can someone please explain the concept of using washcups in judaism?

Question

form what i have read jews are supposed to use washcups when getting up to wash themselves can someone please tell me more about this how it is done and where it originates from as well as if jews still do it and easy it is to do so

Answer 1

There is a rather long article on the subject here:
http://www.lind.org.il/features/mayim_v15.htm

But I will quote a shorter article found at:
http://ohr.edu/ask_db/ask_main.php/64/Q2/
The Shulchan Aruch states that "Mayim Achronim Chova," i.e., washing one's hands before Bircat Hamazon is an obligation. Rabbi Chaim Pinchas Scheinberg, shlita, told me that women are included in this obligation to the same degree as men.

There are two reasons which are offered:

"Just as a soiled Kohen is invalid to perform the Temple Service in the Beit Hamikdash, so too soiled hands make a person unfit to say a blessing;
To clean off any "Melach Sdomit" - "salt of Sodom" - which might be on the hands. Melach Sdomit was a strong salt harmful to the eyes.
Some people have the custom to not wash Mayim Achronim. Since Melach Sdomit is virtually non-existent today, and the concept of "cleanliness," is a relative matter and most people don't consider their hands "dirty" after a meal, therefore washing them would not be necessary.
I once heard a beautiful explanation of the symbolism of Mayim Achronim: Mayim Achronim washes off the "Salt of Sodom." The people of Sodom were infamous for their stingy cold-heartedness, especially regarding hospitality towards strangers. For example, the people of Sodom surrounded Lot's house and ordered him to send out the wayfarers he was hosting. After a meal, having eaten our fill, we might not empathize with a poor stranger knocking on our door asking for a little food. This quality of cold-heartedness is the antithesis of Judaism, and therefore we "wash it off" - saying, "We want no part of it!"

Sources:

Chulin 105a,b & Tosafot, Berachot 53b and Tosafot.
Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim 181:1, 10; M. B. 22.

Answer 2

its for washing your hands.

is a symbolic way to remove a spiritual contamination. The details are Kabblistic and beyond the scope of what I am going to write.

its done when someone wakes up in the morning, gose to the bathroom, or is about to eat a meal.