Levítico 15:11 Halajá: Shulchan Shel Arba & Sefer HaChinukh

Washing the hands, even though it is not explicitly commanded in the Torah, was given by our rabbis z”l the authority from a verse in the Torah, as it is written, “If one with a discharge, without having rinsed his hands in water, touches another person.”²⁶Lev. 15:11. In other words, this verse assumes that there was a requirement for the one with a discharge to wash his hands, but he didn’t do it. Rabbi Elazar ben Arakh said from here our rabbis z”l gave the command to wash hands the authority of the Torah. Washing hands, whether it’s before eating unconsecrated food or the terumah offering, is done up to where the wrist joint is connected to the palm of the hand.²⁷B. Hullin 106a-b, as understood by R. Bahya’s teacher, R. Shlomo ben Adret (according to Chavel). Chavel says he’s also following the R”IF (R. Yitzhak al-Fasi). Whatever applies to ritual immersion also applies to washing hands.²⁸Ibid., 106b. A person washing their hands in the morning can set the condition that it covers the whole day.²⁹Ibid., 106b-107a. Some have explained that this applies specifically to an exigent situation,³⁰E.g., Rabbenu Hananael, cited in R. Shlomo ben Adret in Torat Ha-Bayit 6.4 near the end.while others say even when it is not an exigent situation.³¹E.g., Maimonides and R. Shlomo ben Adret himself, ibid. One who washes his hands should not eat until he has wiped them dry, because anyone who eats without drying, it is as if he eats unclean bread, as it is said, “So shall the people of Israel eat their unclean bread.”³²Ez. 4:13; b.Sotah 4b. The word lahmam -“their bread”- is an acronym for lihot mayim – “wet with water.”³³I.e., “hands wet with water.” Ozar Geonim on b.Sotah 4b. Someone washing must raise their hands up, so that the water will not run back down below his wrists, and make his hands unclean all over again.³⁴B. Sotah 4b. Chavel says that this also means that one should only raise one’s hands after he’s dried them, so that the water above his wrists doesn’t drip back down afterwards and make his hands unclean again.

From the laws of the commandment is that which they, may their memory be blessed, said (Zevachim 20b) that one who goes out of the wall of the yard requires sanctification of the hands. And that if he sanctified his hands today, he needs to go back and sanctify [them] tomorrow — even if he did not sleep the whole night — as the hands are disqualified by [passing the night]. And that the commandment is ideally to wash the face, the hands and the feet in the morning; that it is a commandment to sanctify with the water of the basin (Zevachim 22b), and that if he sanctified [his hands] from one of the serving vessels, it is fit, ex post facto — but not from a non-sacred vessel, even ex post facto. And that they do not put their hands into [the water], but we pour it over their hands — and this is also the way of honor. But we do not require this regarding the [washing] of the hands for non-sacred foods — to [wash] from a vessel and not into it. As even though we require a vessel for the [washing] for the non-sacred, and the foundation of the matter is because we found [the requirement] for a vessel by [washing] for the sanctified — nonetheless it is with the sanctified that the [Torah] excluded it, but with the non-sacred, there is no exclusion. And even though the [washing] for the non-sacred is by extension of the priestly tithe — and as they, may their memory be blessed, said (Chullin 106a), “By extension of the priestly tithe” — still we do not make them the same in all of their laws. And [so] it is enough for us to obligate [washing] and a vessel for the non-sacred — by extension of the priestly tithe — and to leave the exclusion [derived from] “from it,” that is said about it in its place. And even about the priestly tithe itself, its [washing] of the hands is rabbinic; as by Torah writ, one only finds purity for the entire body at once, and that which they, may their memory be blessed, said (Chullin 106a) that the [washing] is [derived] from that which is written (Leviticus 15:11), “and he did not wash his hands, etc.” — that is just a memory device (asmakhta). And so is it written in the Sefer HaMitzvot of Ramban, may his memory be blessed. (See Sefer HaMitzvot, Shoresh 1, s.v. beteshuvah hashenit.)