Question:
After using a cup for netilas yadayim for bread, and then eating some of the bread, is it a problem to then touch or handle the wet netilas yadayim cup?
Answer:
If you are going to wash each hand with a revii’s of water, or you are going to pour the water over each hand twice before switching hands, according to the Mishna Berura there is no problem with touching the wet handle before washing. This is because according to the Mishna Berura, the water that was touched before starting to wash, is not going to make the hand tameh, and therefore there is no need to make the handle dry. Additionally after the hand is already tahor, the water on the handle cannot make it tameh. (However, if his hand touched that water in middle of his washing that hand, i.e. if he didn’t pour a full reviis over his hand, and he switched hands between pouring the water the first and second time, then the tameh water on the handle will be problematic.) Therefore, if he pours a full reviis at one time over his hand, or even less than a reviis, but he poured the water over his hand twice, before touching the water, then his hand is tahor and the water on the handle will not make it tameh. There are however people who are medakdek for the opinions that the water can make the hands tameh even before starting to wash, therefore they dry the handles of the kli, to avoid any issue.
Sources:
M:B 162-49, Shar Hatzion 162-41. Chazon Ish O:CH 24-23 and others are stringent about this, that the water on the handle can make the hands tameh. However see Orchos Ish Shar. 11 chap. 4, and Piskei Teshuvos 162 ftnt. 74, that if the person’s hand was dry at the time that he washed it, after washing it the wet handle of the kli will not make it tameh anymore. Therefore, according to the Chazon Ish as long as each hand was dry prior to being washed properly, there will not be a need to dry the handles.
