It’s the quietest time in my house. The anxious waiting between the time we wash our hands and the time we make Hamotzi. Everyone is hungry and the challah smells so good, it makes it really hard to wait…especially if there is honey involved.
Nevertheless, there is something about that quiet that focuses our attention as we come together after a long week. While we wonder if the head of the household could perhaps cut a little bit quicker, we are forced to pause at the beginning of the meal, with all the things we want to share on our minds, and wait quietly to connect the mitzvah of netilas yadayim with the lechem mishne.
Perhaps that is a hidden benefit of this mitzvah. In a world where the competition for our attention is so great and quiet moments are rare, we can borrow the calm and serenity, wink wink, from the ancillary silence after netilas yadayim and be present for those special moments in our lives.
