Netilas Yadayim: Drying Hands, Using Clothing, and the Concern of Kashah L’Shikchah

Transcript

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com. We just came off Lag BaOmer. Lag BaOmer, there's a custom in Miron to burn clothing. It's one of the customs on Lag BaOmer by the kever of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. The Chasam Sofer was vehemently against this custom. Burning clothing? It's bal tashchis. He railed against it, and he said that even though it seems to be a custom, it's a wrong custom. It became a big topic recently because word went out that it's a big segulah to burn the clothing, to take an article of one's clothing and burn it, and this will bring yeshuos and refuos. Others said, Wait a minute, it's a nice concept, but the Chasam Sofer, he addresses that it's the wrong thing to do. It's misusing clothing. It's bal tashchis on the clothing. So I came up with a topic for today's shiur, which I think would be interesting: how we use or misuse clothing. You know, clothing is meant—it's a bracha from Shamayim. The Ribono Shel Olam gives us clothing. What's called proper usage of clothing, and the importance of proper usage of clothing, and misusing of clothing. And I'll show you how it's very relevant, almost on a daily basis, just to give you one interesting example. You know, you'll notice children, when they wash netilas yadayim, let's say they'll wash for a sandwich, where are they going to wipe their hands? Come on, right, everyone who's a parent knows, where do they wipe their hands? On the shirt and on the pants, right? Halacha tells us clearly. It's a Magen Avraham in the name of the Tashbatz. Mishnah Berurah brings it down. You are not allowed to wipe your hands on clothing. It's kasha l'shikcha. It's one of the things that bring about that someone should forget, and simply means forget is learning. That's the pashut, usually the kasha l'shikcha. Not going to forget his name. He's definitely not. He probably will forget to pay his bills, but that would be anyway. People forget to pay their bills. They can't blame it on the kasha l'shikcha. Kasha l'shikcha means that they're going to forget their learning. So the question: you see a child, he washes his hands. Should we stop the child? Should we put an emphasis on being mechanech children not to wipe their hands on clothing? A rebbe in yeshiva, a counselor, it's done all the time. Children wash their hands, and they'll wipe it on either a shirt or pants. How strict, and I guess by what age should we start telling the children, you know, listen, don't do it. He's six, seven, eight. Should we make an emphasis? Should we make a hadgasha not to let the children wipe their hands on their clothing? Now, this topic, this topic really branches out into a lot of other topics. And originally, when I thought of this topic, I thought maybe it's a trivial issue. It doesn't sound like such a very strict shaila. You know, I usually like to deal with, like, with a medical shaila. Recently we spoke about the measles outbreak and vaccination. Wow, that would have been an exciting topic for a shiur. This topic seems all right. He washed, he wipes his hands. Is it such a big shaila? Is it such an important shaila? There's a lot of different factions to the shaila which are interesting. It branches out into a lot of different topics, which I thought would be interesting for this venue on a Memorial Day shiur. I thought it would be something that everyone would walk away with something. In a broader shaila, in general, can I use clothing

To wipe my face. A lot of times we use clothing not just for wearing. For what am I allowed to use clothing? For example, can I take a shirt and wipe a table? Now you're saying again, like, huh, is this such an important shaila? So let me begin by telling you there's two parts to this shaila which are very important. The first part of the shaila is hilchos netilas yadayim properly. I think today we'll walk away with having a proper understanding of what netilas yadayim must be, and as soon I will quote you from the Shulchan Aruch how important it is to do netilas yadayim properly. And the second lesson would be about kasha l'shikcha, which means when we do things which are kasha l'shikcha, as found in the Gemaras and in the Rishonim, how serious of a thing is that? Okay, so it's kasha l'shikcha. You know, a lot of people, you know what they think to themselves, kasha l'shikcha. How much do I remember anyway? And the truth is maybe the reason why we don't remember what we learn is because we do all the kasha l'shikchas. We're going to talk about kasha l'shikcha. And the third topic, like I said, which we started with is clothing, use and misuse of clothing. So again, rabosai, let me, so to speak, readdress the topic that we're going to speak. It's about clothing and wiping yourself. With clothing. It's really a deeper question, because like I said, it's about netilas yadayim, wiping your hands afterwards, which is where it's brought. I'm going to point out that where does it come from? It's mentioned in one place, by netilas yadayim. Now, rabosai, repeat with me: where do you think it's mentioned? Which netilas yadayim? The morning one when we wake up, or the one that we wash for seudah? And the answer is it's found by seudah. It's not found in the morning when you wash your hands, which is a question we'll address later. So it's interesting, it's in one place that it's found, and I'm going to tell you even a bigger chiddush. The Magen Avraham brings it from the Tashbatz, and no one knows where that comes from. Where did he get it from? There's no Gemara about it. It's not found anywhere. Out of nowhere, something, an interesting tidbit here: you got to make sure not to dry your hands after netilas yadayim seudah, which is where it's brought, because it's kashya l'shikcha. So where else does it apply to? Where else could we say that this is also applicable? Maybe it's only by netilas yadayim for seudah, especially we don't know what the reason is. Why is it kashya l'shikcha? What's so bad about it? So let's begin by discussing a little bit of netilas yadayim, all right? You know, people will think, So I didn't dry my hands, right? So what's wrong if I don't dry my hands? So let me begin by telling you there's a Mechaber in Shulchan Aruch, Meran, Kuf Nun Ches. Seif tes. Tzarich lizaher b'netilas yadayim. You got to be very careful to do netilas yadayim properly. Shekol hamezalzel b'netilas yadayim, whoever doesn't do netilas yadayim properly, chayav nidui. Cherem. Cherem! Yeah, we ever see a person, they put up the big signs, he did this and this aveirah, he's in cherem. You don't do netilas yadayim properly, it's also nidui. And here's also the one to scare you: u'ba lidei aniyus. If you don't do netilas yadayim properly, you become poor. And if that doesn't bother you, v'nekar min ha'olam. They'll take you away from this world. It's a Shulchan Aruch. Maran brings this as a halacha. A lot of times we find in Chazal different things which seem to be, you got to be careful. It's, it's, it's halacha, Shulchan Aruch, yeah? You know, they bring down al netilas yadayim, ayin — no, al netilah, nun? Ani. You become poor if you don't.

You didn't netilas yadayim properly. Now you're going to think to yourself, Rabbi Wolki, you're talking about the drying on the shirt. I did netilas yadayim properly. Maybe, and the truth is, after you listen to the shiur, no, you didn't. Because the drying after the netilas yadayim is part of netilas yadayim, as it's brought in Shulchan Aruch a few seifim later. So again, rabosai, understand what we're addressing. It sounds like a trivial topic, right? Well, he washed his hands, he wiped it on a shirt. Now what's the big deal, right? Okay, so let me again repeat to you. Maybe you didn't do your netilas yadayim properly, which I wouldn't take a chance on. And again, you're saying, but the drying—we're going to learn that the drying is part. And we're soon going to read from the Rama, it's part of the actual mitzvah, the netilas yadayim. You know what netilas yadayim means? I went to wash my hands. I think we'll coin a new phrase. You ready? Who's with me on this? I went to wash and dry my hands. The mitzvah is to wash and to dry. We're going to learn this in Shulchan Aruch. All right, so from now on, I'll know if you came to the shiur, and I'll know if you listened to the shiur online, TorahAnytime. Here's your call-out. For the thousands of people who are listening to the shiur on TorahAnytime, ashreichem v'ruveichem, should be zoche. What is the—you're shaking your hand, that what? The bracha take. It's not a big deal. And you don't want the call-out, it's good for you. It's good. Thank you for—you know, when they give you credit in today's time. Take it. Doesn't come very often, so when they give it to you, take it. So we're going to say something new. You ready? Am I going to wash my hands? No, no. I'm going to wash and dry my hands. Okay. And like I said, the other topic is drying the hands by wiping it on clothing is kasher l'shichcha, and we're going to address that too. Kasher l'shichcha is a serious topic. We find many different things which are kasha, which means they bring about forgetfulness, and simply the way the mefarshim learn, it means in Torah. You got to make sure you don't forget your Torah. It's a very important and a very serious offense, as we're going to learn. And the third issue is usage of clothing. When am I allowed to use my shirt, my undershirt, my pants? We use it for different things, especially, don't forget, today we have an abundance of it. We have so much clothing, it's a big... I took my shirt and I wiped the table with it. I took an undershirt and I wiped the table. Are you allowed to do that? And like I said, there's two parts to the sugya. One is clothing, proper usage, respect for clothing. By the way, clothing is called mechubadai. It's called something... money, mechabadai. It's called respect. There's an honor to clothing. And also, the kasher l'shichcha is something that one should really be careful about. So let's continue with the sugya of netilas yadayim. Netilas yadayim, like I said, is washing, but it's also about drying. There are three halachos in Shulchan Aruch which this becomes relevant to. The first is, when do you make the bracha on netilas yadayim? Now, every bracha is usually over lasiyasan. So should you first make the bracha and then wash? Over lasiyasan means first make, and then wash. What's the answer? Your hands are not clean, maybe, because that's why you're washing. So therefore, first wash and then make the bracha. Okay, now what? Should I make the bracha before I dry, or should I make the bracha after I dry my hands? And the answer is, no. You say after. So it's a machlokes, you and the Shulchan Aruch. So let me tell you how the Shulchan Aruch says. The Shulchan Aruch says, Hagah, yeah? Hagah: Gam yachol levarech aleihem kodem haniguv, shegam haniguv min hamitzvah, umikri over lasiyatan. We want that you should make the bracha before the— You got it. You can't do it before.

Because your hands might not be clean. So how do you do it? Before you wipe, because it's a chelek of the mitzvah. The question is, does Mechaber, Meran agree to this? It's talk in the sefarim, the Shapaiskim, because the Rama brings it, the Mechaber doesn't. And then there's a whole question: what happens in case you didn't make the bracha before? Could you still make it after? We pasken you could. Time constraint, I'm not going to go into this part of the topic, but understand: wiping, mitzvah, when to make the bracha. It's in Shulchan Aruch, okay? So are we clear? According to the Rama, you make the bracha before you wipe your hands. Actually, let's get a better word for it: before you dry your hands, right? And the reason for this is over la'asiyasan mitzvah. Okay, that's halacha one. Sif yud aleph. Now here's halacha yud beis, right? Second, second halacha. V'hanagvim heitev קודם שיצא. You got to dry your hands well. שאוכל בלא ניגוב ידיים, if you eat without drying your hands, כאילו אוכל לחם טמא. It's in Shulchan Aruch, rabosai. It's really a Gemara, and the Shulchan Aruch brings it lahalacha. It's a mefurasha Gemara, and the Shulchan Aruch brings it lahalacha. Yeah? So it, daf daled, and the Shulchan Aruch paskens it, that you need to dry your hands. Now today, we're going to discuss: yenagev means to wipe, or yenagev means to dry. It seems to be a machlokes between the Shulchan Aruch Harav and the Chazon Ish. Do you need to wipe your hands dry, or it's enough, yenagev, to dry your hands? And I'll soon show you the halachic implications, the nafkaminas lahalacha, between the two ways on how to read the halacha of yenagev. Whatever it is, it's clear that yenagev heitev is important. So the drying is not just, let him dry his hands. No, it's important to do it right. It's a chelek of the mitzvah. And what else is it, rabosai? Nu? You don't do it, it's ke'ilu oichel lechem tamei. Third halacha: hamatbil yadav yacher lecha b'lo niguv. You stick your hands into a river, you tovel your hands, you put it into a mikvah, then you don't have to dry your hands. Why not? What's the difference? Vuadin l'noitel yadav b'vas achas v'shofech aleihem revi'is mayim b'vas achas. If I took an entire revi'is — it's a lot of water — and I put it on one hand, or both hands at the same time, then also I don't have to, what, dry my hands. Why not? What's the reason? So if you look at the Mishnah Berurah, Mishnah Berurah says, Not so fast. Not that simple. Why? And this is the point that's important too. Why is it so important to dry my hands? Okay, so I'm going to open it up for your comment for a second. And when I say comment, it has to be an intellectual comment, and B, it can only be for one second. I reserve the right to stop it after two words. What would be the reason why you need to dry your hands? Why is it so essential? Why is it so chiyuvi? Two reasons. So that's it. Two words are up already. So it's just a— I'm just trying to get you into it. I wasn't interested that much. Okay, so the reason is, one is because the water itself might become tamei, and now you're again continuing with the tumah by touching the bread. So we want you to dry. Now you're clean to what? To eat the bread. Tumah. The second reason is mi'us. Your hands are wet. You should not be touching bread. It's ruining the bread. What you're doing is disgracing, or you're somewhat bringing down the chashivus because now it's wet.

Is there any way that we can get that to work? It's very hot here. Is there any way we can get some air? Okay. Okay, that's a very good question, and the truth is we need to talk about this. You know why? The question is, why is it only bread? So the truth is, we know that bread is the most chashuv. You know, in the old days, people would pick up a piece of bread, and if it was on the floor, and they would kiss it. Okay? Now, is it they would kiss it because it was so, like, wow, I found a piece of bread? No. It seems like it's because bread is chashuv. Bread is respect, and you need to respect the bread. We find that if you have bread crumbs on the floor, it's mevatel. Okay? So you see that there's something about respect for bread. Today we don't respect bread. We don't respect anything, right? You don't respect your parents, and you don't respect your rabbanim. What do you expect the guy to respect some crumbs on the floor, right? So I don't want to talk about that, because then we're going to have, at the end of this shiur, everyone's going to say, Well, what did Rabbi Wolkin speak about? He gave a strong mussar that we have no respect. That's not the point of the shiur, okay? The point of the shiur, let's continue, is that there's a certain degradation to the bread, a mi'ut to the bread, all right? And possibly, as I think all the time, it's irrelevant to the person eating it, which means it's not a mi'ut that you're ruining. That you're disrespecting or degrading the bread, but you're ruining it, and now it's less enjoyable when you eat it. Let me tell you really what's going through my mind. Today, we take bread and we dip it into everything. So the bread is clean. The bread is wet anyway. Is it so bad that if I have a little bit water on my hand and I take the bread in my hand and somehow it gets—I mean, we dip it into wine, into schnapps. I don't know. I don't know, unless maybe water makes it worse. I'm not going to argue and change the halacha. But whatever it is, when you take bread, wet hands, issue. And therefore, these are the two reasons, the two reasons why we dry our hands. So again, rabboisai, it's very crucial that you should understand this. And remember, we're heading towards mayai or mayai not wipe my hands on my shirt, pants, and other articles of clothing. Reason number one why we wipe our hands clearly is tumah. And that's why if I'm matbil, if I put my hands in the mikveh, that's why you're done. You understand? You have a revi'is, you drip the— Now I want to tell you about this revi'is. There are people that will wait to fill up a full cup. How about if you're at a wedding and there's a whole line of people waiting, and you're in front of one of these Baruch Hashem frum Yidden that are so makpid, and he's filling it up and he's washing. In our mussar shiurim and shmuzen, we've mentioned and spoken and addressed this type of people. Not for now, okay? You have to know your balance too. You know, there's a lot of things which are very good, and they're very chumra and dikduk halacha, but not if there's a whole line of people behind you, right, waiting to wash. And that's all I'll say for halacha shiur for today. But al kol panim, the question becomes here: why we wash, we know is tumah. Why we dry, it might be tumah, and the other reason is what? Mius. Okay. So here's an interesting chidush. Are you allowed to make a bracha while you do a mitzvah? Are you allowed to do anything while you do a mitzvah? We make the bracha over la'asiyatan. How about during a mitzvah? Are you allowed to talk? Are you allowed to say anything? How about the reverse? When you make a bracha, are you allowed to do anything? Also not. So here's the question: can I make the bracha while I'm wiping? Remember I told you that it has to be over la'asiyasan, which means before. So what you do is you make the bracha and then you wipe. You're not supposed to have the wiping after. How about during?

A lot of people are going to wipe, yeah, and as they're drying their hands, they make the bracha. Shalmas Chaim says a very nice chiddush. Since the drying is also mitzvah, so there's no problem of making the bracha while you're drying your hands. If the drying of the hands was not a mitzvah, then you wouldn't be allowed to make the bracha while you dry your hands. So there's two correct methods. The best way is first to make the bracha and then dry your hands. But for those that dry their hands as they're making the bracha, not terrible. You're not supposed to do anything when you make a bracha. No activities while you make a bracha, and cell phones for sure not, right? Okay. Since it's a part of the mitzvah, says Shalmas Chaim, then it becomes mutar. Okay. With what do you have to dry your hands? We just said it's important to dry, right? So I ask you, is drying or is it wiping? Shulchan Aruch Harav says you need to wipe your hands dry. And therefore, what do you need to do? You need to have either a towel, or the question we could say is paper towels, depending on what shul you're in, right? Some shuls, they'll have a towel. Some, like the yeshivas, they don't have a towel there. There's paper towels. Why am I bringing this up? If you think it's about cleanliness that we're drying, huh? You know, a lot of times these towels are dirtier than... Now everyone thinks I'm trying to make a joke. I'm not. I'm really not making a joke, rabosai. I've long contemplated this issue. If the whole reason why I dry is for cleanliness, then maybe the towels either should be changed once a year for sure, and maybe paper towels would be even a better idea. But al kol panim, here, here, rabosai, the point is, do I need to even do that? I know a lot of people, they'll see the towel and they'll go, Oh my gosh, I ain't touching this, right? So can I just not dry my hands and let my hands dry? Or if you'll notice, people have an interesting thing when they wash their hands. They all of a sudden start becoming—they have this movement, this hand movement, and everybody's looking at the guy and go, What? Oh, he just washed his hands, right? Would that be okay? According to the Shulchan Aruch Harav, no, it's not. You're not gave means. You need to what? Do an act of using something to dry your hands. According to the Chazon Ish, as long as you what? You dry your hands. What's the difference how it's dried? I hope you're drying your hands. Huh? That's exactly where we're getting to. So, rabosai, you're listening carefully, you hear? Again, there's a halacha that you need to dry your hands. The question is, drying means to dry them or to wipe them dry. Now here comes the other question. Today's times, modern day, we have something called the air dryer, right? You put your hands in front of that thing, it blows air till your hands fall to the floor, right? You think it's going up to the moon, that thing, right? It's shooting up like a rocket ship, right? Would that be good enough, according to the Shulchan Aruch Harav? What do you say? You say no. How do you know? You spoke to the Shulchan Aruch Harav. It's an interesting—what you say definitely no, I'm not so sure about. And many Acharonim, including the Sha'arei Teshuvah, Shevet Halevi, says that since the idea is to have a complete drying, and I need to do an act of drying, where does it say it has to be with a cloth towel? What's wrong with an air dryer? Now let me tell you the nuance of the halacha. It's very possible that we want a complete drying. So going like this might not do it. According to the Chazon Ish, it does. According to Shulchan Aruch Harav, it doesn't. Yeah, but this definitely dries your hands. Unless maybe we say that there was a takanah. There's a structure to netilas yadayim. They told me how to do it. They told me wash and dry. So the niguv has to be with an act of taking something.

Is this called taking, pressing the button and putting... Maybe yeah, maybe not. Probably, yeah. I would say, lhalacha, l'maisa, nunu. Now, in the backdrop of the threats that the Shulchan Aruch made if you don't do it right, I can hear where a guy has a little bit of a, what do you call it? Thank you so much, sonny, thank you. He can have a little bit of a reservation by saying, you know what, let me just take a paper towel instead of using the blow—what's it called, an air dryer? What do they call them? Okay. Now, rabosai, let us discuss how dry does it have to be. So it just says it should be dry. I guess dry enough that it's not making tumah, dry enough not to ruin the bread. Now, if you have a little dampness, not going to really ruin the bread. The Shulchan says you need to be very dry. A lot of times we're quick and lazy when it comes to this drying. Again, remember how important doing netilas yadayim right, and maybe take the time to dry your hands properly, but not to the point that it becomes a phobia. You know, a lot of people—has to be within... I bedavka didn't want to say that. I was being very careful. Okay. I happened, in the notes I have in front of me, I wrote the O.C. I said, you know what, let me leave that alone because I'm going to have to repeat it over a hundred times for the O.C. chaver. Okay, now listen further. Now, O.C. chaver, I have to repeat again, and then I'll have to repeat it again, and then to say it. Okay, now. The question is, if the story is tumah, okay, so you wash your hands, you dried it, you're good. But if it's about bread getting dirty, bread getting wet, during the meal, our hands get dirty. No puns intended, rabosai, the way people eat, especially. Okay, we got it, right? They're all eating with their hands, right? So you're making your bread dirty. Why is there never found a concern that you shouldn't touch liquids, you shouldn't touch chicken and then touch bread? You ever see there's a problem of touching chicken and touching bread? I don't know. But it's the same idea that we're saying that you got to dry your hands because of the little water that's on your hands is a problem. So why is this not a problem? Here, it's a great question. You know, the great Rebbes, if you pay attention to the way they eat their seudos, their tish, they eat with their hands, and there's a reason for that, because they believe, kol d'gai yom b'yadchem nitanu, that you're supposed to eat fish with your hands, and silverware is a modern thing. It's only for the goyim. I know that that's a shiur and a topic for itself, and not for today. Bal kol panim, you know what they do? They sit with a towel, and every time they touch food, you'll notice every Rebbe, he sits with a towel, and every time he touches the food, he'll dry his hands. This is where it comes from. The same way that we want your hands to be clean and dry. Before, we wanted to be clean and dry. Notice I said the word clean and dry. There's two parts here. Is it about dry, making the bread wet? Or is it also about clean, making the bread, the challah, what, a little bit dirty? Okay, so now pay attention, rabboisai. It's such an interesting sugya. Are we drying our hands because we want dry, or are we drying our hands because we want clean? You ever see when a mother tells a child, sit down for the meal and wash your hands? For clean. We want clean hands. And therefore, the question is, why not in the middle of the seudah? But let me first tell you a very interesting chiddush. The Debretziner Rav, zichrono livrachah, had a brother in Australia. He was his older brother. He wrote a sefer called Betzel HaChochmah, a classic halachic piece of work. It's a classic, one of the famous Sha'alos Uteshuvos sefarim. He says that it's more about cleanliness than it is about drying. So if, in case, you wash your hands and you can't dry them, try to wash your hands with soap before the netilas yadayim, and then you for surely got your clean hands. He understood the drying of the hands was part of cleaning the hands. You wash your hands not always does the water that you just put on your hands really clean it.

So what you do is you wash your hands, you move it around, and if you put soap before, then you could be, what, a little more lax about the drying after. No? You hear a chiddush, rabboisai? This doesn't interest you? Meirdik, huh? People who are very careful about, I don't want to put my hands in the air dryer, maybe I have to dry my hands, but there's no paper towels. You notice that that was always what happens, right? When you need a paper towel, ain't there for you, right? So what do you do? Or, for example, and I want to tell you this, a lot of times you go on a trip, right? And you take the water bottle, right, the Poland Spring, and you're washing out the window, and then you look and you say, I don't have how to dry it. So what's the next thing you go to? You go to your— Oh my gosh. Good to know. Now I won't go in your car anymore. It's good to know. Okay, yeah, you go for your clothing, right? Where is the tissues when you need them, right? And the answer is maybe. Now, I'm not telling you people do this, but it's an interesting chiddush. Use soap. Like this, you could be a little more lax on the drying, because according to him, the drying is not about wet hands; it's about clean hands. An interesting chiddush. Getting back to the question, so why in the middle of the meal is this not a topic? Why are we not worried about it in the middle of the meal? And the answer is, rabboisai, says Rav Moshe Feinstein in the teshuvos, chelek beis, siman gimmel, the real takanah was tumah. The real takanah was tumah. The Acharonim understood, since there's also an added reason that we want that you have clean hands when you touch bread, so they tagged it to the takanah. Of washing your hands for tumah, but they're not going to make a special, a special takanah that you should go and wash your hands every time your hands are dirty in the middle of a meal. So says Ramoisha, that it's something, an added benefit, let's call it that, an added benefit to the takanah of washing your hands for tumah is also miyus, and therefore we try to cover both taamim, to cover both taamim. So in the middle of the meal, you don't have the issue of the tumah. A person באמצע meal, he's not getting his hands tamei, it's not going anywhere, and therefore you don't have to worry about the clean hands. Rabosai, let me explain to you the omek, the depth of the Rosh Yeshiva's Ramoisha's teshuva. You know, when we have takanos chachamim, they gave us a reason. There could be many reasons behind the reason that was given, which means this could be the general reason, this could be the simple reason, right? But it's possible that there's many other reasons within the reason also. I'll give you an example. You know, there's a halacha called galui. Maish, put it away. There's a halacha called galui, yeah? What is galui? You can't drink water that was left overnight. Does anybody know the reason for this halacha? Snakes, all right? Now, in New York City, gladly found the snake in Williamsburg in a basement, you know, just now, in one of the Jewish big buildings they found the snake there. So let me just tell you, in New York City you're not going to find— The long ten-foot snakes, but there's plenty of snakes walking around, right? And obviously we don't worry about them. That's not what the takanah was for, for those snakes, right? So we don't have snakes today, so what are you worried about? And the answer is, and the answer is, some say, you're right. Let's respond to the times. We don't have snakes, so we don't have a problem of the snake drinking my water. Go drink the water. There's no problem of gali today. The Gra was makpid, the Vilna Gaon was makpid on gali, and he said the reason of the snake and the poison is the open reason that was given. But then there's plenty of reasons that what? No, are not, that the Chachamim didn't tell us about, okay? Added reasons. This is probably what the Rosh Yeshiva means, that the real reason that was given is tumah. The real reason that was given is tumah. The side reasons.

Is what? Maus that we don't want to make the bread dirty. So will they make this takanah in the middle of the meal? Maybe not. And I want to add something interesting. Do we make takanos for kasha l'shikcha? No. You want to do it, it's your prerogative, right? The takanah that the Chachamim said to wash the hands is tumah. The kasha l'shikcha is not enough. You understand? It's not enough of a topic of, let's say, davar ma'us. It's not enough of a topic to make a takanah, you hear? To make a takanah that you should wash your hands. Okay, so again, rabosai, in the middle of a meal, should you have clean hands when you touch bread? Maybe. Maybe anyway you should have. You see, according to Ramoishes teshuva, if your hands are wet, should you, should you, rabosai, dry your hands and make sure it's clean while you're eating? And the answer is, and the answer is, maybe. Maybe. And this, that we have a takanah of washing and drying before the meal only is because that was the takanah based on the tumah. Now let's go to the topic which will interest—I know you got to give me two more minutes—and this topic will interest you quite, you hear? So first of all, kasha l'shikcha. How serious is kasha l'shikcha? So let me begin by telling you, many learned that there's an issur involved. In doing things which is kasha l'shikcha. Why? Because there's a pasuk, Pen tishkach. You're not allowed to forget Torah. There's an issur of forgetting things which are Torah. Many are going to say, You know how serious this is? There's a Mishnah: Ha-shocheach davar miTalmudo is chayiv. Ooh, you see, now I got you guys to pay attention to the kasha l'shikchas. It's not, kasha l'shikchas, I wipe my hands on my shirt. So what? Big deal. ... We're in Queens. Chill out, chill out, take it easy. Stop, stop being so... I don't know, if it's a kasha l'shikcha, tell me, you want your kid to do a kasha l'shikcha? I don't know. I would say, you know, they always say, kasha l'shikcha, kids. And then the next step is, he's a kid at heart, even if he's 20, 30. And then even if he's older, he behaves like a kid, so leave him alone, right? That's the slippery road you go down, right? I don't know. Kasha l'shikcha, rabosai, is serious. It might be an aveirah, an issur, and it might be what? One of those things which are... possibly. The only thing is we need to discuss clothing, wiping. Where and when is it said? Notice it was brought by netilas yadayim for a... no? seudah. Possibly, maybe it's only when, what? Netilas yadayim of a seudah. Maybe the netilas yadayim of the morning, and any other case where you're wiping. Water from a rinsing, not a problem. So can I do it in the morning when I wash netilas yadayim and wipe that? I could do. Any other time when I wash my hands, can I use my clothing to wipe? And the answer is maybe. How about another question? Maybe it's only if I wipe my hands. How about if I come out of a shower, I'm wet, I'm in a rush, I put on my undershirt, I put on— is that called wiping? Shiurei rechitzah, is that also part of a problem? I'm trying to understand, after we've now come to wiping water after washing, what's called wiping water after washing? What is included in it? And now, and the backdrop of that it's kashya l'shichcha. So let's begin. Is it only by a seudah? That's where it's brought. Is it about wiping? Linagev. The lashon of the Shulchan Aruch is linagev. What happens if I'm not wiping? I'm not using it to wipe. It's rather drying me. How about this question: is it my hands or is it my whole body? Can I put on my socks, feet are still wet after a shower? Maybe it's only my hands. Is it only water?

Or is it all liquids? Is it only water? Maybe it's only water. How about if I have fats on my hand? My hands got dirty from chicken. My hands got dirty from something else. Can I go and wipe it? Is it only when I'm wearing the clothing? The lashon of the Mishnah Berurah is, lo yinagev yadav bechaluko. So yinagev can mean what? If I actively wipe. Chaluko can mean when I'm wearing it, or maybe even when I'm not wearing. Can I take an undershirt from my drawer and dry my hands after I wash? Is it clothing, or is it anything I wear? I don't know if you realize, for example, a lot of times in the hospital, this is a lot of what I noticed, people are wearing a hospital gown. Would we call that as my clothing? Chaluko. And here's really the big question: does chaluko mean a shirt, or chaluko can mean pants also, or anything that I wear? That's a very good question. They didn't wear pants. So you know who says this? The Mishnah Berurah brings from the Pri Megadim that says, you know what, maybe it's only a shirt and not pants. So when the kids wipe their hands on their pants, they're good to go. It's not a shirt. Or a Chashulchan says it's called begadav, all clothing. He doesn't differentiate between the shirt and the pants. Here's another question. How about the other person? His shirt. Can I go and dry my hands? You know, when kids wash, you think they dry it on there? They run over to their friend and wipe their hands, because it says, chalukai. Okay. Final and last question. Does this apply to women too? There's a whole question of all the kasha l'shichas. If it's for women, why? Because they don't have an issur of pentishkach shichas haTorah. They might not have it. So maybe if he's a young boy, we should teach him not to wipe on his shirt, and possibly not on his pants, while a young girl, I guess in the girl camps, after they wash, they could do it. Why? Because you don't have the problem of kasha l'shicha. I'll end with the following, because I see that they're already showing me the sign that they're pulling me with the thing off the stage. Okay, I got it. No problem. I'm used to it. It's fine. Yeah, so listen carefully. We're going to end with the following shaila. Mitz Hashem, I'm going to come back to this, because I see not everybody was able to pay attention for the full 20 minutes of the shiur. Let me tell you how it works by me. I look around the crowd, and I see from when you started to listen. The 20 minutes of the phone, I extract. I take that out. It's called the stop button, right? How does it work when there's a lot of time on a clock? I press the stop button every time I see a guy looking on the phone. Okay, okay, stop. All right. The shiur was actually less than a 20-and-a-half hour, if you look around the room. Okay, now, the point being, we're going to have to come back to this. It's serious to wipe your hands. On your clothing. The question is, when and where is it referring to? Which clothing it's referring to? And here's the real big question: what's more important, to not draw your hands with something? Is that, which is really Chazon Ish holds it's okay as long as I make sure it's dry, better than what? Than to do it on clothing, for example pants, which is a shaila in the Pri Megadim. Okay? So this, rabosai, we've covered the netilas yadayim, the importance of drying. We covered what's referred to as drying your hands, how important it is. We covered kasha l'shikcha, how serious of a topic it is. And we also said, I don't know how far, and the Acharonim are not sure how far to take this halacha of clothing, drying yourself after washing. Is it a shower also, or it's only netilas yadayim, v'chulei v'chulei? My clothing, his clothing, pants, shirt. And remember, if you do it, it's kasha l'shikcha, and it might be a problem. You've just experienced another Torah class, brought to you by TorahAnytime.com.