Derech Mitzvosecha - Netilas Yadayim

NETILAS YEDAYIM
Why do we have to wash our hands before we eat?
Halachos to keep in mind:
1. Have to wash with a minimum of a reviis
2. Have to use a cup
3. Has to be from the person pouring the water
4. Has to be pure water

ochel= food= gematria of keil Havaya
food comes from yetzira
achila = gematria = alef, dald, nun, yud – asiya

we eat domem, tzomaich & chai – how can we survive on something lower? Whatever falls lower comes from a higher source – down here medaber is the highest but in spirituality it’s the lowest
but how can we get it if it’s so high then? Either we have to go up or something has to make it come down.
In order to go up we have to use the shem mem beis.
We always saya ‘ana bichoach’ – 42 words –

In torah:
Yad hagdolah, yad harama, yad hachazaka
Yad=14 – 3x14 = 42

Has to be water because it’s chessed and it removes the yenika for chitzonim
Answer #3: Since adam is shem ma and shem ma rules in yetzira, therefore there has to be koach adam,
When we raise our hands the kedusha from our hands gets connected to chabad – so klipa can’t get it
Then we lower it so it goes down to the chagas, we’re not worried about yenika anymore because we already connected it to chabad

Washing with water – which is from the level of yetzira- protects our hands so there won’t be yenika lichitzonim – has to be from a higher level in order to protect since we are asiya – and this makes it so the food can have an effect in asiya. Adam is sourced in yetzira where the water comes from.

BIUR:
Start by understand that hands can either be raised or lowered.
The ohr eloki that gives life to the hands comes in therough the end of the nails. The nails are klipa of kedusha – they protect so that not too much chayus/kedusha will come out and chitzonim might latch on to it. Washing the hands washes off the extra klipa so that it won’t stay and latch on to the ohr that’s coming out.

When you raise your hands it connects it to your seichel and then the light coming out of it connects to seichel, then you put down your hands to give ohr to the middos (feet=lower sefiros)

The yenika is what guards your fingernails – chitzonim feed off yenika – washing off the extra chitzonim and extra yenika so chitzonim won’t get leftover chayus when so much comes down when you’re going to eat – getting chayus from a higher level

penimi – briah
emtzai – yetzira
chitzoni – asiya


the inyan of Hashem’s right hand making shamayim is chessed – because the hand brings out the ruchniusdike feeling
The love and the feeling inside a heart is much higher & greater before it’s expressed by the hand.
The hand is the idea of bringing down ruchnius to gashmius.

5 fingers are the 5 chasadim & 5 gevuros. 5 ways that chessed comes down – 5 ways of expressing what you think in dibbur.
fingers bring out what someone wants to write in the hand –

5 gevuros – the idea of divison – the hand being divided into 5 fingers – separating and dividing the air into a sound for someone to hear
separation – each finger can do it’s own thing
the whole hand is moving together but each finger is doing something different in order to accomplish doing details

koach hachessed gives over to the sarim which gives over to nefesh hayisodis

avraham sheyatza mimenu yishmael
yishmael is gashmius
avraham is chessed of atzilus
how could avraham come into a level of gashmius?
The malach of yishmael is the galgal hamazlos that gives shefa to the world – the bridge between them
Also called kli shlishi – kli shlishi because he is the chitzonius (penimi is kli rishon, emtzai is kli sheini, etc.)

because avraham is the right HAND of Hashem which is chitzonius – HAND is the idea of giving and drawing down from ruchnius to gashmius
kli rishon is direct affect of atzilus on briah – kli sheini is atzilus’s affect on yetzira. Kli shlishi is enclothed in asiya and having an effect on gashmius

left hand is gevura – Yitzchak – had the same thing with eisav but the opposite – gevura not chessed – he had the sar of eisav

back to the nails: the nails are there to protect to so that the chitzonim don’t get more hashpaa then necessary
the malachim who get shefa from Hashem and give over to us – the flow of shefa comes to us through our fingers
why does Hashem give us shefa through our fingers?
So there SHOULD be able to have yenika lichitzonim – Hashem made the world that way, they need to get some hashpaa – but Hashem gave us fingernails to limit the chayus that could get to klipa
Although the nails are a protection
The bottom of the nail is connected to the finger – blood – mosros hadam – the extras of the blood are in the nail and that affects the whole body – the nefesh haruchnius of the neshama is the nail
Nails have chayus and grow but doesn’t hurt when you cut them because it’s extra
Same with hair – hair is the extra of the mochin, coming from brain
Nails were Adam’s clothes in gan eden – protection from chitzonim
If nails are too long it’s a chatzitza – too much chayus
More from nails than hair because hair is more ruchniusdike level – from mochin – chabad
Before you wash you have to clean the nails and make sure there isn’t any dirt which would be a chatzitza
When the nails are too long, they’re not connected to the flesh and have more of it’s own separate existence – then the chitzonim overpower it and can get a lot of chayus from it.
Netilas yedayim is derabanan –
Chabad of malchus datzilus is how to internalize what’s above down here – chabad is understanding, internalizing something,
Chitzonim get extra yenika there’s
At that time there was a very wicked kingdom – and that shows that klipa had so much extra chayus and power and yenika lichitzonim – so then they made the mitzvah of netilas yadayim to take away power from klipa

Why do we only need a reviis and not mem saah like a mikva?
If someone touches a tamei person that’s the first degree of tumah – tamei min hatorah – here we’re only doing a reviis, not mem saah, because it’s a second degree tumah – more refined, not physically touching something – so you only need a reviis
(The hands are in asiya – asiya is the first degree of tumah – the tumah of yenika lichitzonim comes from yetzira so it’s a higher more refined level)

Water- we’re drawing down a tikkun onto the nails from chochma of atzilus. Water doesn’t have any color, it’s nothing on its own – it’s neutral – since it’s nothing on its own it’s the level of bittul that can get rid of the yeshus of the tumah

The main halacha is to wash the hands until the knuckle
The end of the fingers include all the 14 bones in the finger and 14 is the gematria of YAD – other rishonim said that we have to wash till the wrist because the hand is generally divided into 3 parts – the first top part is chabad, and since the yenika lichotzinim comes from the top we have to purify the whole hand – the whole hand is associated with chabad – just like chabad is 3 things – chochma, bina, daas- but they are all one thing –chabad
The first water that we wash our hands with represents mayim nukvin – women waters – mayin nukvin is pushing is pushing away chitzonim –

Washing time 1: mayin nukvin, pushing away chitzonim, binah, eim, mekabel – in order to be mekabel have to first clean the kli – gevura is separating into details and that’s the whole idea of the mother and bina – a mother is into details – bina is working the main idea into the details
Washing time 2: mayin duchrin – being mashpia – the hashpaa milmayla is drawing down the hashpaa (the second waters also purify the first waters)

A person in general associates himself with all worlds – a person is a whole world – everything found in the world in general is found in the person. Eating bread is like a battle. Milchama is in lechem – because that’s the battle in a person – the battle within the person with his tayva – whether he’s going to eat it lshem – food has both good and bad – can either elevate it or give in to the bad.

When he eats lshem shamayim it will give him a feeling of true ahavas Hashem in shema because he ate lshem shamayim. If chas veshalom he’ll be very grub and physical- like when the yidden have everything they want it makes them do aveiros – it will bring him to have more tayvos.

This is also true with lechem above – Hashem judges us and gives us sustenance - mazon/ochel is in yetzira – the ochel comes down and there’s good and bad in it – so when we wash we wash away the bad and only get the good hashpaa. When we win the battle and turn the food into good down here – we affect our shoresh above which is the middos of asiya – which receives its shefa from midos of yetzira – when gets hashpaa from the hand of Hashem. It also draws down water from middos of yetzira –

Water – no color because it’s the level of or ein sof that only got to chochma – no middos yet – still a nothing – how can we bring it down-it’s so high? We can only draw it down if it’s in a kli – limited – so that’s why we have to wash from a kli.

The water that we use can’t have any other element in it because mayim has to be pure- no color, no hand touched it, etc. has to be 100% pure – just like mayim elyonim is