Yadayim 2:4-3:1

Yadayim 2:4

Let’s say there's a doubt as to whether work has been done with the water, whether the water is of sufficient volume, or whether the water is ritually clean or unclean. In all of these cases the doubt is ruled clean because the Sages said that in a case of doubt involving the purification of hands – whether they have been rendered unclean, conveyed impurity or been purified – they are considered ritually clean. Rabbi Yosi says that in a case of doubt regarding whether they have been purified, they’re considered unclean. Examples of such cases: If one’s hands were clean and there were two unclean loaves in front of him and a doubt as to whether he touched them; if his hands were unclean and two clean loaves in front of him and a doubt as to whether he touched them; if one hand was unclean and the other was clean, there were two clean loaves in front him and he touched one of them and there’s a doubt as to which hand touched them; if his hands were clean and there were two loaves in front of him – one unclean and one clean – and he touched one of them and there’s a doubt as to which he touched; if one hand was unclean and one was clean and there were two loaves in front of him – one unclean and one clean – and he touched both of them and there’s a doubt as to whether the unclean hand touched the unclean loaf, the clean hand touched the clean loaf, the clean hand touched the unclean loaf or the unclean hand touched the clean loaf. In all of these cases, one’s hands remain in their existing state of (im)purity and the loaves remain in their existing state of (im)purity.

Yadayim 3:1

If a person stuck his hands inside a house infected with tzaraas, Rabbi Akiva says his hands have first-degree impurity and the Sages say his hands have second-degree impurity. Rabbi Akiva says that whoever conveys impurity to clothes when he touches something unclean also conveys impurity to hands, rendering them unclean in the first degree; the Sages say he renders them unclean in the second degree. The Sages asked Rabbi Akiva where we see that hands have first degree impurity. He answered that it’s only possible for hands to be unclean in the first degree without one’s whole body becoming unclean in this scenario (i.e., by sticking them into the impure house). Rabbi Yehoshua says that food and utensils that were rendered unclean by liquids convey second degree impurity to the hands; the Sages say that something rendered unclean by an av hatumah (a “father of impurity”) conveys impurity to hands but something that were rendered unclean by a vlad hatumah (a “child of impurity”) doesn’t convey impurity to hands. Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel said that a certain woman came to his father saying that her hands entered the airspace of a (ritually unclean) earthenware vessel. He asked her what had rendered the vessel unclean but Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel said he didn’t hear her response. The Sages said that it’s clear that something rendered unclean by an av hatumah conveys impurity to hands while something rendered unclean by a vlad hatumah doesn’t do so.