Order
Order of Hands, Fingers
12. Left hand first. When cutting nails, one should first cut the nails on his left hand, then his right (כל בו, רמ''א סי' ר''ס, שו''ע הרב ).
13. Order of fingers on the left hand. One should not cut his fingernails consecutively in the order of his fingers, as some are concerned this is a sakana or can cause one to forget his learning (שו''ע הרב ). He should skip fingers in the order דבהג"א [each finger has a letter, א for the thumb through ה for the pinkie], i.e., he should start on the left hand with the ring finger [ד ]; then the index finger [ב ]; the pinkie [ה ]; the middle finger [ג ]; and the thumb [א ].
14. Right hand. Next, he should cut the fingernails on the right hand in the order בדאג"ה , i.e., he should start with the index finger [ב ]; then the ring finger [ד]; the thumb [א]; the middle finger [ג]; and the pinkie [ה ] (רמ''א שם ).
15. Although some say one does not need to be careful to skip fingers (ראשונים, האריז''ל ), the consensus of the Acharonim is that one should l’chatchila be careful about this (מג''א, שו''ע הרב, מ''ב ).
16. Toenails. Some say there is no need to skip when cutting toenails, and they may be cut consecutively (קצוה''ש סי' ע''ג הע' ז', דינים והנהגות לחוז''א פ''ט אות ב'). However, from the words of other poskim, it seems that one should also be careful about this with toenails (משמעות הרמ''א בדרכי משה, סתימת מ''ב ), especially because there is no reason given to differentiate between them.
