Debates over Canonicity amid Canonization

In a ruling that might appear paradoxical, m. Yadayim establishes that all holy texts impart ritual impurity to the hands. Likely this was intended to discourage the touching of scrolls, which can lead to their degradation over time, but the result was that the debate over whether one may touch a scroll containing a particular text became a proxy for whether that text and scroll constitute holy scripture. This first mishnah establishes the necessary number of letters that a scroll must contain in order to “render the hands impure,” followed by a debate as to whether scrolls of Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes impart impurity, that is, whether they should be considered sacred scripture. The debates surrounding these two particular texts are presumably a result of the blatant eroticism of the Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes’ deep skepticism. Famously, R. Akiva declares that “all writings are holy, but the Song of Songs is the holy of holies.” The Tosefta preserves further contemporary insight into debates surrounding the inclusion of these texts in the biblical canon.

By the time of the Babylonian Talmud, it is clear that Ecclesiastes was included in the biblical canon, with the explanation that the book’s “essence” is Torah. The Babylonian Talmud also records a discussion regarding the status of the book of Esther. In this excerpt, the Talmud discusses the sanctity of the book of Esther and concludes that, although the command to read it publicly was divinely inspired, the written text itself was not, and thus it does not impart ritual impurity to the hands. Such discussions reflect a consciousness of different degrees and types of divine inspiration, as well as the multivocality expressed throughout rabbinic literature. See also “Pharisees and Sadducees Debate Halakhah.”