Maybe it comes from here

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With God’s help, Monday, in the portion “Every man shall revere his mother and his father,” 5781

Kissing the hand is an expression of respect shown by a person toward those greater than he is. As Isaac says to his son when he brings him delicacies: “Please come close and kiss me, my son.” And in Avodah Zarah 17a: “Ulla would kiss his sisters’ hands,” and Rashi explains: “…it is the way of people that, as soon as he leaves the synagogue, he immediately kisses his father, his mother, and someone greater than he is, on the knee or on the palms of his hands [out of respect].”

Ibn Ezra as well explains placing one’s hand under the king’s hand, or kissing it, as ways of expressing honor and submission toward him. Thus he writes in his commentary on the verse, “Kiss the son, lest he be angry” (Psalms 2:12): “And it is the custom of nations to place their hands under the hand of the king, as Solomon’s brothers did (I Chronicles 29:24), or for a servant to place his hand under his master’s thigh, or to kiss the king. And this custom exists to this day in the land of India.”

Rabbi Elijah Capsali of Crete testifies that the Ashkenazim in Padua in the 15th century practiced that “on every Sabbath eve and festival eve, after the evening prayer, the sons would go to their fathers and prostrate themselves before them, kneel on their knees, and kiss the palms of their hands, and their fathers would place their hands on their heads and bless them” (quoted in Prof. Meir Benayahu’s book, “Rabbi Elijah Capsali of Candia — Rabbi, Leader, and Historian,” Tel Aviv 1983, p. 161).

To the Ashkenazi custom of kissing the father’s hand on Sabbath night, Rabbi Isaac Luria (the Ari) added his own practice of kissing his mother’s hand on Sabbath night. From the Ari the custom spread throughout all the communities of the Jewish people. See the responsum on the matter of “kissing one’s father and mother’s hands on Sabbath night” (on the site Halakha Yomit).

As a source for the custom, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef brings there the practice of Ulla (Avodah Zarah 17a according to Rashi), and he also cites in the name of the Zohar that the students of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai would kiss his hands.

As for the Ashkenazim, it is written there that nowadays they do not practice kissing the hands of parents or sages, but there is testimony from communities in Hungary that they did practice kissing their parents’ hands on Sabbath night.

Thus Dr. Nitza Kalish describes the custom of the Jews of Galanta: “In the homes too, the father would bless the children before Kiddush with the blessing of the children. Everyone would stand in line, approach Father one after another, receive a blessing from him, and kiss his hands” (“Restoring the Soul — The Kalish Family, Galanta,” Jerusalem 2014, p. 78).

And so my brother-in-law, Attorney Mr. Moshe Ben-David from Kochav HaShahar, told me that this was the practice in his parents’ home. His father, Mr. Isaac of blessed memory, was from the city of Desh in Transylvania, and he was well-versed in the customs of the community, to the point that the Rebbe of Desh, who rebuilt the Hasidic group after the Holocaust, would ask him about the customs of the community.

Best regards, Yaron Fischl Ordner

It is possible that the custom of shaking hands developed from the custom described by Ibn Ezra above (paragraph 2), of placing one’s hand under the king’s hand as a sign of submission, as Solomon’s brothers did, as described in I Chronicles 29:24: “And also all the sons of King David gave their hand under Solomon the king.”

The painter Hermann Struck claimed that the custom of shaking hands was the practice of robbers, to show that they had no weapon in their hand, and therefore he would refuse to shake the hand of anyone who extended one to him (as described by Yonah Cohen in his book “Gershom from Nachalat Shimon”). I assume that Struck’s avoidance of handshaking was due to his being observant, and by arguing that shaking hands was a robbers’ custom he elegantly avoided the need to shake hands with women.

Best regards,

As for kissing the pope’s hand (to which “Copenhagen” referred), it is worth noting that Dr. Benjamin Ze’ev Herzl, during his visit with the pope in which he sought to persuade him to support a Jewish state, refrained from kneeling and kissing the pope’s hand, and settled for a handshake while maintaining an upright posture (see the relevant Wikipedia entry).

Mario Kahane, in his article “On the Kiss — Kisses Across Cultures,” brings examples from many cultures in which kissing the hand symbolizes respect and acceptance of authority. In Italy and Spain people kiss a priest’s hands, and some kiss the hand of the head of the family. So too in China and Japan, in certain regions people kiss the hand or the hem of the garment of a distinguished person. In India, as a sign of respect, people kiss the soles of the feet or the ground on which the honored person stands. In the Muslim world, kings, princes, and sheikhs are honored by kissing their hand or their left shoulder.

Best regards,