[Avodah] What is the basis of the requirement to wash ones hands upon awakening

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, Sep 05, 2018 at 07:15:43PM +0000, Professor L. Levine via Avodah wrote:
: From yesterday's OU Kosher Halacha Yomis
:> Q. What is the basis of the requirement to wash ones hands upon awakening
...
: 1. According to Rosh, one must wash his hands prior to davening...
: 2. Rashba maintains that ...                              like the
: Kohen of old in the Bais Hamikdash who sanctifies himself by washing
: his hands before performing the avodah (Mishnah Berurah ibid.).

1 & 2 -- straight halakhah, al pi nigleh, does not give an urgency
to washing immediately upon waking up. Nor does it motivate using any
special washing patterns. The macholqes is that the Rosh holds neigl
vasr is the same din as the discussion about washing before tefillah,
whereas the Rashba holds those are two different chiyuvim.

In any case, it's a prep before mitzvah. Which is the role for seeking
taharah in general, again looking only at halakhah.

: 3. When one sleeps, a ru'ach ra'ah descends upon the body, and when he
: awakens, the ru'ach ra'ah remains on his hands, and is removed by the
: ritual of washing the hands three times (Bais Yosef O.C. 4 from Zohar
: and Mechaber 4:2 with Mishnah Berurah s.k. 8).

Al pi nistar, however, one has to wash as soon as one can, and as
metaphysics is involved we care about how you wash beyond just whether
it's koach gavra.

It is not an issue of taharah as prep for a mitzvah as much as tum'ah
is a state to avoid being in.

On Thu, Sep 06, 2018 at 04:46:06AM +0200, Ben Waxman via Avodah wrote:
: I was recently at a class where the rav discussed Rav Ovadiah's approach
: to kabballah. This question was an example that the rav gave: ROY tz"l
: felt that there is no requirement to wash your hands immediately, just
: do it before tefilla. In general ROY felt that one can be machmir to an
: opinion in the Zohar, but it isn't a requirement.

One of ROY's stronger tendencies was to reassert the SA's rulings as
standard Sepharadi (and if he had his way, even Ashkenazi Israeli)
pesaq, after the Chida and then the Ben Ish Hai added so many qabbalistic
rulings.

You will notice that in SA OC 4:2, the mechaber gives the Zohar's
explanation of ruach ra'ah and washing three times, but says nothing
about the time urgency. Nor about using a revi'is. In terms of time,
se'if 1 follows the Rosh -- conflating this netilas yadayim with that
before davening as one obligation. He isn't quite taking the Zohar's
position at full force either.

On Thu, Sep 13, 2018 at 08:30:47AM +0000, Rich, Joel via Avodah wrote:
: From R' Aviner:
: Netilat Yadayim by a guest
: Q: Should a guest avoid using large quantities of water for Netilat
: Yadayim, since it is at the host's expense?
: A: It is an insignificant amount of water and the host forgives the
: cost with all of his heart.

: (me-paradigm shift due to indoor plumbing? See shabbat 62b and S"A
: O"C 158:10)

Well, that is what R' Aviner impies -- why else would today's host
be more forgiving? Now it's the miniscule price of water, then it was
carrying buckets from the well or rainbarrel.

But perhaps also it's what I said above -- the qabbalah of tum'ah has
given neigl vasr more minhagim than straight halakhah required in the
SA's day.

GCT and :-)@@ii!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             "I hear, then I forget; I see, then I remember;
micha at aishdas.org        I do, then I understand." - Confucius
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