Halakhah su Esodo 30:19

There is a distinction between washing before (mayim rishonim) and washing after (mayim ahronim) a meal in many particulars. Mayim rishonim require a person’s effort, either another person to pour it over his hands, or he himself to pour it with one hand over the other. That is not the case with mayim ahronim, for which a person’s effort is not required to make it flow. Mayim rishonim require raising the hands in a way so as not to bring them back down and make them unclean. That is not the case with mayim ahronim, for which it is required to lower one’s hands downward to remove the dirt. Mayim rishonim require wiping dry, because the wiping dry is crucial to the point of the hand washing; mayim ahronim do not require wiping dry. ³⁵The point of the mayim rishonim is to purify one’s hands in order to eat with pure hands. If one doesn’t dry them, they can become unclean again (see the previous note), defeating the purpose of netilat yada’im before the meal. The point of the mayim ahronimhowever is merely to get the dirt off one’s hands after finishing eating, so it doesn’t really matter if they become ritually unclean once the meal is over. Mayim rishonim require that there be nothing on one’s hands separating them from the water, such as wax, pitch, flour, or feces on one’s fingernails. For mayim ahronim, it doesn’t matter whatsoever if there is or isn’t something separating one’s hands from the water. With mayim rishonim, the hands can be washed either with a vessel or over the ground. In other words, we need not worry if the water falls onto the vessel or onto the ground. With mayim ahronim, one only washes with a vessel, since the water has to fall into the vessel and not onto the ground. With mayim rishonim, if one has rubbed his hands together, he has to do netilat yada’im all over again; with mayim ahronim it is not necessary.³⁶Chavel: if one rubs his hands under the water, the water may have missed a spot, leaving it unclean. With mayim rishonim, one recites the blessing “al netilat yada’im.” With mayim ahronim, there is no blessing, except for someone saying birkat ha-mazon, who says the blessing “al rehitzat yada’im” (“concerning the washing of the hands”).³⁷As opposed to “al netilat yada’im” – literally, “taking up the hands [to wash them].” Mayim rishonim require pauses; it shouldn’t be poured all at once. Rather, taking up his hands, one washes and pauses, and then takes up and washes and pauses again.³⁸Halakhah, Chavel notes, following Orah Hayim 122:2, actually requires three distinct pourings of the mayim rishonim, pausing between each: the first pouring to remove dirt or anything else separating the surface of one’s hands from the water, and then a second pouring to wash off the dirty water; but the water for both of these pourings remains impure. Only after one pours yet a third time does the water purify the water that was on one’s hands. But the mayim ahronim one may pour all at once. Mayim rishonim specifically requires water, and not other kinds of liquids. But for mayim ahronim, even other liquids are acceptable, such as wine and milk, since they are only used to remove the dirt. Mayim rishonim require a vessel (from which to pour it), as it is written about the priests’ washstand: “from it;”³⁹Ex 30:19: “Let Aaron and his sons wash their hands and feet [in water drawn] from it.” (JSB). Chavel points out that the commentators explain “from it” (mi-meno) to specify that they were to wash in water poured from it, not in it, and that the Torah’s rules about the Temple priests’ washing apply to netilat yada’im as well. one should not remove or rub off the water in a river; for mayim ahronim, it is permitted. Mayim rishonim go as far as the perek (“the joint”) which is where the hand ends, where the hand and the arm bones are joined. Mayim ahronim are required only up to the edge of the hand where the fingers end. And there are some who say that this is the extent that is required for mayim rishonim – the place where the fingers end. And that the extent for mayim ahronim is up to the middle section of the fingers, since mayim ahronim are only to remove the dirt, and from that point and higher the cooked food is unlikely to get on them. A specific quantity is required for mayim rishonim, namely a quarter of a log,⁴⁰About the size of 1½ eggs. but mayim ahronim do not require a specific quantity. One can extend the effect of mayim rishonim by setting a condition, but one cannot extend the effect of mayim ahronim with a condition.⁴¹In other words, one can say, “The washing I’m doing now before this meal applies to all the meals I’m going to eat today,” that is, “I’m as ritually clean as a priest to eat this and all my subsequent meals today.” However, since the washing after is to remove actual, visible food from one’s hands, obviously simply stating the condition that “my first hand-washing after a meal will remove any food I get on my hands at subsequent meals during the day” is not going to remove the food stuck to one’s hands after later meals. It seems that R. Bahya and the source he quotes virtually verbatim for all these differences between mayim rishonim and mayim ahronim (R. Abraham ibn Daud, Kol Bo 23: Din Netilat Yadayim) recognize a distinction between what some today might call “ritual” vs. “actual” washing, but what I would prefer to call “theurgic” vs. “pragmatic” washing. After all, they are both rituals. But the former seems explicitly intended to change one’s subjective, spiritual status (“now I’m as pure as priest”); the latter primarily merely one’s observable physical status (no more food scraps on the hands). The ruling that one can verbally condition the “validity” of the mayim rishonim as opposed to the ahronim supports my view that R. Bahya appreciates the difference between rituals whose primary intent is to affect one’s subjective status, vs. those which primarily affect one physically. However, R. Bahya would not say that the former type of ritual was somehow more “spiritual” or important than the latter. On the contrary, one of the main points of Shulhan Shel Arba is to show that even those rituals that primarily affect one physically are designed implicitly to reinforce one’s awareness that eating meals is a way to worship God. A mnemonic for all of these differences between mayim rishonim and mayim ahronim is KoHe”N He”N Sha’A”H MiKaPeRe”T (“For the precious priest, the hour atones”): K – Ko’ah adam (“by human power”); H – Hag’ba’ah (“raising up”); N- Niguv (“wiping dry”); H-Hatzitzah (“nothing separating”); N- Netilah bayn klay beyn ‘al gabay karka’ (“washing into a vessel or onto the ground”); Sh – Shifshuf (“rubbing”); ‘A – ‘Al netilat yada’im (the blessing ‘al netilat yada’im); H – Hefsek (“pausing between pours”); M – Mayim (“water, and nothing else”); K – Klay (“poured from a vessel”); P- Perek (“up to the joint”); R – Revi’it log (“a quarter of a log”); and T- Tenai (“setting a condition”).

The commandment of sanctifying the hands and the feet at the time of the service: To wash (Sefer HaMitzvot LaRambam, Mitzvot Ase 24) the hands and the feet at all times when one enters into the sanctuary and when one comes to do the service (see Tosefot on Yoma 5b, s.v. lehavi) - and that is the commandment of the sanctification of the hands and the feet - as it is stated (Exodus 30:19-20), "And let Aharon and his sons wash their hands and feet [...] When they enter the Tent of Meeting, etc. or when they approach the altar to serve, etc."