Introduction This mishnah continues to provide aspects of purity/impurity in sacrifices are treated with greater stringency than terumah.
Vessels that have been finished in purity require immersion [before they are used] for sacred things, but not [before they are used] for terumah. Once the production of a vessel has been completed the vessel can now receive impurity. Even if the artisan was careful not to defile the vessel it still requires immersion before it can be used with sacred things. In contrast, if the vessel is going to be used with terumah then it doesn’t need to be immersed unless it has been defiled.
A vessel unites all its contents [for impurity] in the case of sacred things, but not in the case of terumah. If there are a bunch of separate food items in a vessel, say some fruit or separate pieces of meat, and one becomes impure, then all of them are impure, if they are sacred things. The vessel causes the impurity to travel from one piece to the other. However, if they are terumah, then the vessel does not convey the impurity from one to the other.
Sacred things become invalid [by impurity] of a fourth degree, but terumah [only by impurity] of a third degree. There are different levels of impurity, the higher the number the closer the item is to the source of impurity, which is called a “father of impurity.” A “father of impurity” that touches something give it first degree impurity, and a first degree conveys second degree impurity, and so on. Sacred things can become invalid through contact even with a third degree of impurity, meaning that these things cannot be put on the altar, because they have “fourth degree” of impurity. There is no such thing as fifth degree of impurity. Terumah becomes disqualified only by something with a second degree of impurity. If something of third degree impurity touches terumah it does not affect it.
In the case of terumah, if one hand of his hands became impure, the other remains clean, but in the case of sacred things, he must immerse both [hands], because the one hand defiles the other for sacred things but not for terumah. If one of one’s hands becomes impure, he cannot use the other hand to touch a sacred thing, even if one hand didn’t touch the other. But when it comes to terumah, if one of one’s hands is impure he can use the other hand to touch terumah.