Washing one’s hands is a rabbinical commandment. There are, however, many people who are not knowledgeable about how to perform it. Some wash only their fingertips, and others only one side of the hand and do not move their fingers during the hand-washing. There are also many rules which invalidate the washing. These include keeping one’s rings on and touching a washed hand with an unwashed hand, when one needs to dry one’s hands and wash again, and dirt under the fingernails which must be removed before washing etc. There is well-known statement of Chazal that “One who disrespects hand-washing merits excommunication and becomes poor!”. A person should therefore strengthen himself and be very careful to know all of the laws of hand-washing from holy books and teachers, and wash his hands in the correct way, and his hands will be filled with the blessings of Hashem.
