[Avodah] [Areivim] netilat yadayim

[Simon Montagu]

On Tue, Jan 17, 2012 at 9:07 PM, Micha Berger <micha at aishdas.org> wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 17, 2012 at 01:30:36PM -0500, Zev Sero wrote:
>> On 17/01/2012 1:27 PM, Micha Berger wrote:
>>>   Judging from who he's asking, the sho'el is likely Ashkenazi.
>
>> R Mordechai Eliyahu?
>
> Well, so much for that one. For some reason, I had thought the protagonist
> was RYSElyashiv (may he have a refu'ah sheleimah beqarov).
>
> Yes, if the teshuvah was Sepharadi, your question about whether washing when
> one isn't mechuyav to is a berakhah levatalah makes a lot of sense.

I'm not sure what RME held here -- it's not a simple A/S divide
although these days we tend to think it is, chiefly because of ROY's
repeated emphatic psakim against women saying berachot on mitzvot when
not metzuvvot. OTC, it is fairly clear from the language especially in
ROY's earlier teshuvot that the minhag of neshei Sefarad was davka to
make these berachot, and there are Sephardic teshuvot that also say
that they should, beshem Tosafot.