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Mishnayos Yadayim Perek 4 Mishnah 5

ידים פרק ד׳ משנה ה׳

5

The Aramaic sections in Ezra and Daniel defile the hands. If an Aramaic section was written in Hebrew, or a Hebrew section was written in Aramaic, or [Hebrew which was written with] Hebrew script, it does not defile the hands. It never defiles the hands until it is written in the Assyrian script, on parchment, and in ink.

תַּרְגּוּם שֶׁבְּעֶזְרָא וְשֶׁבְּדָנִיֵּאל, מְטַמֵּא אֶת הַיָּדַיִם. תַּרְגּוּם שֶׁכְּתָבוֹ עִבְרִית וְעִבְרִית שֶׁכְּתָבוֹ תַּרְגּוּם, וּכְתָב עִבְרִי, אֵינוֹ מְטַמֵּא אֶת הַיָּדַיִם. לְעוֹלָם אֵינוֹ מְטַמֵּא, עַד שֶׁיִּכְתְּבֶנּוּ אַשּׁוּרִית, עַל הָעוֹר, וּבִדְיוֹ:

ה׳
Bartenura

תרגום שכתבו עברית – The Aramaic interpretation/version that are in [the books of] Daniel and Ezra and [passages such as] (Jeremiah 10:11): “Thus you shall say to them: [Let the gods, who did not make heaven and earth, perish from the earth and from under these heavens],” if they wrote it in the Holy Tongue (i.e., Hebrew), and similarly, the words of the Prophet that are stated in the Holy Tongue that are written in Aramaic interpretation/version, do not defile the hands.

כתב עברי – the writing that comes from the other side of the river (i.e., Euphrates in Babylonia). But the Cutheans (i.e., Samaritans) write this way until today, but the Israelites would use the same script in their secular words. And on the coins that are found in our hands today that were from the time of the Kings of Israel, they are engraved with this same script. But the script that we write Scrolls with today, it is called the Assyrian script (i.e., the modern form of Hebrew type – which was brought along by the returning Babylonian captives, and made to supersede the older Syriac or Samaritan letters), and it is the script that was on the Tablets [of the Law – i.e., the Ten Commandments]. And it is called Ashuri/Assyrian, which is the most substantial of the scripts (see also Sanhedrin 22a), it is the language of (Genesis 30:13): “Women will deem me fortunate. [So she named him Asher].”

תרגום שכתבו עברית. תרגום שבדניאל ועזרא וכגון כדנה תאמרון להום שבירמיה (פרק י׳), אם כתבו בלשון הקודש, וכן דברי הנביא הנאמרים בלשון הקודש שכתבן תרגום, אין מטמאים את הידים:

כתב עברי. הכתב שבא מעבר הנהר. והכותיים כותבים בו עד היום, וישראל היו משתמשין באותו כתב בדברי חול. ובמטבעות של כתב הנמצאים בידינו היום שהיו מזמן מלכי ישראל, מפותחות באותו כתב. אבל הכתב שאנו כותבים בו ספרים היום, כתב אשורי הוא נקרא, והוא הכתב שהיה בלוחות. ונקרא אשורי, המאושר שהוא שבכתיבות, לשון באשרי כי אשרוני בנות (בראשית ל׳:י״ג):