(Fol. 8b) MISHNA III: R. Ismael says: "The Book Ecclesiastaces does not, according to Beth Shamai, render the hands unclean, while according to Beth Hillel, it does."
MISHNA VI: Akabia b. Malhallalel testified [upon] four things. Whereupon the sages asked him to retract, promising him therefore the chair of presiding justice in Israel, (Fol. 9) to which he responded: "I shall prefer to hear the name fool all my life than to become a wicked man even for one hour before the Omnipotent, lest people say, 'He retracted for the sake of an office!' " Here are his rules: He declared unclean the white hair [left from a previous case of leprosy], as well as the yellow blood [of a woman], both of which the sages declare clean; he permitted the use of the faded hair of a blemished first-born cattle slaughtered immediately after the hair had been put into a [wall] niche, while the sages forbade it. He also says that a female proselyte and a freed maid-servant are not given the bitter water while the sages say they are. The sages said to him: "Did it not once happen to a certain Karkmith, a freed maid-servant in Jerusalem, who was made to drink [the aforesaid water] by Shmaya and Abtalyon?" When he replied: "It was for show that they made her drink [they being themselves proselytes, did it]." Thereupon they placed him under ban, and when he died the court stoned his coffin. R. Juda said: "God forbid that Akabia b. Malhallalel, who among Israelites, when the doors of the Temple courtyard were closed, was unequalled in erudition, purity and piety, should have been excommunicated. But to whom then was it done? It was Eliezer b. Chanoch who was excommunicated for contesting the rule of washing the hands [before the meals]; and when he died, the court sent a stone to be put on his coffin; whence we learn that the coffin of him who dies while under the ban is to be stoned."
MISHNA VII: While on his death-bed (Akabia b. Melhellalel) thus spoke to his son: "Reject the four rules I have been teaching; I adhered to them because I had received them from a majority, and the others likewise had them from a similar source; we both, therefore, remained true to our traditions; but you have learned them of an individual and not of a majority, now it is more advisable to abandon the opinion of the individual and to follow that of the majority." "Father," appealed his son, "command thy friends to keep us honorable," when he refused, saying: "I cannot command them." "Hast thou then found any evil within me?" he asked him, whereupon he replied: "No! For thy own conduct will command thee and your own conduct will estrange thee."