It’s A Wash!

However, this Gemara was only discussing fruit or vegetables that are dry. Rebbi Elazar in the name of Rebbi Oshiya states (Pesachim 115a) that one must wash his hands before eating any food that is dipped in a liquid. Wet foods are more susceptible to tum’ah, ritual impurity, and therefore the rabbis decreed stricter measures while consuming wet food items. Some Rishonim do not rule like Rebbe Elazar, but the Shulchan Aruch requires hand washing in the same manner that one washes for bread before eating wet food items, although without a berachah. The Vilna Gaon, on the other hand, rules that washing before consuming wet food items is definitely mandatory and one should wash with a blessing as if he were eating bread!

Since there is a dispute, the consumer is in a pickle. The Lechem Chamudos states that common custom is to be lenient and follow the minority opinion of those Rishonim who do not require netilas yadayim before eating wet food items. The Mishnah Berurah states that one should not follow the Lechem Chamudos and should wash without a berachah. The Aruch HaShulchan (O.C. 158:4) states that most people of his time were accustomed not to be stringent, and they didn’t wash netilas yadayim when eating wet pickles, even when not in a crunch.

The Chofetz Chaim adds that if the wet food item is less than a kezayis (the size of an olive) then one can be lenient and eat it without washing his hands. It is interesting to note that the Chofetz Chaim himself added a footnote on this last item in the second printing of the Mishnah Berurah. The note states, “However, from the Tur (in Hilchos Pesach) it seems not this way. And my opinion is null compared to his.”

The Tur requires hand washing for karpas on the night of Pesach even though our custom is to use a vegetable that is less than the size of an olive. If the karpas were the size of an olive, you would be over a barrel. You would possibly be required to make a berachah acharonah in the middle of the Seder. Preferably, the ha’adamah on the karpas should include the maror as well. A berachah acharonah on the karpas should not be recited, to leave ajar the possibility that the ha’adamah on the karpas will suffice for the maror.

The volumes of the Mishnah Berurah were published in the Chofetz Chaim’s lifetime sequentially. So after the second volume of the Mishnah Berurah was already in its second printing, the fifth volume, which contains hilchos Pesach, was written, There, the Chofetz Chaim writes, “I found a source that supports me. The Rashbatz holds that one should specifically use karpas the size of an olive, as otherwise hand washing is not required!”

Just as an interesting aside, I recall reading that the Chofetz Chaim once passed by a sign announcing his pending arrival in a town. The sign stated that he was the author of Mishnah Berurah on all of Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim. He took out a pen and changed the last few words to read “Author of the Mishnah Berurah on Shulchan Aruch until siman so and so!”

My opening comment on Bobby Bolen and his pickles was not exactly accurate. I was just being cuke. Even if one follows the Mishnah Berurah and washes on wet food items, it is only required before eating. One is not required for the sake of halachah to wash his hands before handling wet food items or before using them as projectiles.

Pickles are a good example of a wet food item. To create a more substantive link to the story above, I would like to note a ruling I saw in the name of R’ Shlomo Zalman, zt’l. In Eretz Yisrael, at a Kiddush it is standard fare to serve Yerushalmi kugel with a pickle. Apparently, the pickle is viewed as secondary to the kugel and eaten together with it. Since the pickle is tafel to the kugel, one does not have to wash before eating the pickle/kugel combination.

The fact that the Yerushalmi kugel is possibly wet and dripping with oil is of no consequence. Firstly, not every item that is wet requires hand washing. It must be wet with one of the “seven liquids”—including wine, bee honey, olive oil, milk, dew, and water. (Blood is number seven, but is anyway prohibited for consumption.) If an item is wet with any oil other than olive oil, hand washing is not required according to all. Further, kugel is generally eaten with a fork. Items that are usually eaten with a fork or spoon do not require hand washing even if eaten by hand (M.B. 158:26). The Chazon Ish used to wash before eating boiled chicken because he felt that chicken is generally eaten by hand, even though he ate it with cutlery.

I hope you relish this article and it becomes an instant vlassic.™