ntered into the hollow of an earthen vessel.'
He said to her, 'my daughter, from what was its uncleanness?' But I did
not hear what she said to him." The Sages said, "the thing is clear, that
which is unclean through a source of uncleanness renders the hands
unclean; but derived uncleanness does not render the hands unclean."

2. "Whatever disallows the heave-offering, renders the hands unclean in a
secondary degree. One hand can render the other hand unclean." The words
of R. Joshua. But the Sages say, "a secondary cannot make a
secondary."(771) He said to them, "and are not Holy Scriptures
secondaries, and they render the hands unclean?" They said to him, "we
cannot judge the words of the Law from the words of the scribes, nor the
words of the scribes from the words of the Law, nor the words of the
scribes from other words of the scribes."

3. Straps of phylacteries with the phylacteries, render the hands unclean.
R. Simeon says, "the straps of phylacteries do not render the hands
unclean."

4. The margin in a book of the Law, at the top and bottom, at the
beginning and end, renders the hands unclean. R. Jose says, "in the end it
does not render the hands unclean, until the roller be attached."

5. A book of the Law which is erased, but in which there remain
eighty-five letters like the portion, "And it came to pass when the Ark
set forward,"(772) renders the hands unclean. Any roll in which there are
written eighty-five letters like the portion, "And it came to pass when
the Ark set forward," renders the hands unclean. All sacred Scriptures
render the hands unclean. The Canticles and Ecclesiastes render the hands
unclean. R. Judah says, "Canticles render the hands unclean, but
Ecclesiastes is in dispute." R. Jose says, "Ecclesiastes does not render
the hands unclean, but the Canticles are in dispute." R. Simeon says,
"Ecclesiastes is one in which the school of Shammai is less strict, and
the school of Hillel more rigid." R. Simeon, the son of Azai, said, "I
received by tradition from the mouths of the seventy-two elders, on the
day they inducted R. Eleazar, the son of Azariah, into the president's
seat, that Canticles and Ecclesiastes render the hands unclean." R. Akiba
said, "God forbid! no man in Israel ever questioned that the Canticles
render the hands unclean, as the whole world is not equal to the day on
which the Canticles were given to Israel; for all the Scriptures are holy,
but the Canticles are Holy of