Yes Rich, learning is certainly contingent upon a starting point of mutual understanding between teacher and student. The hand washing process is also a symbolic way of leaving something behind, don’t you think? The classic example of course is Pontius Pilate, and I think James meaning here is the newly found “freedom for” that we evolve into where “Prohibitions have no real place in the life within the Church. They are merely moot remnants of what things looked like before you found yourself sucked into a new way of life”. We wash our hands of these. Do this make sense to you?
