Do wash your hands or leave them dirty when you eat ? If you are a parent, do you teach your children to wash their hands or leave them dirty when they eat ?
It has nothing to do with hygiene. It has to do with the authority of the rabbis to change the very commandments of YHWH.
Procedure and Practice
The procedure is to pour water out from a cup or glass first twice over the right hand and then twice over the left hand--care being taken that the unwashed hands do not touch the water used for the washing. The hands are then dried with a towel before partaking of the meal. A benediction is recited over the washing of the hands: "Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who has sanctified us with Thy commandments and has commanded us concerning the washing of the hands."
The reference to the command has to be understood in the context that rabbinic ordinances are also commanded by God. Observant Jews are very strict in this matter of washing the hands before meals.
Src
IOW, The rabbis made it up to prove their own power.
You have Pharisees for PARENTS?