There are two halakhot (laws). We said that you have a problem only when you dip something into one of the seven mashkim (liquids). So what happens in one of these cases? Many times, you have halakhot that come up. For example, somebody says, “Okay, I’m eating. Oh, by the way, you don’t have to dip”—we said—“I’m eating a donut.” The donut is full of oil. When you touch it, you get all your hands dirty with oil, et cetera. The answer is that it’s not Shemen Zayit (olive oil). It’s not Shemen Zayit. So if somebody were to make, let’s say, latkes in Shemen Zayit, in olive oil, why do we have to do it at the time? Because Shemen Zayit is one of the seven mashkim. On that topic, actually, there’s a little machloket (dispute). The grand majority of poskim (halakhic authorities) hold that when you say Shemen, it’s Shemen Zayit only. Why? Because the Gemara in Nedarim says, hanoder min hayayin (somebody says a neder (vow) of wine). There are other kinds of wine. They used to say yayin tapuchim (apple cider). In Hebrew, for example, cider—apple cider that is alcoholic—is called yayin tapuchim. The word yayin was always used for a beverage that was alcoholic. But if somebody makes a neder that he’s not going to drink wine, he’s mutar (permitted) to drink yayin tapuchim because it’s not regular wine. So too, when the Torah talks about Shemen, Shemen is specifically olive oil. So even if you say oil in general, that’s not included. Some poskim said that all oils were included, but the halakha (Jewish law) is that it’s only Shemen Zayit.
The other halakha I would like to share with you quickly is from the SeMaK, who says the following. If somebody has a cup of liquid and wants to try it, it should be a kal vachomer (all the more so). What does he do? When nobody is looking, of course, he puts his finger inside the cup and drinks it. So if it’s one of the seven liquids, lichora (seemingly), one would think you have to do netilat yadayim (wash your hands). I mean, if you dip something inside the liquid, you have to do netilat yadayim; kal vachomer, if you’re going to touch the liquid itself. The SeMaK says that this is talking about somebody who’s going to a river and wants to drink some water, or to a fountain and wants to drink some water. The SeMaK says he doesn’t have to do netilat yadayim. Why not? It’s kal vachomer: when you dip, you have to do netilat yadayim; when you drink with the hand, you’re not going to do netilat yadayim. The Beit Yosef and all the poskim explain: No, since it’s not the derech (way) to drink directly with the hand. But usually, when you drink, you use a vessel, you use a cup.
This is all gezerot chachamim (rabbinic decrees). The chachamim (sages) did not gozer (decree) that you do that. The gezerot chachamim apply only to a davar shachiach (common occurrence). Like this morning, Guillermo said that maybe you cannot use a tennis racket because it may break the strings on Shabbat, of course. On Shabbat, I said, “Well, from that perspective, we don’t find that such gezerot exist.” So you could make up gezerot. We cannot make new gezerot. And it’s not a davar shachiach anyway. I mean, how many times do you break a string like this? Therefore, there’s no such thing here either. It’s the same thing the chachamim said: when you eat food, it is davar shachiach; that’s the way it is. You dip something—that’s normal. That’s why it’s called a dip, because they used to dip things. But when it comes to drinking directly from the water, since it’s not davar shachiach, chachamim will not go there. So although it’s counterlogical, the ma'aseh halakha (practical halakha) is that you wouldn’t have to wash your hands for drinking directly with your hands. I mean, it’s a good idea to wash them, but you don’t have to do it at that time. But you would have to do it at that time if you dip something into a liquid.