Jesus' Response to the Pharisees and the Tradition of the Elders

In Matthew 9, Jesus responds to the traditionalism of washing hands. He does not have this idea in mind that one generation can make a binding and definitive determination for all future generations; he disregards it. The only way I can do that is if God himself does not speak through traditions, so to speak. There's God's word when he speaks, and then there is the historic testimony to that word in the form of a tradition.