Room three hundred sixty-nine in the palace of day-to-day life.
Wednesday, the 4th of Kislev, 5704 (1943).
Lessons: Chumash, Vayetzei, fourth reading, with the commentary of Rashi.
Psalms, the 4th of the month, we recite from chapter 23 through chapter 28 inclusive.
Tanya, we continue in Kuntres Acharon, in the fourth section — and today's lesson is the fourth part of it. We begin on page 156 with the words "משא"כ [what is not so]," and conclude on page 312 with the words "one who studies the secret."
The daily saying concerns a brief custom observed during the washing of mayim acharonim (the final waters), before Grace After Meals. In the Shulchan Aruch, Siman 180, Se'if 1, it is written that for mayim acharonim one must wash up to the second knuckle of the fingers. The Mishnah Berurah writes on this that some have the practice of placing only drops on the tips of the fingers, and he expresses opposition to this, as it does not find favor in his eyes. On the contrary, some say that the amount of water from which one pours over the fingers should be at least a revi'is of water.
After the various opinions in halacha were brought, there is in the Chida — one of the kabbalists — who writes the opposite: that it is very proper to minimize the mayim acharonim (final waters), since they go to the "chitzonim" (external forces), and one should not give them abundance but only a little.
Here I wish to note how we conduct ourselves, and this is also the practice in additional places, according to the custom of the Mekubalim. I will read the wording of the first part: "For mayim acharonim one washes the tips of the fingers" — for we do not have the custom to wash up to the second joint of the fingers, even though this is what is written in halacha, but rather in practice one washes only the tips of the fingers.
There is a further continuation to the custom: "and one passes them over the lips while they are still moist" — after the fingers have taken a little water upon them, one passes them, while they are still moist, over the lips, moistening them, and thereby cleansing this part of the mouth as well.
It is interesting to note that in the Shulchan Aruch this point is not mentioned. The Shulchan Aruch states that one must perform mayim acharonim — out of concern for the Sodomite salt that once existed — but the matter of passing the fingers over the lips does not appear in it. Where does this indeed appear? In the Gemara. There is a well-known story in the Gemara, from which the Gemara says that "mayim acharonim killed a person": a story about a certain man, that because a sign was brought that he had eaten lentils, in the end a murder was caused. From here the Gemara brings proof of how careful one must be regarding mayim acharonim.
Rashi there explains the connection between the evidence about the lentils and mayim acharonim. For it is the practice of those who wash their hands to wipe their mustache with their wet hands, and had he behaved this way, his mouth would have been clean and they would not have known what he ate. This, then, is the apparent source in Rashi for the custom, even though it is not written in the Shulchan Aruch.
There are even those who object to this custom, arguing that mayim acharonim are waters containing a ruach ra'ah (an evil spirit), so how can one pass them over the mouth? But it is written regarding this that the matter is unrelated: which waters have a ruach ra'ah upon them? The waters that drip from the hands into the second vessel — there is a ruach ra'ah there; but the waters that remain on the fingers have no ruach ra'ah in them, and therefore when one cleans the lips with them there is no problem whatsoever, and the matter is entirely in order. And this is in fact what is written here — what our custom is at the time of performing mayim acharonim.