This little handwashing is a remnant of the purity practices that originate in Biblical times.  It had nothing to do with hygiene.  But tonight, it is the ritual of most prominence.  It can help us defeat our tiny oppressor.  Do we really need to wash 14 or 15 times tonight, as our revised order-of-seder says?  Of course not.  But it is a reminder that our habits in these unusual times must change.  (When you do wash for hygiene, remember to do so with soap for 20 seconds -- about the time it takes to sing a chorus of "Dayeinu.")


haggadah Section: Urchatz