Handwashing
by Jordan Lee Wagner
Copyright © 1998 by Jordan Lee Wagner.   All rights reserved.

Like any mitzvah, the handwashing can be experienced as opportunity to relate to God by fulfilling a divine commandment. But the symbolism of handwashing also has an ethical component.

In Jewish mystical tradition, the transcendental is modelled as an unknowable root of reality, plus ten humanly contemplatable divine attributes. Everything in material reality is animated by a correspondence with one of these attributes.

Water (by virtue of its transparency) is associated with chesed (lovingkindness), best exemplified by good deeds done with no hope or possibility of reward. In a natural way, your hands represent what you do in this world. So by gathering the waters together in a vessel and then pouring them over our hands, we focus on marshalling chesed and charging ourselves with chesed.

We then recite the handwashing benediction, either individually while drying our hands, or all together when seated. Notice that the text of the handwashing benediction is "...al n'ti-lat ya-dai-yim" ("Blessed are You...who has commanded us concerning the elevation of hands.") and not "...concerning the washing of hands."

There are several differing customs for how to wash hands. The most common is to fill the vessel once, douse the right hand three times, then the left three times, using up all the water in the vessel. In some communities, each individual makes a point of beginning (but only beginning) the refilling process for the next person.

We are silent after handwashing. The handwashing is a preparation for eating the bread, and theoretically the two events are directly connected. Delays, distractions, or communication are minimized. In many families, children make a game of trying make others talk, in which case the talker washes again but without the benediction.