Netilas Yadayim - Children

QUESTION: When teaching Torah to young children, it is common for them to touch their shoes or scratch their head. If the rebbi must stop the lesson each time and send the child to wash his hands, it will cause a great disruption. Can the rebbi continue teaching Torah even though he knows the child’s hands are unclean?

ANSWER: Rav Eliezer Waldenberg zt”l (Tzitz Eliezer 7:2) discusses this issue. He writes that those teaching young children should constantly remind them that Torah must 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 dirty. He cites a correspondence of the Rogatchover Gaon on this topic. The Rogatchover was lenient and cited as a proof the Gemara Megilla 24b. The Gemara writes that a child who is undressed may not get an aliya, because it is an embarrassment to the congregation. The Gemara is only concerned about the honor of the congregation and not with the issue that one who is undressed may not study Torah. The Rogatchover proves from here that we are not concerned if children study Torah unclothed, and the same would apply if their hands are dirty. The Tzitz Eliezer explains that 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 including children in the bringing of a 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, still because of Chinuch (the obligation to train one’s child to perform mitzvos) they are allowed to eat, since there is no other way. So too, regarding teaching Torah to children—since they cannot keep their hands clean, and sending them to wash their hands every few minutes would ruin the lesson, it is considered as though there is no other way.

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