אַאַמוּ"ר כּוֹתֵב בְּאֶחָד מִמִּכְתָּבָיו: עַל פִּי הֲגָהוֹת אָשְׁרִ"י נְטִילַת יָדַיִם לִסְעוּדָּה ג' פְּעָמִים רְצוּפוֹת, כֵּן הָיָה עוֹשֶׂה אַאַמוּ"ר — (מַהַרַ"ש, נִשְׁמָתוֹ עֵדֶן) — וּמַנִּיחַ מִשְּׁפִיכָה הַג' מְעַט מַיִם בְּכַף יָד הַשְּׂמָאלִית וּבָזֶה מְשַׁפְשֵׁף שְׁתֵּי יָדָיו.

My revered father, the Rebbe [Rashab], writes in a letter: “According to Hagahos Oshri,1 when washing our hands for a meal we should pour [water from a vessel] three times consecutively [over each hand]. My revered father, the Rebbe [Maharash], would conduct himself in this manner. He would leave a little water from the third pouring in the palm of his left hand and would rub this over both hands.”

To Fill In the Background

Several distinguished chassidic rabbis who had been invited to the table of the Rebbe Rashab once observed that he washed his hands before the meal in the above manner. One of them asked him the halachic source for his conduct. The Rebbe Rashab answered that he did not recall the source offhand, but that before reaching the age of bar-mitzvah, inspired by an instruction of his father, he had trained each organ of his body to act in accordance with the halachah. “So if I wash each hand three times,” he concluded, “this must clearly have a written source.”2