therefore the arrangement by the elders be judged from an arrangement by the elders; but let not an arrangement by the elders be judged from an arrangement by prophets.” They voted and decided “that Ammon and Moab must pay tithes for the poor in the Sabbatical year.” When R. José, son of Dormiskith, came to R. Eleazar at Lydda, he said to him, “what had you new in the college to-day?” He answered, “they voted and decided that Ammon and Moab must pay tithes in the Sabbatical year.” R. Eleazar wept and said, “ ‘The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him; and He will show them His covenant.’(783) Go and tell them, be not anxious about your vote, for I received it by tradition from Rabban Jochanan, the son of Zachai, who heard it from his teacher, up to the decision of Moses from Sinai, that Ammon and Moab must pay tithes to the poor, in the Sabbatical year.” 3. On that day came Judah, an Ammonitish proselyte, and stood before them in the college. He said to them, “How am I to come into the congregation?” Rabban Gamaliel said to him, “thou art forbidden.” R. Joshua said to him, “thou art allowed.” Rabban Gamaliel said, “the Scripture says, ‘An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD; even to their tenth generation, etc.’ ”(784) To him said R. Joshua, “Are then the Ammonites or Moabites still in their own land? Sennacherib, King of Assyria, aforetime came up, and commingled the nations, as is said, ‘And I have removed the bounds of the people, and have robbed their treasures, and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant (_man_).’ ”(785) Rabban Gamaliel said to him, “the Scripture says, ‘And afterward I will bring again the captivity of the children of Ammon’;(786) and they are already returned.” To him said R. Joshua, “the Scripture says, ‘And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel,(787) and Judah.’ But they are not yet returned.” And they allowed him to come into the congregation. 4. The Chaldee passages in Ezra and Daniel render the hands unclean. Chaldee written in Hebrew, and Hebrew written in Chaldee, or in Hebrew,(788) do not render the hands unclean. In no case do they cause uncleanness, unless the writing be Assyrian, on parchment with ink. 5. The Sadducees said, “we blame you Pharisees, because you say sacred Scriptures render the hands unclean, but the books Hameram(789) do not render the hands unclean.” Rabban Jochanan, the son of Zachai, said, “and have we nothing else against the Pharisees but this? Behold they say, ‘that the bones of an ass are clean, but the bones of Jochanan the high-priest are unclean.’ ” They said to him, “according to their value is their uncleanness, so that no one may make the bones of his father and mother into spoons.” He said to them, “so (are) the sacred Scriptures: according to their value is their uncleanness. The books Hameram, which are not valued, do not render the hands unclean.”