A: There are many reasons for looking at the fingernails. One reason is that the fingernails are the last part of the body to be completed before a baby is born, as explained in the Talmud. We look at them in order to remind ourselves that the time has come to "give birth" to the service of G-d of the new week.

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The Inner Dimension web-site is presented by Gal Einai Institute of Israel Disseminating the teachings of the inner dimension of the Torah  in the Land of Israel and in the Diaspora as taken from the teachings of Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh