Page:Takkanot Ezra.djvu/7

 of becoming unclean. For in Leviticus 11.38 the expression occurs. However, the earlier Sages so revised the Law, that seed is rendered susceptible of receiving impurity through the pouring of water thereon, only when detached, not when attached (by nature) to the soil (Sifra Shemini 11, 3); and this taḳḳanah the Talmud ascribes to Ezra. What hitherto was obscure now becomes clear &mdash; we are able to understand a Mishnah in Yadaim 4 which brings in a disputation between the Sadducees and the Pharisees:   'The Sadducees say, We complain against you, Pharisees, because ye declare clean the. The Pharisees say, We complain against you, Sadducees, that ye declare clean the stream of water that comes from the cemetery.' All the commentators who have discussed this Mishnah, and all the scholars who have spoken about the matters of dispute between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, have taken for granted that the word implies pouring from one vessel into another, and hence they interpret the Sadducees as saying, 'We find fault with you, O Pharisees, because in case a man F 2