Summary: While we associate the first washing at the Seder with Passover, Chida argues that whenever one dips food in liquid, one should wash. His discussion here deals solely with the halachah of washing. U’rechatz:**** The washing is for the purpose of dipping karpas (greens) in a liquid. For the sages decreed that one must wash one's hands when eating anything that is dipped in liquid.²⁰ food to contract ritual impurity.” Sefaria, Talmud The word is written with a vav (U’rechatz), to imply repeatedly washing, in the same way that the sages said, “May God give you of the dew of heaven,” (Vayiten lecha) means, “May God give thee repeatedly.”²¹ In other words, U’rechatz means washing throughout the year before anything that requires dipping in liquid and also on Passover eve. This is meant to exclude those who take foods that involve dipping in liquids throughout the year and do so without washing, such as dipping cookies in coffee and other such things. They have transgressed the law in the Shulchan Aruch.²² 158:4, Taz ad loc. This is the opinion of most of the decisors of Jewish law… including the Taz and the Shelah.

footnotes: ²⁰ See BT Pesachim 115a, states, “Rabbi Elazar said that Rav Oshaya said: Anything that is dipped in a liquid before it is eaten requires the ritual of washing of the hands. The obligation to wash one’s hands was instituted to preserve ritual purity and to prevent people from causing teruma ²¹ See Genesis 27:28, Rashi and Bereshit Rabbah 66:3 ²² See Shulchan Aruch Orech Chaim,

This is also implied by the combination of *Kadesh U’Rechatz *****according to their plain meaning (peshat). Even though one may wash on the Sabbath and on festivals before Kiddush, as our teacher Rabbi Moses Isserles writes, on the night of Passover one should not wash before the Kiddush, as Issereles writes. In 473, he states that Kadesh is first and then U’rechatz.