[Avodah] Hand Washing During a Drought

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

R' Micha Berger quoted someone from Areivim:

> I was at a wedding last night in Bnai Brak. The cup for washing cups was
> about twice the size we use in my shul. The person in front of me filled
> it up to the top for washing for the meal.
> Personally I was disturbed that in a time of drought that one uses
> many times the minimum shiur necessary.

Droughts vary in severity. I don't know the current situation in Eretz Yisrael, and perhaps the current drought is a severe one. But maybe it's not. I know that in my area, the government will issue different sorts of restrictions depending on how severe the water shortage is, and I don't know if I need to be stricter than the goverment is asking me to be. The impact which one individual (or even several) will make is so minimal that I really don't think it is worth it.

RMB himself added:

> I was once at a conference in Phoenix, and Rabbi Avi Fertig [CC-ed], one
> of the presenters was behind me on line for netilas yadayim. Like at
> many semachos, Shabbatonim and yemei iyun, the were pitchers of water at
> a "washing station" with a cup and bowl to wash our hands into. I
> noticed he washed his hands once each, rather than the usual twice on
> each side.

This is an entirely different issue than the drought. Like in the story he brought about Rav Yisrael Salanter, this is a chesed that we can easily do for the water carriers. I don't know how long ago I started washing only my fingers in these situations; it never occured to me to wash only once rather than twice, and I thank RMB for bringing this idea to my attention.

(I would point out that this is actually a double chesed,because when we use less water, this not only means that the water supply doesn't need to be replenished as much, but in addition, the used water doesn't need to be removed as much.)

Some might say that there's no real difference between the two cases, but I think there is. In the case of the drought, a few ounces is truly negligible, and we can't point to any specific people who will be affected by those specific ounces of water. But by the washing stations, a difference of just a few ounces can make a real difference in the workload of a specific staff person who will be able to do this job a minute later instead of right now.

Akiva Miller

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