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...
May a Woman Apply Makeup During Abelut?
Nail-Cutting During Abelut
If Somebody Did Not Observe Abelut After a Parent’s Passing
If a Woman is in Mourning and Her Husband Insists That She Join Him at a Social Function
Extending a Greeting to a Mourner
Halachot of Proper Conduct in a Cemetery
Eulogies and Memorial Gatherings on Days When Tahanun is Omitted
The Obligation to Bury the Deceased
A Mourner’s Exemption From Misvot Before the Burial as it Applies to Sissit, Charity, Berachot and Sefirat Ha’omer
May a Mourner Attend His or Her Child’s Wedding?
Is it Permissible for a Mourner to Move Into a New Home or Renovate His Home?
Wigs Made From the Hair of a Deceased Person
Sheloshim – The Thirty-Day Mourning Period
May a Kohen Attend the Funeral of a Non-Jew?
Abelut: Reciting Birkat Ha'lebana, Studying Torah, Hallel, and Birkat Kohanim
Page of 239
3585 Halachot found