Before examining the university research, we need to analyze the ritual itself.
Hand-Washing versus Hand-Raising
No one, from the Sages to the Orthodox Union to Aish to anyone else, has offered any reasonable explanation for why water poured over the hands before eating bread is concluded by the bәrâkh•âhꞋ of ðÀèÄéìÇú éÈãÇéÄí — lifting up of hands. They all degenerate to circular reasoning based on assuming the bәrâkh•âhꞋ first, therefore… No one answers: Why this bәrâkh•âhꞋ for hand-washing? It would seem the converse is more important: Why hand-washing for this bәrâkh•âhꞋ ?
Ta•na"khꞋ never uses this verb in connection with washing – or even raising (!) – the hands. The verb is found only 6 times in Ta•na"khꞋ :
ðåÉèÅì (pa•alꞋ ) – ShƏmu•eilꞋ Beit 24.12;
éÄèÌåÉì (pa•alꞋ ) – Yәsha•yâhꞋ u 40.15;
åÇéÀðÇèÌÀìÅí (pi•eilꞋ ) – Yәsha•yâhꞋ u 63.9;
ðÈèÇì (pa•alꞋ ) – Eikh•âhꞋ 3.28;
ðÅèÆì – Mi•shәl•eiꞋ ShәlomꞋ oh 27.3 and
ðÄèÀìÅú – Dâniy•eilꞋ 4.31 &
åÌðÀèÄìÇú – Dâniy•eilꞋ 7.4.
Notice that none of these passages have any connection whatsoever to washing.
Ta•na"kh′ uses entirely different terms for both: hand-washing and hand-raising. Translated according to A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language For Readers of English, passages that deal with washing of hands (and feet, together usually) use the verb øÈçÇõ and raising of the hands use the verb ðÈùÒÈà.
According to the concluding bәrâkh•âhꞋ , this is not principally hand-washing but hand-lifting! The bәrâkh•âhꞋ implies that pouring water over the hands is mere preparation for the hand-lifting before eating bread. Another question then arises: why lift hands before eating bread? And neither the rabbis nor anyone else answers that question!
Biblical Customs
A clue is contained in the customs associated with hand-washing. Among other customs, the "handwashing" ritual includes one of special interest in this context: raising our hands after washing, allowing the water to drip downward toward our wrists, as if our hands were reaching upward through moist clouds toward the heavens.
Although we realize today that the earth is a globe and, consequently there is no absolute "up" from the surface of the earth toward the heavens, and that é--ä is everywhere in, and beyond, our universe, nevertheless, this is the simplistic way the ancients envisioned praying toward Yәru•shâ•laꞋ yim and, from there, "upward" toward the heavens where they thought é--ä dwelled. (Prior to that, borrowing from the Egyptians, Yi•sә•râ•eilꞋ accepted the belief that ël•oh•imꞋ (viz., spirits and nәphâsh•otꞋ ) lived in "holy mountains," upon which they built temples with three-tiered, tri-holy sanctums up through which, by means of a false door carved into the rock (see photo and explanation in my book, The Mirrored Sphinxes), they believed the ël•oh•imꞋ could emerge from the holy mountain into the most holy and separated third-sanctum of its "dwelling" (temple) to eat the "essences" of the sacrificed foods. (The physical foods, believed by them to be hulls sans their conjectured "holy essences," supposedly eaten by the ël•oh•imꞋ , were subsequently devoured by the priests.)
"The washing of hands is required before eating a meal at which bread is served… The origin of this law, however, is biblical ([Shәm•otꞋ ] 30.17-21). [Mosh•ëhꞋ ] was commanded to make a copper laver and to place it at the entrance to the [Miz•beiꞋ akh] area so that [A •ha•ronꞋ ] and his sons could wash their hands before approaching the [Miz•beiꞋ akh] to offer sacrifices. Verse 20 concludes, "…and it shall be for them a [khâq] forever." The washing of hands makes them ritually pure. This symbolic expression of washing away impurity from one's hands dates back to [the Beit ha-Miq•dâshꞋ era], when the [Kohan•imꞋ ], as described above with [A •ha•ronꞋ ], devoted their lives to the [Beit ha-Miq•dâshꞋ ] and its sacrificial system. Before performing any ritual, a Ko•heinꞋ was required to wash his hands, making himself pure and ready to offer a sacrifice.
When the [Beit ha-Miq•dâshꞋ ] was destroyed in 70 CE, the table in [the home of an Orthodox Jew] came to represent the [Beit ha-Miq•dâshꞋ ] [Miz•beiꞋ akh]. The bread placed on it symbolizes the offerings that were once brought to the [Kohan•imꞋ ]. The Sages, who believed that the [Beit ha-Miq•dâshꞋ ] and the [KƏhun•âhꞋ ] would be restored, did not want the practice of washing hands before handling an offering or performing a ritual to be forgotten, and so washing the hands before a meal was strictly enforced. Today, Orthodox and traditional Jews still wash their hands before eating bread." (Jewish Virtual Library citing Kolatch, Alfred J., The Second Jewish Book of Why, Jonathan David Publishers, Inc.; Middle Village, New York, 1985.
Symbolisms
The Biblical Judaic Symbolisms (as contrasted with some modern innovations) are:
Hands—of an òåÉáÅã é--ä (popularly misrendered "servant of ha-SheimꞋ )—constitute (along with, secondarily, "natural occurrences" and inadvertent goy•imꞋ ) the primary éÈã é--ä.
(é--ä operates secondarily through natural occurrences and inadvertent goy•imꞋ , but primarily through the hands of His workers—Yi•sә•râ•eilꞋ , i.e., Yәhud•imꞋ .)
MaiꞋ yim KhaiꞋ yim — the cleansing waters of the Kohan•im′ purification ritual before offering sacrifices (today tәphil•ot′) and of the miq•wëhꞋ , concluding tәshuv•âhꞋ , the prerequisite to ki•purꞋ .
LëkhꞋ ëm—symbolizing the Bread of Life: Tor•âhꞋ .
Thus, the hand-washing / hand-lifting symbolizes our preparation to serve é--ä with upraised hands, making tәshuv•âh′ as often as necessary, to shoulder His Tor•âh′ as His òåÉáÅã é--ä.
"Is there such a thing as soap and water for the psyche? Yes: Metaphor is that powerful, say Spike W.S. Lee and Norbert Schwarz of the University of Michigan…"
Religious rites like baptism make psychological sense, the article suggests. Says Lee: “Cleansing is about the removal of residues.” By washing the hands, taking a shower, or even thinking of doing so, “people can rid themselves of a sense of immorality, lucky or unlucky feelings, or doubt about a decision. The bodily experience of removing physical residues can provide the basis of removing more abstract mental residues…”
Cleansing works for other mental discomforts, too, such as post-decision doubt. To resolve this doubt, people who opted for one of two similar jams felt better about their choice after making the decision, a well-known tendency called choice justification. But if people were given a hand wipe to use, they no longer justified their choice: They had wiped off their doubt. Using soap showed similar results after a bad luck streak in gambling: After washing, participants started to bet higher stakes, suggesting they had “washed away” their bad luck.
But we can’t conclude that people who bathe a lot are happier. “Cleansing removes the residual influence of earlier experience,” says Lee. If that experience was positive, it would go down the drain too. In fact, washing one’s hands after reminiscing about a positive event limits the warm glow of happy memories, leaving people less satisfied.
