Q&A: Is There an Obligation to Wash One’s Feet Every Day?
Is There an Obligation to Wash One’s Feet Every Day?
Question
Maimonides (Prayer 4:3) rules that before the morning prayer one should wash “his face, hands, and feet.” Later authorities speculate that his source is Sabbath 50b: “A person washes his face, hands, and feet every day for the sake of his Maker, as it is said, ‘The Lord has made everything for His own purpose,’” or Hullin 106a, which deals with morning handwashing using the hot springs of Tiberias. Rabbi Yohanan says there that one may immerse in the hot springs of Tiberias, but may not wash his face, hands, and feet there. It follows from this that one must wash one’s feet before prayer. This Jewish law is also brought in the Geonic prayer books and in the Vitry Machzor.
From the Talmudic passages it does not seem entirely clear that there is specifically an obligation before the morning prayer, but apparently there is an obligation every day to wash one’s feet.
Does the Rabbi think there is such a halakhic obligation? Or is there another, more plausible possibility?
Thank you very much!
Answer
That is not the accepted practice, and I do not think there is such an obligation. I just now thought that perhaps this is a Muslim influence.
Discussion on Answer
https://faculty.biu.ac.il/~barilm/articles/publications/publications0029.html
That does seem to follow from the Talmudic passages I cited. Even if it is a Muslim influence (it also appears in the Vitry Machzor—were the Ashkenazim influenced by Muslims?), as long as it was ruled that way by the Great Court, meaning the Babylonian Talmud, we are obligated to observe it, no?