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Bracha of talit katan in the morning

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Rabbi David Sperling

Shevat 14, 5774
Question
I was just wondering about the halacha of waking up in the morning and putting on tallit katan. When I wake up I wash my hands (negal vaser, I delay making the bracha of Netilat Yadayim until I have got dressed and have used the bathroom and washed again) and I put on my tallit katan with a bracha while getting dressed. At this point I have not made Netilat Yadayim, I have only washed my hands for the ruach raah, negal vasser. I was wondering if the bracha should wait until I have made netilat yadayim asher yatzer (and washed a secind time) or can be said before I say netilat yadayim?
Answer
Shalom, Thank you for your question. It is not so clear to me exactly when you are putting on your tallit katan – I understand you have already washed your hands once, but have you used the bathroom yet? The reason I ask is that if you haven't yet gone to the bathroom it is more than likely that you need to urinate, in which case there is no question that you may not say a blessing yet. Even if you have already relieved yourself, when getting dressed you probably touch the covered parts of your body – when changing your underwear for example – and in that case you also may not say a blessing until cleaning your hands. For these reasons it is advisable to wait with the blessing on your tzitzit until after you have washed your hands (what you describe as your second washing) and then say the blessing after the blessings on washing and asher yatzar. This by the way is probably the reason that in all the siddurim I have seen the tzitzit blessing is printed after the blessings for hand washing. However from a purely theoretical perspective, if one had clean hands and did not need to use the bathroom, one could say the blessing on tzitzit before the blessing over washing in the morning. Blessings.
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