Netilas Yadayim - Procedure

QUESTION: What is the best procedure for netilas yadayim before eating bread?

ANSWER: One should pick up the cup of water with your right hand and pass it to your left hand. Then, one should pour at least one revi’is (about four ounces), all at once, on the right hand, allowing water to flow over one’s entire hand. Both the front and back and between the fingers should be covered in water—this can be done by simply rotating one’s hand. If one has a plentiful amount of water, the Mishnah Berurah writes that one should ideally pour a second time on the right hand (162:21). However, this second pouring does not need to be a revi’is. It only needs to be enough to wash away the droplets of water that remain on your hand from the first washing. The cup should then be transferred to one’s right hand and this procedure should be repeated for the left hand.

One should then lift one’s hands in the air (as is alluded to in the verse “se’u yedeichem kodesh”—lift your hands in holiness—Tehillim 134) and rub them together, a process called shifshuf (Shulchan Aruch 162:2), a practice Rav Belsky zt”l felt is too often overlooked (Shulchan Halevi, chapter 3:1b). The Pri Megadim (162:4) writes that one of the purposes of shifshuf is to ensure that water reaches every area on your fingers and hand, just in case any part was missed. Although this water will not be coming directly from a kli to these areas, since the water originally came onto the hands from a kli, it can now be maneuvered to these missing areas by one’s hands.

One should then recite the blessing al netilas yadayim, and then dry your hands (Mishnah Berurah 158:42).

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The Gerald & Karin Feldhamer OU Kosher Halacha Yomis is dedicated to the memory of Rav Yisroel Belsky, zt"l, who served as halachic consultant for OU Kosher for more than 28 years; many of the responses in Halacha Yomis are based on the rulings of Rabbi Belsky. Subscribe to the Halacha Yomis daily email here.