[Avodah] [Areivim] netilat yadayim

[Micha Berger]

On Fri, Jan 13, 2012 at 02:25:14AM -0500, Zev Sero wrote:
> What a wonderful story, but I wonder about the halacha here.  Isn't it
> an explicit halacha that soldiers in camp in wartime are exempt from
> netilat yadayim for meals? ...                Further, in such a situation,
> even if water is plentiful and one chooses to wash anyway, wouldn't the
> bracha be levatalah?

Perhaps this is part of the general Ashk/Seph debate about birkhas
hamitzvah. Ashkenazim, with the exception of some chassidic groups,
do make a birkhas hamitzvah when performing one as an einu metzuveh
be'oseh. Examples are a woman performing a MASZG or minhagim (lighting
a Chanukah menorah in shul or half-Hallel).

Here too, the chayil is an eino metzuveh ve'oseh. Judging from who he's
asking, the sho'el is likely Ashkenazi. So, I would think he does make
a berakhah anyway.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Man is a drop of intellect drowning in a sea
micha at aishdas.org        of instincts.
http://www.aishdas.org                         - Rav Yisrael Salanter
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