Vebbe Rebbe

Vebbe Rebbe - Netilat Yadayim on clean hands

Q:  With concern about “swine flu” so high, many would consider it hygienically prudent to wash their hands with soap and water before doing netilat yadayim [N"Y] with a jointly used washing cup and eating. Is it possible to do N"Y with a b’racha when you know that your hands are clean already? If one can, should he dry his hands before doing N"Y?

A:  The Shulchan Aruch (Orach Chayim 165:1) deals with the problem of one who has just left the bathroom and is ready to eat. If he does N"Y once for both needs, he will have a problem of whether he should first make the b’racha of Asher Yatzar for doing his needs, or first make the b’racha on the N"Y followed by Hamotzi and only afterward recite Asher Yatzar. Either way, there are issues of hefsek (improper break) between the time the second b’racha became necessary and when it was recited. Therefore, the Shulchan Aruch says to wash two times, the first to be followed by ASHER YATZAR, and the second one by AL NETILAT YADAYIM. So we see that the fact that the hands were just washed does not preclude doing another formal washing for eating bread.
Does that mean that a second N"Y is a mitzva that requires a b’racha even if it adds nothing practical, except that now it is done for a bread meal? That seems to be the subject of a machloket. The Beit Yosef (OC 158) understands from Tosafot’s statement (Pesachim 116b) regarding the two washings that we do on Seder night that if one does a lower level obligation N"Y for non-breads dipped in liquids and then needs to do one for bread, the latter N"Y is a full obligation. However, the Darkei Moshe (as the author rules in the Rama, OC 158:7) says that this is so only when a while passed in between washings so that we can assume that he took his mind off his hands. Otherwise, one would not make a b’racha on the second N"Y.
Similarly, in the former context, the Mishna B’rura (165:2) cites Acharonim that the first washing done to enable reciting Asher Yatzar should be a washing of cleanliness, not one of a valid halachic nature. One way to do this is to not use a washing cup (and preferably not use the first spurt of water from the faucet - see Tzitz Eliezer VIII 7), which is a requirement for N"Y. If one touched a covered part of the body or some other “dirty” thing that makes N"Y necessary between the washings, then N"Y would be necessary (I imagine that this would undo much of the hygienic gains you want to accomplish).
This leaves the matter of whether one should dry his hands between the hygienic cleaning and the N"Y. There is a similar case that is discussed by the poskim. The Shulchan Aruch (OC 162:2) talks about pouring some of the N"Y water on the hands to remove dirt prior to the main netila. The Bi’ur Halacha (ad loc.) says that there is no mention of a need to dry the hands after doing this, which could be necessary if we said that the water becomes tamei (impure) in the process and would ruin the netila. He says that this is either because this pre-washing is part of the N"Y process, whereby water can become tamei and be removed by the second washing, or, to the contrary, that other than regarding poorly executed netila, water that gets on the hands is not considered tamei (based on the Magen Avraham 162:10). While the Yalkut Yosef (OC 159:1) agrees with this approach, there are significant poskim, both Ashkenazi and Sephardi, who disagree (Ben Ish Chai, Shemini 11; Chazon Ish 24:20; K’tzot HaShulchan 33:4). They say that in that case, one should dry the hands from the questionable water before commencing the real N"Y. Without getting into the intricacies, it would seem that our case is more lenient than the one these poskim discuss, and thus it would seem that drying the hands that were washed for hygienic reasons is not necessary.
[Ed. note: We called the Vebbe Rebbe to ask about the permissibility of washing with soap & water for hygienic purposes AFTER a ritual N"Y. Would this constitute a hefsek or be otherwise problematic. We’‘ll share his answer with you.]

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