We continue with the halachot (Jewish laws) of talking between Netila (ritual handwashing) and Hamotzi (blessing over bread). We saw that it’s a chumra (stringency), a midat chasidut (pious practice)—very nice. It’s important to know what’s midat chasidut and what’s halacha, because I’ll give you an example. Hacham Ovadia is cholek (disagrees) with several poskim (halachic authorities) who say that somebody who is noheg (acts in this manner), for example, if a poor person comes and asks someone for assistance exactly between the Netilat and... I know it’s not very practical; it could happen. The person is noheg not to talk, so he will be prompted to say nothing, delay it, or things like that. Hacham Ovadia says that’s exactly why we need to know what’s halacha and what’s midat chasidut. In this case, you have a mitzvah (commandment) in front of you, and you say... And you have a midat chasidut at the same time. Which one goes first? At 100%, no question, bichlal (absolutely), you take care of the poor person and say whatever you need to say. Because right now, you have a mitzvah and a midat chasidut. If you think this is halacha, you may have a little bit of a... You would say, “I’m not allowed to talk.” No, you are allowed to talk. You’re noheg not to talk, very nice. But you’re doing it for a mitzvah; you have a chiyuv (obligation) to take care of this poor person right now. Just an example. It would be the same for more classic things, like answering amen (so be it). Anything involving Kedushah (holiness), anything involving a mitzvah: at that point, since this is just a midat chasidut, a person is obligated to take care of the mitzvah, the davar shebikdushah (sacred matter), and ignore that midat chasidut. That is because now we know, from the way halacha is constructed, that this is a chumra, a midat chasidut—beautiful, and I got to do. But it’s not a chiyuv.
Another example, not exactly on the same line: many times, people design their houses or want to make changes so that they’ll have a sink for netilat yadayim (ritual handwashing) in the same room where they do kiddush (blessing over wine), usually the dining room. Why is that? Many times, it’s based on not having a Hefsek (interruption) between the netilat yadayim and the Hamotzi. Some actually quote the Magen Avraham, and it’s very interesting. Magen Avraham says, “If somebody goes out from his place of kiddush, what happens if you make a Hefsek between the kiddush and the Seudah (meal)? Does that mevatel (invalidate) the kiddush, or not?” Magen Avraham says that if he went out of his place, he needs to say the kiddush again. So a lot of poskim, including the Chayei Adam, Shulchan Aruch HaRav, and Shulchan Atzei Shittim, hold that it’s a big problem. According to the Magen Avraham, if you leave the room after making kiddush in order to do netilat yadayim, and then come back for the Hamotzi, it would be a Hefsek between the two. This isn’t exactly our halacha here, but it would be a Hefsek between the two.
Hacham Ovadia brings other poskim who disagree. They say, “No, that’s if you went out of that room and wanted to eat somewhere else. That’s what the Magen Avraham meant. It doesn’t say that he wants to eat in another room.” That could be sometimes they say kiddush in the kitchen, and then they're going to eat in the dining room. That doesn’t work. It has to be... That would be the case. Hacham Ovadia says, al pi halacha (according to Jewish law), there’s no problem. You’re going to tell me there’s a Hefsek because you went out of the room to another room to do netilat yadayim? That’s not necessary. Again, this is midat chasidut. It’s not necessary. You could do netilat yadayim in another room. There’s no Hefsek, not between the kiddush and the netila, and not between the netila and the Hamotzi. There is no problem. So it’s not only because of the Semichut (proximity) between the netila and the Hamotzi that I put the sink in the same room; it’s also because of the kiddush, the netila, and the Hamotzi. At the end of the day, the halacha lema’aseh (practical halacha) with all that is that all this is midat chasidut, but it is not binding halacha. It’s very, very important to know, because again, if somebody has the chumra at home, they have the netilat yadayim closer to the table. They go to another person’s house and they don’t have it like that, well, they’re going to freak out. Now, halacha lema’aseh, it’s not a problem, and there’s no Hefsek between them. It’s good to always know what halacha is and what the chumra is, bechavod.