos as missing the point of making Shabbos different. We’re so much on autopilot that we can’t even force ourselves to be conscious on Shabbos and refrain from doing the issurim. Maybe we should try learning a little hilchos Shabbos on Shabbos to raise our awareness of the halachos.
Nechomah: That’s interesting and a true point. If one would bite their nails then they would have to wash their hands afterwards just life any time you cut your nails or get a haircut. That doesn’t mean you can’t bite them. It just means that anytime you actually bite a piece off you would need to wash your hands.
Yes Sam, but wouldn’t the nails you cut off now have some sort of tumah that you’re ingesting into your body? I think that was R’ Berkowitz’s point.
Sam, if its a unconcious habit, you’re probably not going to even remember to wash your hands every time you do it. Another reason not to.
Sam2- I have a question on your pshat.
The halacha is that the nails only pose a threat when a pregnant women steps on them in the place where they landed. If a nail falls on the floor and you sweep it to the side, they no longer have a koach to be mazek. This is based on a Gemara.
My understanding is that this is one of those type of things which we dont understand.
Yungerman: That’s one of the reasons I don’t think that P’shat is the only reason for it, though I’m sure it plays some part of it. It makes too much sense not to.
Nechomah: I don’t think the point is that the nails are Tamei (and just to use proper terms, we’re not quite talking about Tumah here). I think the point is that whenever you remove something from your body there is a Ruach Ra’ah that rests on your hands that must be removed. Besides, I have a feeling (can’t source it though) that this Ruach Ra’ah only comes when you actually intentionally cut all (or most) of your nails. We don’t see anywhere where you would have to wash your hands after pulling off a hanging nail or plucking out one hair (or when you get a cut; you have to wash your hands after bloodletting/giving blood).
Yungerman: I’m not so sure that we hold like the fact that you only have to worry about them where they first land anyway. There is a story in Mo’ed Kattan about how an Amora (I think Shmuel) threw his nails at his brother-in-law or some similar relative. Rashi there points out that he must have gathered them afterwards because the Gemara elsewhere says that one who throws his fingernails is a Rasha (because of the pregnant woman Sakanah). Now, Shmuel had already gathered them up to throw them at his relative. So presumably the problem is not just where they first land. (Also, it could still fit with the P’shat because if they get kicked/bounced/rolled around they will become duller and won’t be as sharp of an object to step on.)
Cut nails should be disposed of. Some say wrapped in the garbage is fine, others say they should be flushed.
As to a pregnant woman having a miscarriage if she steps on a cut nail is a “superstition” of sorts. Similar to stunting the growth of a child one steps over.
Most do hold that one should wash nitilas yadaim after cutting your nails.
Heimish Mom: It is NOT a superstition c’v. The Gemorah itself says so.
Sam2- If I recall that gemora correctly, it says there was an Amora that bit his nails in bais medrash and threw them on the floor. The Gemara says ??? ???? ??? . Biting nails is not disgusting, nails are only mazik in the place where they land and I forget the third.
hershi: The word superstition has a pejorative connotation, but in actuality just means “the belief in supernatural causality.” It doesn’t mean the belief is necessarily unfounded. The emphasis is on the fact that you believe it without understanding it, which over the centuries devolved into a bad thing.
LBJ, I think the Vilna Gaon says that touching hafrashas af does not require washing hands, but touching hafrashas af does.
Sam, thanks for correcting my terminology, but I still think there was more to it for my sake than just the concern about the pieces going on the floor or washing my hands, since he could have just told me to be cautious about those two inyanim. While it was many years ago that I spoke to him about this, I still recall the meeting and I felt that it was something that was akin to timtum halev if I ingested them (the pieces are so small, do you really throw them all out afterwards?).
“On a slightly related note, I once heard someone say that he avoids doing a certain action on weekdays so that he won’t do it on Shabbos. I said, “That’s very nice, but I think you’ve missed the point of what Shabbos is.” Have you ever thought that it’s weird that we have no G’zeiros Chol Atu Shabbos? It’s because (in my opinion) when you turn weekdays into Shabbos, you defeat the purpose of Shabbos.”
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