DailyHalacha.com for Mobile Devices Now Available

Click Here to Sponsor Daily Halacha
"Delivered to Over 6000 Registered Recipients Each Day"

      
(File size: 598 KB)
Performing Netilat Yadayim with Cloudy Water

Halacha requires that when one washes his hands before partaking of bread, he must use clear water (Orach Hayim, Siman 160:1). The question thus arises in situations where the water appears "cloudy" when it first comes from the tap, whether a person must wait for the water to clear before performing Netilat Yadayim.

Rabbi Yitzchak Weiss (Galicia-Israel, 1902-1989), in his work Minchat Yitzchak, in Helek 9 Siman 13, addresses this question. He rules that preferably one should wait a few minutes until the water clears up and then make Netilat Yadayim. He concedes, however, that if one used the water while it was cloudy, BeDiavad he doesn’t have to wash again. However, Hacham Ben Tzion Abba Shaul in Ir L’Tzion, Helek 2, Peek 11:7, rules leniently even Lechatchila. This leniency is also the ruling of Hacham Ovadia Yoseph in Halichot Olam, Helek 1, page 336.

As for the final Halacha, one may perform Netilat Yadayim with water that appears cloudy upon leaving the tap, and does not have to wait, but it is nevertheless preferable to wait a minute or so to allow the water to become clear before washing one's hands, in order to satisfy all opinions.

 


Recent Daily Halachot...
Pesah- Use Your Best Dishes & The Proper Time for Kiddush
Pesah – If a Gentile Bring Hametz Into One’s Home
Some Laws of Chol Ha'mo'ed
Pesah-How Much Massa Must One Eat at the Seder?
Passover- Complications of Mechirat Hametz When One Travels Overseas for Pesah
Passover- Bedikat Hametz – Where One is Required to Search; the Custom to Put Ten Pieces of Bread Around the Home Before the Search
Pesah-If a Piece of Wheat is Found in Rice During Pesah
The Sale of Hametz: The Need for a Formal “Kinyan,” and the Status of Wine Sold to a Gentile
Pesah-Baking Massa on Erev Pesah
Pesah-What Massa Must be Used for the Seder Night?
Pesah-Baking Massot on Ereb Pesah
Pesah-The Water Used to Bake Massot
Pesah-What are the practical applications of “Stolen Massa?”
Is it Proper to Recite the 13 Midot on Yom Tob?
How Many Days of Yom Tob Does One Observe if He Always Visits Israel for the Shalosh Regalim?
Page of 239
3585 Halachot found