פירוש על ידים 3:2

כל הפוסל את התרומה – that is second degree ritual impurity (i.e., food that became ritually impure through contact with first degree ritual impurity. It renders Terumah/heave-offering with third degree ritual impurity. The Sages decreed that sacred books/scrolls and unwashed hands have second degree ritual impurity status).

Introduction This mishnah continues with a dispute between Rabbi Joshua and the sages. As part of their argument they mention the concept that the Holy Scriptures, meaning the Tanakh or Bible, defile the hands. This is a topic that will be discussed throughout the remainder of the chapter. There are two explanations for this halakhah. The traditional explanation is a bit strange and convoluted but it goes like this. People used to store their terumah near the same place that they stored holy scrolls (the Tanakh). Mice would come to eat the terumah and would also eat through the scrolls. To prevent this, the rabbis declared that the scrolls would defile the terumah. This would discourage people from storing terumah near their scrolls. One can clearly sense that this simply does not seem likely to have been the origins of this idea. Recently, academic scholars have explained that according to some laws in the Torah holiness can "rub off" on an item with which it has contact. This rubbing off on the item works a little bit like impurity, except the terminology is not that the item becomes "impure" rather it becomes "holy." The rabbis inherited the concept that scrolls of Scripture were so holy that anything they touched would become "holy" as well. Since this was the only such situation that the rabbis encountered, they used the normal term for such "rubbing off" which is impurity. In other words, what really seems to happen is that the hands become holy by virtue of contact with the scrolls. Nevertheless, by the time of the Mishnah these laws are part of the general purity system.

מטמאה את חברתה – Whomever had one hand impure and it came in contact with his other pure hand, it becomes defiled, and both of them returned ritually impure.

Anything which disqualifies terumah defiles hands with a second degree of uncleanness. Anything that has even second degree uncleanness will defile the hands so that they too have second degree uncleanness. This accords with Rabbi Joshua's opinion in yesterday's mishnah. The other rabbis disagree.

והלא כתבי הקודש – that they (i.e., the Rabbis) decreed that they (i.e., sacred books/scrolls) are second degree ritual impurity and they invalidate the heave-offering/Terumah (i.e., priest’s due), and they defile the hands that come in contact with them to be second [degree ritually impure], so we see that something second degree ritually impure makes [something else] second [degree ritually impure].

One [unwashed] hand defiles the other hand, the words of Rabbi Joshua. But the sages say: that which has second degree of uncleanness cannot convey second degree of uncleanness. An unwashed hand has second degree uncleanness and therefore it disqualifies terumah. According to Rabbi Joshua this means that if one hand is unwashed and it touches a washed hand it will defile it. The sages reject his opinion, as they did in yesterday's mishnah, holding that something that has second degree impurity cannot convey impurity to anything else. All it can do is disqualify terumah.

ולא דברי סופרים מדברי סופרים – but the defilement of the hands of all of the defilements, is from the words of the Scribes (i.e., Rabbinic law – generally from the period of Ezra), for Shlomo (i.e., King Solomon) established [the laws of] Eruvin/Sabbath limits and hands [which are not found in the Written Torah]. And Holy Writ that defiles the hands is also from the words of the Scribes, which is from the eighteen matters (i.e., actually decrees) that they made on that day (i.e., when Rabban Gamaliel was deposed: see Talmud Berakhot 28a). But we do not judge/make a ruling from this case to that one to state that just as we found that Holy Scrolls that are second [degree of ritual impurity] make [something else] second [degree of ritual impurity], so here also in the remainder of the defilements that will be that something second [degree ritual impurity] will make [something else] second [degree ritual impurity, for what was established was established was established [and] what was not established was not established. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yehoshua.

He said to them: But do not the Holy Scriptures which have second degree of uncleanness defile the hands? They said to him: the laws of the Torah may not be argued from the laws of the scribes, nor may the laws of the scribes be argued from the laws of the Torah, nor may the laws of the scribes be argued from [other] laws of the scribes. Rabbi Joshua uses the concept of the Holy Scriptures defiling the hands as proof for his opinion that anything with second degree uncleanness conveys uncleanness to hands. According to the rabbis, the Tanakh has second degree uncleanness and it defiles the hands. Therefore, everything that has second degree uncleanness should similarly defile the hands. The other rabbis reject learning from one category of rabbinic law to another. The idea that the Tanakh defiles the hands is a "law of the scribes" it is of rabbinic origin. Similarly, the halakhah that unwashed hands defile terumah is also of rabbinic origin (see the introduction). One cannot use one halakhah of rabbinic origin to prove another halakhah.