Leviticus 15:11 Commentary - Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

(11) And hath not rinsed his hands in water.—If the patient happens to touch any one with his hands without having first washed his hands, the man who has thus been touched by the unwashen hands of the defiled invalid contracts pollution till sundown of the day on which he has been touched. He has to wash his clothes and immerse his whole body in water before he can partake of the privileges of the sanctuary. This is the only instance where the touch of the hand as imparting defilement is expressly mentioned, and where the washing of the hands alone is ordered in the Mosaic-Law to prevent the communication of pollution. The washing of the hands over the heifer, ordered in Deu. 21:6, is of a different kind. It is meant to renounce any share in the guilt of the murder, or rather, to protest their innocence.