Is one allowed to put on clothing before washing Netilat Yadayim in the morning? Often, during the winter, people want to put socks on their feet before stepping on the cold floor and going to wash Netilat Yadayim. Is this permissible, or must one be concerned that the impurity will transfer from their hands onto their garments, thus causing harm?
The Ben Ish Hai (Rav Yosef Haim of Baghdad, 1833-1909), in the work for which he was named (Ben Ish Hai, Parashat Toledot, 6), cites the Arizal's teaching that one may not touch his clothing before washing his hands in the morning. He therefore bemoaned the common practice to put on socks before stepping on the cold floor in the morning during the winter.
Hacham Ovadia Yosef, however, questions this ruling, noting that there is no indication in the Gemara that the hands contaminate garments or utensils before the morning hand-washing. Indeed, one obviously touches the handles of the washing cup before washing, and clearly there is no concern that the impurity will adversely affect the cup. For that matter, one touches his bedding before washing in the morning, and nowhere do we find any requirement to wash one's bedding each day because it is contaminated.
Moreover, the Ben Ish Hai elsewhere – in Od Yosef Hai (Parashat Toledot, 10) – seems to have retracted this position. There the Ben Ish Hai brings the Minhat Aharon as ruling that one may not touch his garments before washing in the morning, but he then observes that very few people observe this stringency. He suggests that the harmful forces on one's hands do not affect garments, and so this is allowed – in direct contradistinction to his comments in Ben Ish Hai.
Some proposed reconciling this contradiction by noting that the Od Yosef Hai was published posthumously by disciples of the Ben Ish Hai, and it is thus possible that they may have introduced their own opinions into the text. If so, then the lenient ruling in Od Yosef Hai does not represent the Ben Ish Hai's authentic position. Hacham Ovadia, however, vehemently dismisses this claim, writing that he personally knew the Ben Ish Hai's disciple who printed Od Yosef Hai – the great sage Rav Bension Hazan (1877-1951) – and he could certainly be trusted to authentically present the actual words of the Ben Ish Hai. Evidently, the Ben Ish Hai retracted his stringent opinion, and concluded that one may, in fact, touch his clothing before washing in the morning.
Nevertheless, the Kabbalists taught the importance of keeping water beside one's bed so he can wash immediately upon waking, before touching anything. (One must ensure to keep the water next to the bed, and not underneath the bed, as food and water situated beneath a bed while someone sleeps on it becomes impure.) Rav Yisrael Bitan writes that those who follow this stringency are worthy of blessing, but this recommendation is only for the especially pious. He adds that there is certainly no need to be stringent if one goes to sleep after halachic midnight, in light of the Kabbalistic teaching that the impurity descends upon the hands only when one sleeps at the moment of halachic midnight.
Summary: It is permissible to touch one's clothing and even to get dressed before washing Netilat Yadayim in the morning. The Kabbalists follow the custom to keep water next to their bed so they can wash immediately in the morning, but this practice is reserved for the especially pious.