By Rabbi Yosef C. Pinkus

Dear Rabbi Pinkus:

Even though the ice and snowstorm are finished, they have remained a constant topic of conversation at our table. My son was off school for a few days and spent much of that time playing outside. At one point, he asked whether he could wash his hands in the snow before eating his sandwich. I suppose he really didn’t want to go back inside. Would that have been allowed?

— Eliana

Dear Eliana,

Hopefully the cold weather is behind us for this year and this question remains hypothetical.

Before directly addressing your question, let me clarify what is being asked. Before eating bread, there is a rabbinic-level commandment to wash one’s hands. Aside from the obvious hygiene benefits, washing one’s hands serves as a spiritual preparation for the meal, cleansing us before eating. The Talmud explains that this requirement developed because the kohanim — the priests — would wash their hands before eating their food. This food, known as teruma, consisted of priestly portions donated by the Jewish people. Because teruma had a special level of sanctity, it was meant to be eaten in a heightened spiritual state. This practice of handwashing began with the priests and was later extended to the non-priestly population.

The Aruch HaShulchan (158:1–2), a 19th-century European rabbi and halachic decisor, explains that this practice serves multiple purposes. First, it protects teruma from ritual defilement by extending standards of cleanliness to regular food. Second, it reflects the Torah’s instruction of v’hitkadishtem — “sanctify yourselves” (Vayikra 11:44) — encouraging a general sense of cleanliness that leads to purity and holiness. Practically speaking, washing one’s hands helps reorient a person before a meal. Rather than immediately digging into the food, we pause, and through washing our hands, we symbolically place G-d first. This practice was codified as halachic law in Mishnaic times, more than 2,000 years ago.

Because of the parallel between handwashing before eating bread and spiritual purification, the washing has specific requirements, similar to those observed by the priests during their ritual handwashing. For example, the water should be poured from a vessel, and it should be poured twice on each hand. This brings us back to your son’s question: Could snow be used to fulfill this requirement?

The Shulchan Aruch (160) explains that if a person finds themself without access to regular water, they should gather snow and melt it into a cup for washing. Many commentators rule that in pressing circumstances, if there is a clean, untouched patch of snow, one could dip their hands directly into the snow and fulfill the requirement that way.

In your son’s case, regular water was presumably available, so he should have gone inside to wash properly. However, if the pipes were frozen and no water was accessible, he could have used snow — ideally by melting it into a cup, or, if absolutely necessary, by dipping his hands directly into it, as described above.

Rabbi Yosef Pinkus is a rabbi at the Dallas Community Kollel, a division of the Dallas Area Torah Association. Submit questions to him at asktherabbi@tjpnews.com.