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Nails and OCD

שו”תCategory: HalachaNails and OCD
asked 11 months ago

Hello Rabbi,
 
The ban on throwing away nails and the fear that a pregnant woman will miscarry because of it weighs heavily on my soul because of my disorder (I have feelings of excessive responsibility and an inability to tolerate ambiguity). I never throw nails of course, not even small pieces, only in the toilet, but I constantly have a fear that it will fall, or that I will bite or clip and a small piece will fall and I will not find it (as happened now in my room, and my sister is pregnant and she does not come into my room that much, but whatever trouble comes; this is why I am stressed and want to ask you). It is very burdensome and I am tired of thinking about whether a woman can come here and whether she will miscarry because of me. To what extent do you think there is any truth in the ban because of this and how much caution is worth taking in your opinion.


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מיכי Staff answered 11 months ago
Although it appears in the Gemara, in my opinion there is no real basis for it. Either superstition or fear that it will disgust the woman giving birth. It is not for nothing that it was not brought up in the Rambam and Shulchan Arutz Sheva. In my opinion, it should simply be ignored. See a review here: https://www.yeshiva.org.il/ask/87221

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יגאל replied 11 months ago

I will add and tell a great story, that when my wife was pregnant, I made sure that she stepped on a nail that I had trimmed that never moved (as the Gemara commands), and yet, praise be to God, she did not miscarry and the child was born healthy and intact.

מיכי Staff replied 11 months ago

Blessing the one who repays for the miracle?

יציל replied 11 months ago

If you hadn't stepped on the nail, you would have turned out to be the Rabbi Akiva Eiger of our generation. There would have been a miscarriage in spirituality.

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