Question: Should we wash our hands in the bathroom with soap and water, or by pouring water from a vessel with handles three times, alternating hands? I have heard it said that a vessel is used only in the morning upon awakening. What are the rules pertaining to young children? What is the protocol if no vessel is available? Additionally, may we dry our hands via an electric dryer?
Harry Koenigsberg
(Via E-Mail)
Summary of our response up to this point: Last week, we mentioned that the Mechaber (Orach Chayyim 4:1) rules that upon arising in the morning, a person must wash his hands and recite the blessing “Al Netilat Yadayim.” One should take care to pour water over one’s hands three times in order to remove the evil spirit that rests upon them at night.
The Rashba explains that in the morning, our souls return to our bodies and we are created anew. That is why our Sages instituted the morning blessings – as a means of thanking G-d. The Zohar elaborates that at night, when we sleep, our holy souls ascend to heaven and an evil spirit descends on our bodies in their absence. When the souls return in the morning, the evil spirit leaves but lingers on our hands. The Zohar specifies that water must be poured on our hands from a vessel.
Last week, we quoted the Rishon LeTzion, HaRav Yitzhak Yosef, who tells us that one who sleeps with gloves can say blessings and study Torah in the morning without performing Netilat Yadayim since the evil spirit does not really rest on gloved hands. One should therefore perhaps wear gloves when going to sleep if no water is nearby. The Beit Yosef, though, writes that food left under the bed, even in a sealed iron container, is vulnerable to contamination by evil spirits. Surely gloves therefore cannot really prevent all contamination.
The Mishnah Berurah notes that one should alternate pouring water on the right and left hands, three times each. The Ma’aseh Rav suggests a total of four times: three to eliminate the evil spirit and a fourth to rinse away the water that has become defiled.
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The Magen Avraham, Taz, and Ba’er Heitev, based on Seder Hayom, write that pouring alternatingly three times on each hand is not a requirement. The Mishnah Berurah, however, writes the opposite – that it is a requirement.
The Mechaber (Orach Chayim 4:18) states that after the following activities one must wash one’s hands with water: “Getting out of bed, leaving the bathroom and/or the bathhouse, cutting one’s nails, removing one’s shoes [with one’s hands], touching one’s feet, and washing one’s hair. Some add: walking in a cemetery. Also included are touching a corpse, cleaning one’s vessels [since one might have found and touched a dead insect], engaging in marital relations, touching a louse, and touching [parts of] one’s body [that are usually covered].”
The Mechaber concludes: “One who has done any of these and has not washed his hands, if he is a scholar, he forgets what he has learned. If he is not a scholar, he goes out of his mind.” The Mishnah Berurah explains, quoting Eliyahu Rabbah, that a spirit of folly takes hold of him which, in turn, may cause him to sin. This is noted in Tractate Sotah (3a): Resh Lakish said, “A person does not commit a transgression unless a spirit of folly enters him.”
The Vilna Gaon (Be’ur HaGra ad loc.) lists the various Talmudic sources on which these rulings are based: “Sha’arei Teshuvah states that there are different reasons for washing one’s hands in the cases listed by the Mechaber. Some are due to the evil spirit resting on one’s hands, while others are mandated for the sake of cleanliness. Only upon arising from sleep is there a requirement to wash three times with water.”
Both the Sha’arei Teshuvah and the Mishnah Berurah cite sources that advocate strictness in the case of exiting from a bathroom, namely, washing one’s hands three times. (The Mishnah Berurah attributes this opinion to the Heichal Hakodesh.)
From a strict halachic point of view, the requirement to wash one’s hands by pouring water from a vessel is limited, according to most opinions, to the morning. However, there is much confusion in this area, particularly when it comes to a child’s chinuch. A child forms lasting impressions at a very young age, and that is why girsa de’yankuta – the knowledge acquired in childhood – is so important.
In his Mishneh Halachot (vol. 7:1), HaGaon Rabbi Menashe Klein answers the following question: From what age are small children required to perform netilat yadayim? He quotes the Pri Megadim (Orach Chayim 4:7), who is astonished by the fact that many parents are lax in this regard. He suggests that as soon as it is possible – even at a year old – parents should wash their children’s hands; it is not so much a question of whether they are halachically required to do so, but rather a matter of avoiding danger. (The Pri Megadim states in his general introduction, Peticha Kollelet 2:1, in regard to the mitzvah of sukkah, that for the purpose of chinuch, a child can even be younger than five.) The Chida points out that we wash the hands of very small children in order that they not ritually contaminate whatever they touch.
Rabbi Klein does not cite the Mishnah Berurah (op. cit. 4:2), who remarks that it is important that small children wash their hands in the morning because they touch food. Yet, he concludes that if a gentile touches food (such as in a restaurant) without washing his hands (ritually), it is of no concern since they are not defiled by the nocturnal evil spirit.
Rabbi Klein also quotes Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, who states in his Minchat Shelomo (4:2) that the spirit of uncleanliness seeks to rest on a vessel of holiness – i.e., the body which houses the soul. Since it is accepted, though, that the divine soul only establishes itself in a human being at his/her bar/bas mitzvah, people are lenient about allowing small children to touch food even without ritually washing their hands.
Finally, Rabbi Klein quotes the Lechem Mishneh’s commentary on the Rambam (Hilchot Shevitat Asor 3:2), which states that according to the Rambam we need not worry about evil spirits since they are not found among us nowadays.
Rabbi Klein concludes that we should teach young children to wash their hands as soon as they are able to comprehend the meaning of the mitzvah. Surely this position is in accord with the wise words of King Solomon in Mishlei (Proverbs 22:6), “Chanoch lana’ar al pi darko, gam ki yazkin lo yasur mimmenah – Train the youth according to his way so that even when he grows old, he will not swerve from it.” In order to endure, a structure needs a solid foundation.
(To be continued)