Yadayim

Mishnah

• Chapter 1: The quantity of water necessary to purify the hands by pouring it over them ; the vessels from which the water may be poured over the hands ; kinds of water which may not be used to purify the hands, and persons who may perform the act of manual ablution.
• Chapter 2: How the water should be poured over the hands, and the first and second ablutions ; the hands are regarded as pure in all cases where doubt exists as to whether the ablution was properly performed.
• Chapter 3: Things which render the hands impure; the canonical books make the hands impure. The holy writings were kept together with the equally sacred heave offering of the priests, and were injured by mice; to prevent this it was enacted that the holy writings defiled the hands as well as the heave-offering, thus leading to a discontinuance of the custom of keeping them together; discussion of the question whether the Song of Solomon and Ecclesiastes are canonical, and thus render the hands impure; on the day of the election of Eleazar ben Azariah as nasi these books were declared canonical.
• Chapter 4: Other verdicts rendered on the same day in which the Song of Solomon and Ecclesiastes were declared canonical, these rulings being corollaries of that decision ; the Aramaic language in Ezra and Daniel, the ancient Hebrew writing, and dissensions between Pharisees and Sadducees.

  Tosefta

• "The book of Ben Sira and all books of later date are no longer canonical".
• The "Tovlei Shacharit" said to the Pharisees: "We reproach you for uttering the Holy Name before your bodies have been purified of their impurities".