Q&A: Something That Cleans
Something That Cleans
Question
What is the point, in a case where hand washing is required but one has no water, of cleaning with a pebble or with some other cleaning substance? Or, according to the Rosh, who says that after sleep there is certainly a presumption that one’s hands touched an unclean area—what exactly is this presumption, and what exactly is the point of a cleaning substance? Let him just look and see whether there is dirt on his hands and clean it off; and if there isn’t, then what is the point of using a cleaning substance—especially a pebble, which only makes things dirtier? And it is even harder to understand according to those who require even ordinary hands that were left unattended to be cleaned with some cleaning substance before prayer. What is this all about?
Answer
You do not always see the dirt. If someone touched an unclean area, can you necessarily see that?
Discussion on Answer
I was not talking about mysticism. You cannot see bacteria either, and doctors still disinfect their hands before medical procedures.
But in Jewish law this is not about something you cannot see.
After all, in the end he needs to clean off the dirt, and this is also proven from the view that ordinary hands do not require washing—only if one sees dirt on them. That is, it relies on sight.
A. Yes, exactly—so there is nothing to clean; we are not talking about mystical impurity.
B. Do we really worry about something microscopic that cannot be seen?
That does not make sense.
And if so, then you should also worry that in the dirt you are using to clean there are lots of tiny bits of excrement from all sorts of people that you do not see.