“You have been shown, in order to know that the Lord He is God; there is none else besides Him.” – Deut. 4:35
1) The procedure on washing your hands upon awakening in the morning –
a. Hold vessel in your right hand
b. Fill the vessel with water and pass the vessel to your left hand
c. Pour water over your right hand till your wrist
d. Make sure you cup your fingers and keep them loose, so water gets even between your fingers (See picture)
e. Pass the vessel to your right hand, and pour over your left hand
f. Do this a total of three times. (Right/Left. Right/Left. Right/Left.)
g. Even one who is left-handed, starts washing your right hand first.
2) One must not touch any opening parts of one’s body before washing your hands. That means, not to touch your eyes, ears, nose, or mouth, nor touch any food. Since there is a spirit of impurity that rests on your hands before washing them, it can cause harm to these things.
3) Washing one’s hands is for everyone – men, woman, and even young children.
4) One reason for this, is every morning a person is like being created anew. And like the Kohanim (Priests), before they do any service in the Temple, they must wash their hands. So do we, before we start our day in service to Hashem, we need to wash our hands.
5) Another reason when we sleep a spirit of impurity comes and rests upon us. And when we wake up, it leaves our body except from our fingers, (that is why one should touch any open part of their body), and the only way to remove that impurity is by washing one’s hands three times in an alternating fashion, as described above.
6) These following situations require the washing of hands with water: a) upon rising from bed [after sleeping], b) when leaving the lavatory or bathhouse, c) after cutting nails or hair, d) after removing shoes (with your hands), e) after marital relations, f) after touching vermin, or delousing a garment even without touching vermin, g) after a head shampoo, h) touching parts of the body that are usually covered [out of modesty], i) after leaving a cemetery, or walking after a funeral procession, or leaving a room in which there was a corpse, j) after blood-letting.
7) One should be very careful after washing their face to dry it properly, as it can cause the skin to crack and develop soars.
8) One should wash their hands and face every day out of reverence for his Creator, as it is written (Genesis 9:6), “For in the image of God He created man.”
9) During prayer or eating, one should not touch parts of the body that are normally covered, where there is an accumulation of sweat.
10) If one doesn’t have any water available, you may clean your hands on a rock or earth or with any other substance that cleans. This is good for prayer, but it does not remove any impurity that may be on your hands.
