Keep Your Hands Up! I had the privilege of assisting in a surgery a few weeks ago. We had to wash our hands from our fingertips down to our elbows. The rule was you keeps your elbows above your waist the entire duration of the procedure. If you put your hands down, you descrub, go back into the washing room, lather, rinse, and repeat. And my God was it hard to keep my hands up, I so badly wanted to relax for a second; I was actively resisting the urge to put my hands down. It got me thinking about al netilat yadayim. Hashem gave us the mitzvah of elevating our hands, of keeping our hands up. No matter where Am Yisroel has been no matter what circumstance we have traversed we had to keep our hands up, to elevate the world with our hands and make it better than it was yesterday as my Rebbe taught me (may he live and be well). And so often I just want to put my hands down (so to speak) for a second and often times I do without realizing the potential I just blew off into the wind....