Wash your hands in the morning

You woke up, got dressed, even thanked God for returning your soul: What more could we want? Wait a minute: Did you wash your hands before getting out of bed?

Why? In the Holy Temple, the priests washed their hands before their daily work. Each individual is like a priest in the temple of their home and their heart.

While the body rests, the soul ascends to the heavens to recharge. Only the soul's most basic powers remain, those necessary for the body's functioning. The resulting emptiness allows for a negative spiritual state called Tumá. When we wake up, we wash our hands to remove any traces of that. Tumá.

During the night, our hands frequently touch private areas of the body; so we wash ourselves before praying.

The procedure

Before going to sleep, prepare a bowl of water and an empty basin and place them next to your bed, not under it. When you wake up, after reciting the Aní Mode, Wash your right hand up to the wrist, then your left; repeat and repeat. This washing is called Netilat Yadáim (or, in Yiddish, Neguel Vaser).

The custom in Chabad is that, after washing our hands, getting dressed, sanitizing ourselves, etc., we wash our hands once more and recite the blessing.

Before washing our hands, we do not walk 2 meters, we do not touch clothes, food, or any body orifice, nor do we recite any blessing.

If you didn't wash your hands when you got out of bed, do it as soon as you can! Wash your hands every time you sleep for at least 60 minutes. If it's a nap (of at least that length), wash your hands without saying a blessing.