Is Something Causing You to Forget?

Ask the Rov: Which activities cause forgetfulness and for whom?

By Rabbi Chaim Hillel Raskin – Rov of Anash in Petach Tikvah

Chazal mention certain foods and activities that put a person at risk of forgetting their Torah learning (kasheh leshich’cha), and there is a Torah prohibition to actively cause oneself to forget their learning.¹ Below are some examples:²

Foods: Eating bread that wasn’t fully baked,³ the heart of an animal or fowl,⁴ or food from which a pest ate (though it is questionable how large of a piece is problematic).⁵ Eating the very end of a loaf is said to be problematic, so a little piece is removed, though there is no clear source for this.⁶

Chazal say that one who eats olives regularly is prone to forget. How “regularly” isn’t clear, and it may only apply when eating a lot and without anything else. Moreover, the Gemara states that olive oil has a positive effect of restoring the memory of Torah learning. Thus, poskim record the custom to add olive oil to olives and then eat them together.⁷

Clothing: Putting one two garments at once (though not wearing a garment inside out, which is improper for other reasons),⁸ drying hands on one’s garment,⁹ sleeping with shoes on,¹⁰ and having clothes sewn while wearing them.¹¹

Practices: Leaving a sefer open in the middle of learning and walking away.¹² Reading protruding letters on a tombstone.¹³ For a man to walk between two women (who are within four amos of each other), though in a pressing situation, he can hold onto some object (some say his tzitzis) to form a separation.¹⁴

While some hold these avoidances are more pertinent for men and boys, who have an obligation not to forget the Torah they learned, others hold that women should also be careful, especially if pregnant, for the sake of the sons they may give birth to.¹⁵

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From The Weekly Farbrengen by Merkaz Anash