[3330] {hebrew}, sometimes though rarely, {hebrew}, but not {hebrew}, which refers to ordinary washing. Occasionally it is simply designated by the term Netilah.
[3331] {hebrew}(Chull. 107 a and b).
[3332] Chag. ii. 5, 6.
[3333] This and what follows illustrates St. John ii. 6.
[3334] tgon
[3335] Chull. 107 a; Baba B. 58 b, and often.
[3336] The language of the Mishnah shows that the word {hebrew}, which bears as vague and wide meaning as pugm, which seems a literal translation of it, can only apply to the wrist.
[3337] Comp. Yad. ii. 3; Chull. 106 a and b.
[3338] St. Mark vii. 3.
[3339] The rendering wash diligently,' gives no meaning; that with the fist' is not in accordance with Jewish Law; while that up to the elbow' is not only contrary to Jewish Law, but apparently based on a wrong rendering of the word {hebrew}. This is fully shown by Wetstein (N. T. i. p. 585), but his own explanation, that pugm refers to the measure or weight of the water for washing, is inadmissible.
[3340] Shabb. 14 a.
[3341] In Yad. iv. 6, the Pharisees in dispute with the Sadducees indicate what seems to me a far more likely reason, in the desire to protect the Scriptures from profane use.
[3342] Yad. iii. 2.
[3343] Yad. iii. 5.
[3344] Numb. x. 35, 36.
[3345] Yad. iii. 3-5.
[3346] By a curious inversion the law ultimately came to be, that the Scriptures everywhere defiled the hands, except those of the Priests in the Temple (Kel. xv. 6). This on the ground that, taught by former enactments, they had learned to keep the Terumah far away from the sacred rolls, but really, as I believe, because the law, that the Priests' hands became defiled if they touched a copy of the sacred rules, must have involved constant difficulties.
[3347] Chull. 106 b.
[3348] Shabb. 14 b, end.
[3349] Or. Sib. iii. 591-593.
[3350] We must bear in mind, that it was the work of an Egyptian Jew, and I cannot help feeling that the language bears some likeness to what afterwards was one of the distinctive practices of the Essenes.
[3351] Shabb. 14 b, about the middle.
[3352] {hebrew}
[3353] Jer. Shabb. p. 3 c, d.
[3354] Shabb. 13 b to 14 b.
[3355] Jer. Shabb. 3 c.
[3356] Jer. Shabb. 3 d.
[3357] Shabb.13 b; 14 b.
[3358] Shabb. 14 b, towards end.
[3359] In the Speaker's Commentary' (ad loc.) this extreme minuteness of details' is, it seems to me not correctly, accounted for on the ground of special reference to the Judaisers who at a very early period formed an influential party at Rome.'
[3360] Ab. Z. 35 a.
[3361] This is the more striking as the same expression is used in reference to the opposition or rather the invalidating' by R. Eliezer ben Chanokh of the ordinance of hand-washing, for which he was excommunicated ({hebrew}, Eduy. v. 6). The term {hebrew}, which originally means to stop up by pouring or putting in something, is used for contemning or bringing into contempt, invalidating, or shaking a decree, with the same signification as {hebrew}. This is proved from the use of the latter in Ab. Z. 35 a, line 9 from bottom, and 36 a, line 12 from top.
[3362] Ab. Zar. v, passim.
[3363] Jer. Chag. 76 d.
[3364] In this passage there is a regular discussion, whether that which is written (the Pentateuch), or that which is oral (tradition) is more precious and to be loved ({hebrew}). The opinion is in favour of the oral ({hebrew}).
[3365] Jer. Ber. 3 b; Sanh. xi. 3; Erub. 21 b.
[3366] Targum (ed. Ven.) on Cant. v. 10; comp. Ab. Z. 3 b.
[3367] Baba Mez. 86 a.
[3368] Ab. Z. u. s.
[3369] Comp. Chag. 5 b.
[3370] Ber. 3 a.
[3371] Ber. 59 a.
[3372] Ber. 7 a; Ab. Z. 4 b.