Q&A from the Bais HaVaad Halacha Hotline

Lunch Liquid

December 1, 2022

Q I work outdoors and often don’t have access to water for netilas yadayim. May I use snow, ice, or slush? What about beverages like juice, coffee, or seltzer?

A The ideal substance for netilas yadayim is water. The Shulchan Aruch (O.C. 160:12) cites two views about alternatives: One permits all liquids even lechat’chilah (except wine, which is only bedieved), and the other allows them in a she’as hadchak (e.g., if you’re hungry without access to water). The Mishnah Brurah says to follow the stringent view.

Drinks prepared from water, like coffee, tea, and soda, are preferable to natural fruit juices. If anything other than water is used, a bracha is not recited (Sha’ar Hatziyun ibid. 69). According to some, a bracha may be made when using a clear water-based beverage like Sprite or Seven-Up, because it resembles water (Shu”t Or LeTziyon 2:46). Seltzer, even flavored, is considered water, and may be used even lechat’chilah (Or LeTziyon ibid.).

If water becomes available during the meal, one should wash again without a bracha (Sha’ar Hatziyun ibid.).

Ice cubes and snow are unusable even bedieved, because they don’t cover the whole hand. (S.A. O.C. 160:12; see M.B.). The Shulchan Aruch implies that snow that is pulverized until it pours like water may be used bedieved if there is no water, and that would apply equally to slush.

Snow that is unsuited to netilas yadayim may be used in a she’as hadchak for tvilas yadayim—dipping the hands into a mikveh or a body of water containing forty se’ah in lieu of netilah, provided that there is a contiguous forty se’ah of snow and it is deep enough to cover the hands (M.B. ibid. 58). But a bracha should not be made, as this is a matter of debate among the poskim (see Piskei Teshuvos 20 note 78).