Handwashing in Judaism

Main article: Ritual washing in Judaism

A silver cup used for hand-washing

Jewish law today prescribes several kinds of hand washing (Template:Lang-he, n'tillat yadayim):

• Washing of hands when one wakes from his sleep (known in Yiddish as נעגל וואַסער, negel vasser), poured out from a vessel three times, intermittently, over each hand. This washing is said to remove an evil spirit from one's fingers.
• Washing of hands when one touches his privy parts, or the sweat from his body (excluding his face), or when one crops his fingernails
• Washing of hands when one leaves the latrine, lavatory or bathhouse
• Washing of hands when one leaves a cemetery
• Washing of hands before breaking bread served in one's supper, and only bread made from one of the five chief grains (wheat, cultivated barley, spelt, wild barley, and oats)
• Washing of hands after eating a meal where the salt of Sodom was served at that table
• Washing of hands (practised by the Cohenim, or priests, of some communities) prior to going up to bless the people, as prescribed in the Sacerdotal Blessing (Heb. ברכת כהנים).
• Washing of hands when, prior to eating, one dips a morsel of food within a liquid (e.g. water, honey, oil, etc.) which then clings to that morsel, with the one exception of fruits, seeing that they do not require hand washing.

In two of these hand washings, water is poured out over one's hands with the aid of a vessel, viz., 1) whenever one wakes from his sleep, and 2) before eating bread. These hand washings are nearly always accompanied with a special blessing prior to concluding the actual act of washing (see infra). Although the minimal quantity of water needed to fulfill one's religious duty is 1/4 of a log (a liquid measure of capacity equal to the bulk or volume of one and half medium-sized eggs), and must be sufficient to cover at least the middle joints of one's fingers, water poured out in excess of this amount is considered praiseworthy in Jewish law. The hand washing made when one leaves the lavatory or latrine, or when one touches his privy parts, or sweat, may be done simply with running tap water (faucet).

The most developed and, perhaps, important of these washings is the washing of hands before eating bread. Such washing of hands is called in Hebrew, netilat yadayim, meaning "the lifting up of the hands." It is looked upon with such rigidity, that those who willfully neglect its practice are said to make themselves liable to excommunication, and bring upon themselves a state of scarcity, and are quickly taken out of the world.

Development of Jewish Ritual

1890 illustration of laver in the Temple

Ten brazen lavers are said to have served the priests in the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem, their function being merely for cleansing the hands and feet before they commenced their service. The use of these lavers did not pertain to the general public, nor to their eating foods with washed hands.

The Mishnah (Tractate Yadayim) is the first to describe the ritual of hand washing outside of the Temple.

The Babylonian Talmud explains that King Solomon enacted hand washing as a safeguard, before one comes to consume of animal sacrifices in the Temple. This enactment was restricted only to washing of hands immediately prior to eating those meat offerings of sacrificial animals (hallowed things) offered in the Temple.

Enactment Concerning the Priests

Many years later, Hillel and Shammai followed in the footsteps of King Solomon and, in the year circa 32 BCE, these two sages made a decree concerning the priests of Aaron's lineage, viz., that their hands suffer a mandatory state of uncleanness which would disqualify their eating foods separated unto them as an offering (Heb. terumah) until those very same hands were first washed. The Palestinian Talmud says they had actually renewed what was formerly practised in Israel since the time of Moses, but which had been forgotten by the people. That is to say, they made it a renewed enactment that the priests (i.e. all descendants of Aaron, the first High Priest of God) should be required henceforth, by an edict, to wash their hands before touching bread or other foods which were given unto them as a "heave-offering" (terumah). This enactment was made in order to instruct priests (Heb. Cohenim) about the necessity of washing their hands after immersing their bodies in a ritual bath or ablution, since the Law of Moses enjoins the priests to eat their consecrated foods in a state of ritual purity. Bodily purity can only be attained by, both, immersing themselves in a ritual bath (Heb. mikveh) as well as by washing their hands before consuming of such foods. According to the Talmud, the Sages of Israel have based this teaching upon a verse in Leviticus 15:11: "And anyone who is touched by a man suffering from a running issue (Heb. zav), while he (the man suffering from the running issue) has not rinsed his hands in water, […shall be unclean]." The same verse is explained by Rava: "What is the meaning of that which is written, 'while he has not rinsed his hands in water?' Behold! Had he rinsed [his hands], would he be ritually clean?! Behold! He [still] requires an immersion [in a ritual bath]!! Rather, this is its meaning. After [he had immersed himself], so long as he has not yet rinsed [his hands], he is [still] unclean!"

Delinquent Priests

The Jewish priests of Aaron's lineage (Heb. Cohenim) during the days of Hillel and Shammai were delinquent about washing their hands after coming up from a ritual bath or ablution, and therefore, their bodies were still considered defiled. They would then go off and eat their bread-offerings (Heb. terumah) while thinking they were ritually clean, when in actuality they were not. Therefore, it became an edict that all priests, before touching any bread-offering, must first wash their hands. This was done so as to instruct them in the proper laws of ritual cleanness. The Torah (Law of Moses) prescribes the penalty of death for priests who eat their bread-offering in a state of uncleanness. Therefore, the enactment renewed by Hillel and Shammai was to prevent their inadvertently being made liable to death by a likely defilement which clings to their hands, and that same defilement being conveyed to foods eaten by them.

Pharisaic Traditions

It is unclear what sort of regulations were already in place during the late Second Temple period. A reference to hand washing is made in the Christian New Testament, when Jesus was asked by the Pharisees why his disciples do not wash their hands prior to their eating bread. Any man who proclaimed to have been Israel's Messiah would have been expected to follow the strictest laws of the Jewish nation, one of which was to eat his common food in a state of ritual purity, and to associate himself with only those who did likewise. Conversely, since there were two Pharisaic schools of thought prevalent in Judaea at that time, the School of Shammai and the School of Hillel, while the followers of Shammai were generally seen as the more stringent in their practices, it can be assumed that they had made additional regulations related to hand washing before touching unconsecrated bread, because of a suspected uncleanness clinging to those hands and the likelihood of such bread being prepared alongside consecrated foods which require ritual purity. Moreover, it may have only been a stringent practice observed by the more zealous at the time, or else the very necessity of having to wash hands for common bread was a matter held in dispute by the Sages of Israel.

Others have explained hand washing as being merely for the sake of bodily cleanliness which, in turn, leads to ritual purity. Rabbi Hiyya the Great had commanded Rav (Abba Aricha) by saying: "If you are able to eat all throughout the year non-consecrated foods in a state of ritual purity, then eat! But if not, at least eat seven days out of the year [in such a state of ritual purity]." On account of these words, Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair would say: "...Bodily cleanliness leads to ritual purity."

Defilement Decreed Over Hands

In subsequent years, according to the Babylonian Talmud, additional measures were necessary in order to ensure that all priests would comply by the old enactment made by Hillel and Shammai (i.e. to wash their hands prior to touching bread-offerings, and to burn all bread-offerings touched by unwashed hands) – for many of the priests simply did not adhere to the enactment made by Hillel and Shammai. During the latter part of the 1st century CE, when disputes grew between the schools of Shammai and Hillel, the disciples of both schools gathered themselves together in the upper storeyed room of Hananiah's house (i.e. Hananiah, the son of Hizkiah, the son of Guron, and party – a man contemporary with Rabbi Yehoshua ben Hananiah who survived the destruction of the second Temple in 68 CE), and voted upon measures to ensure that the priests throughout Israel would adhere to that old enactment, seeing that many priests would continue to eat their bread-offering (Heb. terumah) without washing their hands. Wherefore, in order to ensure that all priests (Heb. Cohenim) will comply and wash their hands, the Rabbis and scholars who were gathered together in that upper-storeyed room (on the day when they made eighteen new enactments) cleverly devised a method, whereby, they would adhere to the practice. They enacted a law and ordinance for all times, that all Jews - regardless of whether or not they were of the sacerdotal family (priests of Aaron's lineage), or Levites, or Israelites, or proselytes - be required to wash their hands before eating bread, even if that bread to be eaten was only ordinary and common bread. According to the Babylonian Talmud, the underlying motive for this new enactment was because hands were considered "fidgety," and apt to touch things. "Hence, unless their owner has taken care that they should not touch a ritually unclean object after he washed them, they are treated as unclean." The same Rabbis and scholars also ascribed a mandatory grade of uncleanness to all men's hands, capable of rendering the "heave-offering" (terumah) invalid for consumption. Whence it is, today, Jews have this rule of practice amongst them. By virtue of the fact that all Jewish men and women are required to wash their hands directly before eating bread, so too, the delinquent priests will now follow suit and wash their hands before eating bread-offerings, and be guarded thereby from culpability resulting from his or their defilement. The Palestinian Talmud, speaking more candidly about this subject, says explicitly: "Did they not decree [defilement] over the hands in order that he (i.e. the priest) might separate himself from the terumah? By saying to a man that his hands suffer a second-grade uncleanness, even so does he (the priest) separate himself from the terumah." Unwashed hands which suffer a second-grade uncleanness were capable of rendering invalid the bread-offering given to the priests. The Sages of Israel have coined a name for this hand washing which is customarily made by all religious Jews today before eating bread at a table. It is called in the Hebrew language, serach terumah, (סרך תרומה) meaning, "washing introduced for the sake of uniformity with terumah."

The one exception to this rule is when a man or a party of men are encamped while on a journey, and there is no water to be found in the vicinity of their camp, in which case the Sages of Israel have exempted them from washing their hands prior to breaking bread.

Grades of Uncleanness

The Pentateuch alludes to different grades of uncleanness, or defilement, to persons who come in contact with certain impurities (e.g. one of the eight dead vermin mentioned in Leviticus 11:29-30; seminal discharge; blood of menstruate women; carrion &c.). The Sages of Israel have described the aforementioned sources of uncleanness as “fathers of uncleanness,” capable of conveying a first-grade uncleanness to people, or to vessels, or to foods and liquids that touch them or that carry them. They, in turn, pass on uncleanness at a further remove to foods or to clothing touched by them. In the case of foods and clothing, they become second-grade uncleanness. By a rabbinic decree, all hands automatically suffer a second-grade uncleanness until washed. Likewise, hands that were not kept in readiness after washing and which touched a first-grade uncleanness, those hands alone become defiled unto the "pereq" (middle-joints of fingers), while the rest of his body remains ritually clean. All that is needed, therefore, is for him to wash his hands in water, and he removes thereby all uncleanness.

Boy in camp rubs his hands after washing them

Benediction Said Before Washing

A blessing is prescribed over hand washing before eating bread and when one wakes up from his sleep in the morning. Although Maimonides prescribes saying the blessing before one actually pours water over his hands, the custom has developed in Israel to cite the blessing only after he has poured water over his hands and has rubbed them together, while they are raised in the air to the height of his chin, prior to his drying them with a towel. The blessing is cited in the following manner: "Blessed are you, O Lord, King of the Universe, who has sanctified us through your commandments and has commanded us concerning the washing of hands" (Hebrew: בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה הָ׳ אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו וְצִוָּנוּ עַל נְטִילַת יָדָיִם ). Immediately following the recital of the blessing, it is incumbent to dry those hands with a towel &c.

Other methods have developed in Israel over which hand one is to begin with when pouring water over them. The general custom in the morning (based on a kabbalistic teaching) is to take-up the vessel in one's right hand, pass the vessel into his left hand, and only then begin to pour out water from that vessel over his right hand. Then he reverses the order by taking-up the vessel in his right hand and pouring out water from that vessel over his left hand. This process is repeated altogether three times for each hand, with intermittent changing of hands after each pouring. When this is accomplished, he then takes the vessel and pours out water over both hands, simultaneously, after which he rubs his hands together and then lifts them to make the blessing over his hands, before he wipes them dry.

In the hand washing made for eating bread, the custom differs insofar that one takes-up the vessel in his right hand and begins by pouring out water in abundance over his left hand. He then takes-up the vessel in his left hand and pours out water in abundance over his right hand. In this case (for eating bread), it is not necessary to wash the hands three times, intermittently, as is customarily done in the morning. Rather, one or two pours for each hand are sufficient.

External links

• [1]: The Laws Upon Awakening in the Morning (Chabad)
• [2]: Hand Washing, by Rabbi Louis Jacobs
• [3]: A Short History of Jewish Handwashing