(א) איזו מים כשרים ואיזו פסולים לנטילה. ובו טו סעיפים:
מים שנשתנו מראיהן בין מחמת עצמן בין מחמת דבר שנפל לתוכן בין מחמת מקומם פסולים:
Which water is kosher or not for washing your hands with:
Water that has had it's appearance changed doesn't work to wash your hands with, whether from itself or from something that fell into it or from it's location.
Because something fell into it- like ink or other types of dyes (even if the dye didn't disolve into the water, but was merely soaked in the water and the water changed in appearance). The same would apply to smoke or something else because only if the water changed by itself is it kosher. Therefore if it changed because of dust and mud that is mixed into it, that is not called a change in color because the way of natural water is to get mixed with dust and mud and eventually, if you wait, the way is to become clear again.
If you did work with the water or soaked bread in it (even if you intended to soak your bread in one vessel of water and it fell into a second), that water is pusul for washing. If you cool wine in water, the water is pusul. If you wash vessels with water, that water is pusul (unless the vessels were already washed or new). If you dunk bread loaves into water, that water is pusul. But if you dunk your hands into water and smear it on the surface of bread or cup a handful of water and put that on, the water that is left in the jug hasn't "done work" and is kosher still as long as it's appearance hasn't changed. Rama: So too water that the baker rinsed his hands in to get off dough stuck to them.
Work- because when a person uses water for a thing that he needs, it is made into waste that he will pour out, and such water is pusul for washing.
The baker washes- because most hands that are involved with dough are clean without dirt and it's like washing vessels that were already washed above. Regarding the dough itself, you would have to say that it's not work to remove it, perhaps because you could remove it without washing. The Taz argues on this and proves it from the Rambam who considers it complete work to wash your hands from dough. The Rashal and other achronim agree with him.
Water that is in front of a blacksmith is pusul even if it hasn't changed in appearance, because it's known that he does work with it (that is, he cools metal with it). Water in front of a barber is pusul if it's appearance changed but kosher if it has not.
In front of a barber- Because he sometimes washes his instruments and such in it, but it is not assumed that he washed there so it is kosher in our uncertainty.
If chickens drank from water or dogs lapped from it, some say that water is pusul, but they don't seem to be correct. Rather whether from these animals or others, the water is kosher.
Whether from etc. the water is kosher- Achronim argue on this topic. Regarding chickens and other animals and birds, the water is kosher, but if a dog or pig drinks from it, it is pusul because it is gross now. The Chai Adam writes that in a pinch, you can rely on the Shulchan Aruch and permit even these. If a snake drank from there, you also shouldn't wash with it. Water that was merely left uncovered, you don't have to be concerned that perhaps a snake drank from it because that is uncommon. Even people who are careful not to drink from such water don't have to be strict about washing with it. Pusul water that is mixed with kosher water is nullified if it is the minority. You can then use that to finish your washing, even if you only end up with a reviis (the precise amount you need to wash) as long as the appearance didn't change.
Water only becomes pusul when it has been drawn (whether it is currently in a vessel or the ground), but water in a mikvah or a spring doesn't become pusul as long as it is still connected (to the original body of water).
You can wash your hands with water that was heated with fire even if it is so hot you would retract your hand if you touched it [that is, hot enough that a baby would be burnt by it].
You can dunk your hands in the hot springs of Tiberias (so you can eat bread), but you can't use it to wash your hands with a cup. If you pour the water along the ground in a ditch outside of it's source and you divide between that water and the spring it flowed from: if the separated water has enough volume to be a mikvah, you can dunk your hands in it, but if not, you can't. If that water is still connected to the spring Rashi and the Rashba say that you can't dunk your hands in it, but Rabeinu Yonah says that you could.
To dunk in them- Like all springs, because the hot springs of Tiberias are springs. [So they work to purify your hands] even if they don't have 40 saah of water.
Not with a cup- Even if the water is cold, it doesn't work because it's not fit for a dog to drink.
The reason that the hot springs of Tiberias don't work to dunk your hands is that they are not fit for a dog to drink, but if hot water came out of a spring that was fit for a dog to drink, you could wash your hands with it.
The dog- Even though it has changed from other water and is not good enough for people to drink, since it is still fit for a dog to drink, it is kosher to dunk your hands in. According to those who are stringent to not allow hot water in general, they certainly do not allow hot spring water.
Salt water or gross water or water that is so bitter that a dog couldn't drink it do not work to dunk your hands in even though they would be kosher for immersion in a mikvah. If they are dirty from mud that is mixed in them, if a dog could drink from them they are kosher for washing hands or mikvah immersion, but if a dog couldn't drink from it, it doesn't work for either.
Salt water- Sea water. If it is cooked, it goes back to being drinkable by a dog and is kosher for washing. Immersing in it as a mikvah is always kosher like all bodies of salt water.
That a dog wouldn't etc- since they are so gross that even a dog couldn't drink from them, it's as if it is no longer water and the Sages decreed that it no longer work for washing your hands.
You can wash your hands in anything that originates from the water, for instance red worms or fish fat (seemingly only while it is still moist because it is no better than snow.)
Water that is questionable if work was done with it or not or if there is a question if you used enough or not or if it's impure or pure or if you aren't sure if you washed your hands or not- you are allowed to eat bread in that situation [and any questionable case of hand cleanliness is ok]. Some say that if there is other water, you should wash your hands and remove yourself from doubt. Rama: If someone who didn't wash their hands touches the water in a cup, that does not invalidate that water or make it impure, but you can't wash your hands with water that someone else washed with.
Questionable if etc.- That is, whether you had a questions after washing or even before washing, it is mutar to wash your hands with it if there is no other water.
If there is enough- With this, it is specifically if you had the question after you washed your hands, but before not. Because someone who simply does not know how to measure out if there is enough is not called a "case of doubt". A "doubt" in a debate between poskim is like any doubt, that since it hasn't been resolved it is a doubt in a Rabbinic enactment and you can be lenient.
Impure or pure- that is, water that is valid or invalid, because for washing for unconsecrated food, it is irrelevant if water is pure or impure.
Pure- The reason is that washing is rabbinic, and we are not stringent in a case of doubt Even if you have multiple doubts together, it is kosher.
All doubt about purity etc- for instance if the vessel was complete or not or any similar doubt.
Wash hands- The Beis Yosef infers that it is good to go back for more water since if he didn't wash properly it could cause poverty.
And take himself out etc- If he knew that he washed properly and afterwards a doubt was created, for instance he's not sure if he removed his thoughts from the bread or not or he didn't remove his thoughts but he stretched out his hand by a dirty place and he's not sure if he touched it or not- he does not need to to go back and wash again to remove himself from doubt because he had a status quo of kosher hands.
Doesn't invalidate- Like the case of the baker, that even though if you wash one hand and rub it on the second hand, it ruins the water on his hand, water in a vessel isn't ruined by touching it. Therefore if you are leaving the bathroom and go to wash your hands, you can scoop with your hands from a bucket and pour the water outside, then the water that remains in the bucket is kosher to wash your hands with for your meal. If you wipe your hands on the bucket itself to purify them, this is called doing work with all of the water and invalidates it, even if your hands weren't really dirty, you just needed to clean them because you touched a dirty place, the water is made into water you would pour out.
Snow, hail, freezing rain, ice, or salt that is crushed enough to make water- you can wash your hands with them or dunk your hands in them if there is enough. Some say that the first pour has to be specifically from water. Some say you can use wine for washing your hands, whether you put water in it first or not, but you shouldn't do so ideally because you shouldn't denigrate important things that have been improved upon (some say that is all only with white wine, not red wine.) Some say any fruit juice works to wash your hands in a pinch (all the more so you could wash with beer or cooked honey water since they are primarily water.)
Freezing rain- rain that freezes when it falls and is like hail.
If you crush it etc.- but without this, you can't wash with this, but if you are in a pinch like where there is no water, you could dunk your hands even in salt that has not been crushed. Even if there isn't so much snow in one place, rather it is spread over the ground thinly and there is 40 saah connected together, you can dunk in it. In any case, it seems that you would require at least enough to cover your hands in the place that you stick them.
There are some that say etc.- This isn't going on the beginning of this section, since those things are considered water, rather to the specific exclusion of fruit juice that isn't considered water, and all the more so wine. The reason is that hand washing is supported by the verse "and he did not wash his hands in water," therefore you need specifically water.
There are those that say that all fruit juice etc.- This is the third opinion in the debate between wine and fruit juice. Wine is invalid even post facto according to the first opinion, but fruit juice would work in a pinch since they hold that all fruit juice is called water except wine. In law, you should teach like this opinion, to be stringent with wine, but lenient with fruit juice in a pinch.
There needs to be a reviis of water for one person to wash his hands. But if two people wash there hands as one, the second person doesn't require a second reviis, even if they wash in sequence, as long as there is no interruption of the flow of water. How? If there was a reviis of water in a vessel and one person stretched out his hands under it and it pours on his hands, and a second person streches forth his hands under and near the hands of the first person, and the stream flows on the hands of the first onto the hands of the second that is underneath- both of their hands are pure. This is even though that there is less than a reviis that will reach the second person's hands, since it came from a vessel that had a reviis- the hands are all pure. Some permit this even if it is one after the other since when the first one started, there was a reviis in the cup, that full volume works for the second person as well to purify him. In this way, with two reviis volume of water you can wash three or four peoples hands, or with four reviis volume you could wash many people's hands, as long as there is enough water to pour three times on each person's hands. By the same reasoning, you could put four or five hands next to each other or on top of each other and wash them all together as long as they are loose enough that the water will get to all of them.
That there is a reviis volume of water- Because that is how the Sages decreed for hand washing. You wash twice, once to purify the hands and a second time to purify the water on the hands. If you pour a full reviis at once on both hands, this will also purify the hands even though he only poured one time. All of this is only when water is scarce, but if water is plentiful, it is good to use abundant water.
Three times- The Tur says two times, because the main washing for purity is two times, just if there is dirt on you that would get in the way, you need to wash once before to remove the dirt.
There needs to be a reviis of water collected in one place, so if one washes his hands from one vessel with half a reviis and washes again with another vessel that has half a reviis, his hands remain impure.
The reviis we mentioned applies whether your hands are large or small. Two people who place their hands on top of each other and the first then places his second hand under those- that is considered like three people. Therefore, if the there is the volume of two reviis in the cup, they are all pure, but if not, the second person's hands are still impure, because you need two reviis volume to wash more than two people's hands.
Small hands- of a small person.
They are like three people- Because that which we are lenient to allow one reviis to purify two people's hands is specifically when the first person has his two hands together and the second person has his hands together afterwards. But here, the first person only washed one hand, then the water went to the second person's hand, it's as if we already washed two people's hands, so when the first puts his hand under all of that, it's as if he is a third person and the reviis no longer works for that.