Yadayim 4:5-6

Yadayim 4:5

The Aramaic sections in the books of Ezra and Daniel convey impurity to hands. If an Aramaic section was written in Hebrew, or vice versa, or if it was written in the ancient Hebrew script, it doesn’t convey impurity to hands. Scriptures never convey impurity to hands unless they’re written in Assyrian script, on parchment and in ink.

Yadayim 4:6

The Sadducees complained against the Pharisees that the latter maintained that books of Tanach convey impurity to hands but the writings of Homer don’t. Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai asked if that was their only complaint against the Pharisees; after all, they also say that the bones of a donkey are ritually clean, while the bones of Yochanan the Kohein Gadol are unclean. The Sadducees responded that the impurity our human remains is because of our affection for them, so that no one will make spoons out of his father or mother’s bones. The same is true of the books of Tanach: we declare them unclean because of our affection for them. We don’t value the works of Homer so they don’t convey impurity to hands.