Straps of tefillin [that are] together with the tefillin render tamei hands [that touch them]. R’ Shimon says: Straps of tefillin do not render tamei hands [that touch them].

Margins of a [holy] scroll, [whether] those on top [of the scroll] or those on the bottom or at the beginning or at the end, render tamei hands [that touch them]. R’ Yehudah says: [The margin] at the end [of a scroll] does not render [hands] tamei unless one made a roller for it.

A scroll [of Scripture] that was erased but there remained eighty-five letters, as [many as there are] in the passage, ‘‘And when the ark would journey,’’ renders tamei hands [that touch it]. A sheet [of parchment] on which there are written eighty-five letters, as [many as there are] in the passage, ‘‘And when the ark would journey,’’ renders tamei hands [that touch it]. All of the Holy Scripture render tamei hands [that touch them]. Shir HaShirim and Koheles render tamei hands [that touch them]. R’ Yehudah says: Shir HaShirim renders hands tamei, but Koheles is [the subject of] a dispute. R’ Yose says: Koheles does not render hands tamei, and Shir HaShirim is [the subject of] a dispute. R’ Shimon says: [As regards] Koheles, it is one of Beis Shammai’s leniencies and Beis Hillel’s stringencies. R’ Shimon ben Azai said: I have a tradition received from the seventy-two elders, on the day that they appointed R’ Elazar ben Azariah as [head of] the Yeshivah, that [both] Shir HaShirim and Koheles render tamei hands [that touch them]. R’ Akiva said: Heaven forbid! No Jewish person ever argued about Shir HaShirim that it does not render tamei hands [that touch it], for never was the whole world worthy as [on] the day when Shir HaShirim was given to the Jews, for all of Kesuvim is holy, but Shir HaShirim is the holy of holies. If [ever] they did dispute, they only disputed regarding Koheles. R’ Yochanan the son of Yehoshua, the son of R’ Akiva’s father-in-law, said: In accordance with the words of Ben Azai, so they disputed and so they decided.

On that day they were counted and they resolved, regarding a footbath that [measures] between two lugin and nine kabin that cracked, that it is susceptible to tumas midras. For R’ Akiva says: [It is considered] a footbath as [is] its name.