Netilas Yadayim - Feeding Pets

QUESTION: After washing netilas yadayim, I realized I had not yet fed my pets. What should I do?

ANSWER: The Gemara (Berachos 40a) teaches us that it is forbidden to eat before feeding one’s animals. However, one is also not permitted to interrupt between washing netilas yadayim and reciting Hamotzi. What should one do if they realize that they have not fed their pets after they already washed netilas yadayim?

If one has recited the beracha of netilas yadayim and completed drying their hands, although they are not ordinarily permitted to talk, one is permitted to ask someone to feed their animals. This is because this is considered a necessity of the meal, since one cannot eat until they arrange for someone to feed their animals, and it is not viewed as an interruption (see Mishnah Berurah 165:2). Similarly, Mishnah Berurah writes that if one wanted to begin a meal right after using the restroom, and when he washed his hands upon exiting the bathroom he used a cup and a revi’is of water, he should recite the beracha of “al netilas yadayim” and then immediately afterwards recite the beracha of Asher Yatzar. He should not wait to recite Asher Yatzar until after Hamotzi. Although ordinarily one should not speak after netilas yadayim, the beracha of Asher Yatzar is not viewed as an interruption.

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The Gerald & Karin Feldhamer OU Kosher Halacha Yomis is dedicated to the memory of Rav Yisroel Belsky, zt"l, who served as halachic consultant for OU Kosher for more than 28 years; many of the responses in Halacha Yomis are based on the rulings of Rabbi Belsky. Subscribe to the Halacha Yomis daily email here.