“The tradition of the elders… they do not wash their hands”
Why do Your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They do not wash their hands before they eat. (Matthew 15:2 BSB)
What it sounds like today
A hygiene complaint: the disciples had dirty hands.
The cultural key
Nothing to do with germs. Ritual handwashing before bread was part of the 'tradition of the elders,' the growing body of oral rulings built as a protective fence around the written Torah. The Pharisaic program extended priestly purity rules (which Torah required only of priests serving in the temple) to every layman's table, making each meal an act of temple-like holiness. Written Torah nowhere requires it of ordinary eaters, which is exactly the ground Jesus fights on.
Recovered meaning
The charge is 'your disciples reject our authoritative interpretation,' not 'they're unhygienic.' Jesus' counterattack distinguishes God's command from human tradition, and relocates purity from the hands to the heart ('what comes out of the mouth… defiles').