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For any practical shailos, consult your posek. However, for a general overview of this topic, we recommend Halachipedia’s Halachos of Lefties as a starting point.

• We believe that there is an overrepresentation of left-handed people (“lefties”) among our membership. According to internal polls,* 22.9% are left-handed relative to approximately 10% of the general population.

• In an effort to be intersectional and accommodate our lefty-lefty population, we have added this page as a resource.

• Lulav: Ashkenazi lefties hold the lulav in their left (dominant) hand, Sephardic lefties hold the lulav in their right hand like everyone else.

• As a general principle, per Ashkenazi practice, the default direction to lean for tachanun is on the left forearm, but this can be overridden if wearing tefillin on the arm one is leaning. For right-handed people, this means leaning on the right side during Shacharit since tefillin are worn on the left arm.

  • Howerver, since lefties lay tefillin on their right arm (Shulchan Aruch OC 27:6), they typically lean left during Shacharit.

  • This means that lefty-lefties always lean left!

• Everyone (lefty, righty, or ambidexterous) leans to the left at the Seder!

• More halachos forthcoming!

*N=35, conducted via WhatsApp on Thursday, October 1 (chol hamoed sukkos) between 5:35am-6:54pm UTC, question text: “I am - Left-handed, - Right-handed, - Use both hands equally” with follow-up “*answer according to what is true most of the year, hamevin yavin 😀”