Negel Vasser seems impossible

I wash negel vasser in the morning after I get dressed make my bracha on my tzitzis and go to the bathroom. Apparently I got it all backwards, really one should immediately wash his hands and make a netilas yedayim upon putting their feet on the ground, withot walking 4 amos which I am told is about 8 feet give or take a little. I am also told that I cannot take the water to wash negel vassr with from the bathroom. Furthermore I am also shocked to find out that on the 6^th page of the Shulchan Orech it mentions the laws of negel vasser and their importance. In the Kitzur Shulchan Orech it mentions this halacha on the fourth page.

I got to thinking in the past couple days about the importance of this halacha while not wanting to get out of bed to say kriays shema on time. My roommate comes barging in with the nu’s and uh’s referring to my hands full of tuma about to say shema which is totally assur. It got me to thinking how much wrong I really do and how hard of a mitzvah or halacha negel vasser is. Maybe its from all this Tanya I have been learning or maybe its just from general willpower to improve my self but I want to rock the negel vasser. The more I think about it the more I realize its near impossibility for most folks.

My roommate went on a rant tonight about how I could have gone to black hat yeshiva and not have ever been taught this basic yet difficult halacha. Its true that I don’t remember having learned it and know of very few people that keep this mitzvah to the tune of placing a basin with the washing cup in it by their bed, aI always used to think that was kind of chumra and all those people who had a bowl with a cup of water by their beds were nuts and too frum. I still wonder how many folks actually keep the water by their bed, so before they touch their eyes or go to the bathroom they have washed? Furthermore how many people actually wash every time they use the bathroom or scratch their heads or touch their shoes?

Are my worries of stepping into the cup in the middle of night while rushing for a midnight pee unfounded? Am I just being lazy and letting the yetzer harah dictate which mitzvos I choose to tackle based on their easiness? Is the true way of negel vasser really that hard? My roommate washes every single time he goes to the bathroom in the night, meaning he must wash and change the water and he says you cant take it from the bathroom making the process even more time consuming and frustrating when one just wants to hop back into bed. Please any comments or tips are appreciated.

Posted in: Halachic Rantings