Seforim and Tumas Yadayim

(4) How should one be patient in judgement? This comes to teach that one should wait in judgement. For all who wait in judgement - (their minds) are settled in judgement. As it states: (prov. 25) "These too are the parables of Solomon, which the men of Hizkiyah, King of Judah, copied over." And (the meaning of the verse) is not that they copied over, rather that they waited. Abba Shaul says (the meaning is) not that they waited, rather that they explained: in the earlier days, they would say that that Proverbs and Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes were to be put away, as those texts spoke parables and were not of the Holy Scriptures - and so they stood (in decisive judgement) and hid them away. (and these texts remained hidden away) Until the Men of the Great Assembly came along and explained them....

(6) Ordinary harps are susceptible to impurity, but the harps of the Levites are pure. All liquids are susceptible to impurity, but the liquids in the [Temple] slaughtering house are clean. All sefarim [books of the Tanach written in holiness, on parchment, and used for personal or public study, or for reading aloud in public. Sometimes the intent is specifically Torah scrolls] convey impurity to the hands, except the scroll [kept in] the Temple courtyard. A wooden toy horse is clean. The belly-lute, the donkey-shaped musical instrument and the erus [a musical instrument used at weddings and funerals] are susceptible to impurity. Rabbi Judah says: the erus is susceptible to sitting impurity since the wailer sits on it. A weasel-trap is susceptible to impurity, but a [trap] for mice is pure.

(5) A book [i.e. a Torah scroll] which was erased leaving only eighty-five letters in it, like the portion of (Numbers 10:35-36), "And it was when the Ark was raised...,"‏ renders the hands impure. A scroll on which are written eighty-five letters, like the portion of, "And it was when the Ark was raised...,"‏ renders the hands impure. All sacred scriptures render the hands impure. The Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes render the hands impure. Rabbi Yehudah says: The Song of Songs renders the hands impure, but there is a dispute regarding Ecclesiastes. Rabbi Yose says: Ecclesiastes does not render the hands impure, and there is a dispute regarding The Song of Songs. Rabbi Shimon says: Ecclesiastes is among the [relative] leniencies of Beit Shammai, and the [relative] stringencies of Beit Hillel. Rabbi Shimon ben Azzai said, "I have a recieved tradition from the mouths of seventy-two elders, on the day they inducted Rabbi Elazar ben Azaria into his seat [as head] at the Academy, that The Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes render the hands impure." Rabbi Akiva said, "Mercy forbid! No one in Israel ever disputed that The Song of Songs renders the hands impure, since nothing in the entire world is worthy but for that day on which The Song of Songs was given to Israel; for all the Scriptures are holy, but The Song of Songs is the Holy of Holies! And if they did dispute, there was only a dispute regarding Ecclesiastes." Rabbi Yochanan ben Yehoshua, the son of Rabbi Akiva's father-in-law, said, "In accordance with words of Ben Azzai, thus did they dispute, and thus did they conclude."

(5) The [Aramaic] translations which are in [the books of] Ezra and Daniel render the hands impure. [Aramaic] translations written in Hebrew, and Hebrew written in translation or in [ancient] Hebrew characters, do not render the hands impure. They [i.e. sacred Scriptures] never render impurity, unless they are written in Assyrian [i.e. square] characters, on parchment, and with ink.

(6) The Sadducees say: We denounce you, Pharisees! For you say that holy Scriptures render the hands impure, but the books of Homer [literally: Hameiras, i.e. secular books] do not render the hands impure. Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai said "And is this alone all we have [to object to] over Pharisees? For they also say that the bones of a donkey are pure, but the bones of Yochanan the high priest are impure." They [the Sadducees] said to him, "In accordance with their love is their impurity, so that one does not fashion the bones of his father or his mother into spoons." He said to them, "So too regarding the sacred Scriptures; in accordance with their love is their impurity; and the books Homer, which are not beloved, do not render the hands impure."

....Judah said in the name of Shmuel; [The scroll] of Esther does not defile the hands. Is that to say that Shmuel was holds that Esther was not said under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit? But did not Shmuel say that Esther was said under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit? It was composed to be recited [by heart], but not to be written. ...

They objected: R. Meir says that Kohelet does not defile the hands, and that about the Song of Songs there is a dispute. R. Yose says that the Song of Songs defiles the hands, and about Koheleth there is a difference of opinion. R. Shimon says that Koheleth is one of those matters in regard to which Beth Shammai were lenient and Beth Hillel stringent, but Ruth and the Song of Songs and Esther [certainly] make the hands unclean. Shmuel concurred with R. Joshua. ...

It has been taught: R. Shimon b. Menasia said: Koheleth does not defile the hands because it is Solomon’s wisdom. They said to him: Was this then all that he composed? Is it not stated elsewhere, “And he spoke three thousand proverbs,” (I Kings 5:12) and it further says, “Add not unto his words? (Proverbs 30:6). Why this further quotation? In case you might object that he composed very much, and what it pleased him to write he wrote and what it did not please him he did not write. Therefore it says, Add not to his words. ...

(1) And he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord. How did he wave it? R. Hama b.Ukba in the name of R.Joshua b. Hanania said: He moved it forward and backward, upward and downward; forward and backward to symbolize that the act was in honor of Him to whom the whole world belongs; upward and downward to symbols that the act was in honor of Him to whom belong the regions on high and the regions below. R. Simon son of R. Joshua said: The movements forward and backward were to counteract the effects of injurious winds; and the movements upward and downwards were to counteract the effect of injurious dews.