The view that healing is equivalent to the expiry of the period prescribed for wiping over leather socks is weak. Purification by wiping over a splint has no fixed time limit whatsoever, such that one could say, “When the period expires, ritual purity is invalidated.” Wiping over leather socks, by contrast, is subject to a time limit. Removing the splint is likened to taking off a leather sock, but this too is a flawed analogy. If it is likened to taking off the sock before the prescribed period expires, the difference is evident. What resembles that is removing the splint before healing, concerning which there are two views. If it is likened to taking off the sock before the prescribed period expires, then removing it makes no difference, since at that point one is not permitted to wipe over the leather socks: the Lawgiver has commanded their removal in this situation. A splint is different, for the Lawgiver has set no time limit for it. Rather, He has treated it like the skin, hair, and nails attached to the body. If a person needs to remove any of these, he may do so without invalidating his ritual purity.

Some of the early scholars, however, held that this invalidates ritual purity and that the area concerned must be purified. This resembles the view of those who say the same concerning a splint.

Some hold that taking off a leather sock does not invalidate ritual purity. The middle position is the most balanced of these views. It is more appropriate to treat a splint like something adhering to the body, such as dirt on one’s hand or henna.

Wiping over the splint is obligatory; one has no choice between wiping over it and washing the area. Thus, if wiping over it were not permissible when it had been fastened while one was in a state of ritual impurity, one would have to resort to dry ablution. We have already explained that purification by wiping with water over the area one is required to wash is preferable to purification by wiping with earth over an area other than the one one is required to wash, because water