One of the ancient religious traditions of Judaism is the daily multiple handwashing. This ritual procedure is called “netilat yadayim” in Hebrew. It was obligatory in the morning and before meals, in addition to the hygienic washing of hands. The Torah describes three types of ablution: hands only, feet and hands and the whole body in a special water reservoir.
For ablution they used a special double-handled cup — akort. It was an obligatory item in everyday life of each Jewish family. Most often it was made of copper and used for many years. Ablution cups were rarely decorated or engraved, they usually remained smooth and clean inside and out, but wealthy families could have silver ornamented akorts.
The handles on akorts were paired according to the rules of ablution: a clean hand should only touch a clean handle. Since the first portion of water poured on the hand became dirty, the procedure needed to be repeated several times for each hand. Thus, in the morning, it was necessary to wash hands three times one after the other — first the right hand and then the left hand. Before a meal, the procedure had to be done again, but in a different sequence: first the right hand was washed three times, and after the meal the left hand was washed three times.
In Judaism, handwashing in the morning was obligatory in order to cleanse the hands of the dangerous impurity that appears at night. The soul leaves the body at night, the evil spirit ruach rah takes over of it and remains on the hands. The Talmud says,
For ablution they used a special double-handled cup — akort. It was an obligatory item in everyday life of each Jewish family. Most often it was made of copper and used for many years. Ablution cups were rarely decorated or engraved, they usually remained smooth and clean inside and out, but wealthy families could have silver ornamented akorts.
The handles on akorts were paired according to the rules of ablution: a clean hand should only touch a clean handle. Since the first portion of water poured on the hand became dirty, the procedure needed to be repeated several times for each hand. Thus, in the morning, it was necessary to wash hands three times one after the other — first the right hand and then the left hand. Before a meal, the procedure had to be done again, but in a different sequence: first the right hand was washed three times, and after the meal the left hand was washed three times.
In Judaism, handwashing in the morning was obligatory in order to cleanse the hands of the dangerous impurity that appears at night. The soul leaves the body at night, the evil spirit ruach rah takes over of it and remains on the hands. The Talmud says,
