Touching Shoes and Torah Study

Q. Young children often touch their shoes or scratch their head. If the rebbi stops the lesson each time this happens and sends the children to wash their hands, it will be very disruptive. Can the rebbi ignore this and continue teaching Torah?

A. Rav Eliezer Waldenberg zt”l (Tzitz Eliezer 7:2) writes that teachers of young children should constantly remind the students that Torah should be studied with clean hands, and they should not touch their shoes, or covered parts of their bodies. Still, he writes that one may continue teaching Torah to a child even if his hands become unclean. He cites a correspondence of the Rogatchover Gaon who also allowed teaching Torah to children when their hands were unclean. The Rogatchover cited a proof from the Gemara Megilla 24b. The Gemara states that a child who is improperly dressed may not receive an aliya, because it is an embarrassment to the congregation. Why is the concern only the congregation’s honor and not the impropriety of studying Torah when not being fully dressed? The Rogatchover proves from here that we overlook dress requirements for the sake of children studying Torah, and by the same token children may study Torah with unclean hands. The Tzitz Eliezer explains why this allowance is permitted. Although it is forbidden to cause a child to violate any commandment (e.g., to feed them non-kosher), teaching Torah is different. He compares this to allowing children to eat the Korban Pesach. Although children cannot be part of the group that brings the korban, and only those who are part of the group may eat the korban, nonetheless children may eat for the sake of chinuch (the obligation to train one’s child to perform mitzvos) since there is no other way. So too, regarding teaching Torah to children, the rebbi does not have to send the children to wash their soiled hands. Children are not able to keep their hands clean, and constantly instructing the children to wash their hands would disrupt and ruin the lesson. Since there is no alternative, this leniency is justifiable.

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Today's Halacha Yomis is dedicated in memory of Rav Yosef ben Moshe, Rabbi Yosef Grossman zt"l, whose second yartzeit is today, Daled Shevat. Rabbi Grossman's legacy of zikui harabim (spiritually enabling the Jewish people) lives on with the Halacha Yomis series, which he initiated six years ago, as well as a host of other outstanding OU educational programs that continue to serve Klal Yisrael.