Michael D. Moroney Jr. from Grafton, MA wrote:

Dear Rabbi,

If a person is ritually impure or dirty and they handle a copy of the Torah, does this defile the Torah permanently and if so is there any way to rectify this desecration? I am anxious to hear your thoughts on this.

Dear Michael D. Moroney Jr.,

A person who is ritually impure may touch a Torah scroll. A person who has dirty hands should not. In either case the Torah scroll does not become defiled or impure. This law, according to the Rambam, has its source in the Talmudic statement that "words of Torah cannot become impure."