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Blessing for Netilas Yadayim

Since I was child after I went to the bathrom, I cleaned my hands and made netillat yadaim with a beracha. Now some Shabbatot ago, I went in to the bathroom in my Bet ha-Keneset and like usual I made netillat yadaim with a beracha, and my friend reproached me because, he said, one only does this for the first netillah of the morning. I checked in the Kitzur shulkan Aruch (blessing), and Kizzur Mekor Haim (no blessing). Who is right?

Answer:

Although some poskim rule that a blessing is made even more than once a day after going to the bathroom before prayer (this is the correct practice according to the Vilna Gaon), the almost universal custom is to recite a blessing only once a day, in the morning.

Sources: See Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 4, 46, which mentions the blessing after washing in the morning. See also 92:5, 233:2. Kitzur Shulchan Aruch (12:5, 6) does not mention making another berachah for netillas yadaim before prayer. For repeatedly going to the bathroom he also doesn’t mention the blessing (2:9).


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