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Bartenura on Pirkei Avot
ברטנורא על משנה אבות
Bartenura on Mishnah, trans. by Rabbi Robert Alpert, 2020
https://www.sefaria.org

Bartenura on Pirkei Avot



Chapter 1



Mishnah 1

משה קבל תורה מסיני – I state, for since this tractate is not based on the explanation of a commandment from the commandments of the Torah like the rest of the Tractates that are in the Mishnah, but all of it is ethics and [personal] qualities/morality, and the Sages of the nations of the world also formulated books like that which are formulated from their hearts like the paths of ethics how a person should behave with his friend, therefore, the Tanna/teacher begins in this Tractate, “Moses received the Torah at Sinai”, to tell you that the [personal] qualities and ethics/morality that are in this Tractate were not formulated in the hearts of the Mishnaic Sages but even these were stated at Sinai.
מסיני – from that which was revealed at Sinai.
לזקנים – who lived long lives after Joshua, and those elders to other elders until they reached to the beginnings of the [period of the] Prophets, which are Eli the priest and Samuel Haramati (i.e., from Ramah).
לאנשי כנסת הגדולה – there were one-hundred and twenty elders. Zerubavel, his princes, Ra’alyah, Mordecai Bilshan, who were in the days of Ezra when they ascended from the Diaspora [back to the Land of Israel] in [the period of] the Second Temple, and among them, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi and Nehemiah the son of Hachliah and their colleagues. And they were called the Great Assembly, because they returned the crown [of the Torah] to its former greatness (Talmud Yoma 89b), for Moses had said (Deuteronomy 10:17): “The great, mighty and awesome God”, but Jeremiah and Daniel came and said that we don’t say “the mighty and awesome,” but they (i.e., the Men of the Great Assembly) restored it as it was at first, since they said, these are God’s mighty [acts] and these are God’s awesome, for where it not so, how would a nation like this would be able to be established in the face of several nations.
הם אמרו שלשה דברים – they said many things, but these three things which they said [are those] through which there is the establishment of the Torah.
הוו מתונים בדין – if a legal case comes before you once, and a second and third time, do not say that say that this legal case already came before me and I repeated time and again [what I decided], but be deliberate, that is to say, delay/wait prior to your deciding the law [in this case].
והעמידו תלמידים הרבה – to exclude/take exception to Rabban Gamaliel who said (Talmud Berakhot 28a) that every student whose inside (i.e., inner personality and commitments) is not like his outside (i.e., appearance) should not enter into the House of Study, which comes to teach us, that we teach Torah to all individuals and we don’t need to check after them, as long as it will not become known from his matter that his deeds are corrupt and whose reputation people disliked (see Talmud Moed Katan 17a); alternatively, we learn (Talmud Yevamot 62b) that if he produced students in their youth, he should produce students in his old age, as it is written (Ecclesiastes 11:6): “Sow your seed in the morning, and don’t hold back your hand in the evening, [since you don’t know which is going to succeed, the one or the other, or if both are equally good].”
ועשו סייג לתורה – a fence that he would not touch that which is prohibited by the Torah, such as second-level illicit sexual relationships, and actions forbidden by the Rabbis as being out of harmony with the celebration of Shabbat, as it is written (Leviticus 18:30): “You shall keep My charge…,” you should make a charge for My charge.

Mishnah 2

משיירי – from the remnants, for after all of them died, the tradition remained in his hand, and he was the Kohen Gadol/High Priest after Ezra.
הוא היה אומר – that is to say, this was always regularly in his mouth, and similarly, every particular individual Rabbi says, he would say, that are in this Tractate, their explanation was something regularly mentioned at all times.
העולם עומד – The world was not created other than for these three things.
על התורה – for had not the Jewish people accepted the Torah, heaven and earth would not have been created, as it is written (Jeremiah 33:25): “As surely as I have established My covenant with day and night – the laws of heaven of earth” (Tractate Shabbat 88a).
ועל העבודה – the Divine service of the sacrifices, for such is taught in the Tractate Taanit (27b), for were it not for the posts/divisions of popular representatives deputed to accompany the daily services in the Temple with prayers (i.e., prayer meetings), heaven and earth would not have been established, and we found that on account of the sacrifices that Noah offered, [the Holy One, Blessed be He] swore that he would not bring a flood to the world, for the world exists for the sacrifices.
ועל גמילות חסדים – as it is written (Psalms 89:3): “Your steadfast love is confirmed forever” and it is deeds of lovingkindness [such as] to rejoice with grooms, and to comfort the bereaved and to visit the sick and to bury the dead and other such things.

Mishnah 3

פרס – it is the language of valuation, as in “convertible [into payment in silver by the sanctuary weight]” (Leviticus 5:15), which we translate into Aramaic as assessment/valuation, which is what a person gives to an individual who served him and he is not liable by law to give him anything, such as what a person gives to his minor son or to his wife or to his servant because of satisfaction that they have provided him, and even for the hope of a prize/reward like this, a person would not serve his Creator, other than out of love alone.
ויהי מורא שמים עליכם – even though you serve out of love, also serve out of fear/awe, for a person who serves out of love is zealous in positive commandments, but the person who serves [God] out of fear/awe is careful from negative commandments, and it is found that his service [of God] is complete, and so said the Rabbis, that one who serves out of love should serve from fear/awe. Serving out of love, for if one comes to hate, know that you can love, and someone who loves does not hate. Servicing [God] out of awe/fear, for it one comes to resist/reject, know that you fear [God] and a person who fears does not resist/reject.

Mishnah 4

יוסי בן יועזר איש צרידה ויוסי בן יוחנן איש ירושלים – all the Tannaim/Mishnaic teachers that are mentioned in this chapter pair by pair, so-and-so and so-and-so received [the Tradition] from so-and-so and so-and-so, the first of them is the Nasi/Prince/Patriarch, and the second is Av Bet Din/President of the Court.
יהי ביתך בית ועד לחכמים – when the Sages wanted to gather together and to meet, your house should be ready for this thing, that you would be accustomed to say, “let us gather together in the house of so-and-so”, for it is impossible that you would not learn from them some thing of wisdom. The Rabbis spoke metaphorically – to what can this be compared? To a a person who enters into store of spices/perfumes, even though he didn’t purchase anything, nevertheless, he absorbed a good smell and he took it out with him.
והוי מתאבק בעפר רגליהם – that is to say, that you should go after them. For a person who walks raises the dust with his feet, and the person who walks behind him is filled from the dust that he raises with his feet. Another explanation: that they should sit with their feet on the ground, for such is how they would practice, that the Rabbi sits on the bench and the students sit at his feet on the ground.
והוי שותה בצמא את דבריהם – like a person who is thirsty who drinks to satisfy his appetite, and not like a person who is satiated who is sick of his food that he despises it, even with words that are pleasant and good.

Mishnah 5

יהי ביתך פתוח לרוחה – like the home of our father Abraham, of blessed memory, which was open to the four directions of the world, in order that guests would not need to go around to find the opening.
ויהיו עניים בני ביתך – that he should acquire slaves to serve him, for it is better that a Jew should benefit from his possessions and not the seed of the accursed Canaanites.
באשתו אמרו – for since it said with the woman/האשה and it did not say with a woman, we learned that they spoke of one’s wife. There are those who explain [that it refers] only to his menstruant wife, so that he should not become accustomed to sin, and from the words of the Mishnah it appears, that even one’s pure wife [is referred to]. And similarly, our Rabbis of blessed memory (Tractate Hagigah 5b) tells a person what is is conversation, for even a light conversation between a man and his wife, we inform him at the time of judgment, other than to if he needs to appease her for a the matter of [the performance of] a commandment, such as a Rabbi who spoke [with his wife] and [engaged in] sexual foreplay and performed his [sexual] needs.
מכאן אמרו חכמים – Our Holy Rabbi (Rabbi Judah the Prince) who arranged the Mishnayot wrpte, from the words of this Sage who said “and a person should not engage in lengthy conversation with one’s wife,” the Sages learned to state, that whenever a person engages in lengthy conversation with one’s wife, it causes evil to himself. I found written, that a person tells his wife the events that such-and-such occurred to me with so-and-so, it teaches him to stir up strife, such as Korah who told his wife what Moses had done when he waves the Levites, and this brought him with her words to dispute. Alternatively, because he tells her hat his colleagues shamed him and embarrassed him, even she despises him in her heart, and this causes evil to himself.
ובוטל מדברי תורה – since he is drawn after idle words and does not engage in [the study of] Torah.

Mishnah 6

עשה לך רב – Maimonides explained that even though he is not worthy of being a Rabbi/teacher for you, make him a teacher for you but don’t study on your own. And I heard, “Make for yourself a teacher” means that he should accept for himself one Rabbi that he will always learn from him, and not that he would learn from one [Rabbi] today and tomorrow from the other. But even though in the Tractate Avodah Zarah 19a, they stated, that a person who learns Torah from Rabbi does not see a sign of blessing, they have already explained and stated these words regarding a logical deduction, for it is good for him to hear the logical arguments of many, but regarding the matter of learning/Gemara, from one Rabbi is preferable, in order that he not cause damage to his learning.
וקנה לך חבר – and even if he needs to purchase him with [his] dear funds and to disperse monies in order that he can acquire his love. But regarding a Rabbi/teacher, it does not belong to say: “Acquire for yourself a Rabbi/teacher”, for the Rabbi/teacher must teach for free.
והוי דן את כל האדם לכף זכות – when the matter is on the scales, and it has no decision to either side, such as the case of a person of whom we do not know of his deeds, if he is righteous or if he is wicked and he performed an action where it is possible to judge him favorably or it is possible to judge for condemnation, it is the measure of righteousness to judge him favorably, but a person who is presumed to be wicked, it is permissible to judge him for condemnation, for we did not say this other than for whose who suspect those who are religiously fit, are flogged on his body (Shabbat 97a), for it follows that someone who is suspicious of the wicked is not flogged.

Mishnah 7

הרחק משכן רע – so that you should not learn from his actions. And furthermore, that you should not be afflicted with him in his downfall, for woe to the wicked and woe to his neighbor.
ואל תתחבר לרשע – for the Sages said such, that anyone who attaches himself to the wicked, even though he does not act according to their deeds, he receives reward, in a similar manner. What can this be compared to? To a person who enters the home of a tanner, even though he did not take anything with him, nevertheless, he absorbed the evil smell and removed it with him.
ואל תתיאש מן הפורענות – so that he should not say that as this wicked person is successful in his deeds, I will go and cleave with him, since the hour smiles upon him (i.e., he is in luck) therefore, [the Tanna] stated that he should not despair of retribution, that is to say, he should know that retribution will come upon him quickly and all of a sudden, his time will come.

Mishnah 8

אל תעש עצמך כעורכי הדיינין – like those individuals who arrange and order the claims of the litigants before the judges, for it is prohibited for a person to reveal his judgment to one of the litigates and to say to him, “do this,” because you will be be innocent in your case, and even though the law is with him. Another explanation, like those who arrange the judges, like the greatest of the judges. But a student who sits before his Rabbi/teacher speaks, that he should not make himself like the greatest of the judges to speak before his Rabbi/teacher as one who decides the law. עורכי – the language of the courts of the heathens (Talmud Gittin 9b), the courts of the House of David. And from others I heard, you should not make yourself like the greatest of the judges to force litigants to come before you for judgment.
יהיו בעיניך כרשעים – in order that your heart not be inclined to one of them to say that so-and-so is an important person and not that he should make a false claim. For if you say this, you are not able to see him as [potentially] guilty.
כשקבלו עליהם את הדין – so that the guilty person should not suspect to say that he was a thief, but he should say, perhaps he was in error and he did not intend to steal. Alternatively, if one of them was liable to take an oath and he swore, he should not say that he swore falsely.

Mishnah 9

והוי זהיר בדבריך – so that the Judge should not say lest such-and-such was the action, of if the matter was such, a certain person would be innocent, or from these words the litigant or the witnesses would learn to say that a certain thing never happened.

Mishnah 10

שמעיה ואבטליון – they were righteous converts, and were from the descendants of Sennacherib. And I heard that because Avtalyon was the head of the court, he was called by this name, for its explanation is father to minors. For in Aramaic, the word טליא means young, such as (Talmud Megillah 5b) Rabbi Yohanan who said: When I was young, when I was small, let them bring a young boy and a young girl. Even here, Avtalyon was the father of minor orphans.
אהוב את המלאכה – even if he has from what to support himself, he is obligated to engage in work, for idleness leads to dull-mindedness (Tractate Ketubot 59b).
ושנא את הרבנות – and a person should not say that I am a great person, and it is a disgrace for me o engage in work. As Rav said to Rav Kahana (Tractate Pesahim 113a), “flay a carcass in the street and earn a living, and do not say that I am Kohen, [or] I am a great man, and this matter is hateful to me.” Another explanation to “and hate the Rabbinate”, distance yourself from exercising rulership over a community, for the Rabbinate/leadership buries those who engage in it.
ולא תתודע לרשות – in order to take leadership through his hand. Alternatively, do not make yourself a partisan of a foreign government, so that you should not transgress on the knowledge of your Creator, like what occurred to Doeg the Edomite. לרשות – authority is called the secular government, since the secular government has the permission to act according to its will.

Mishnah 11

הזהרו בדבריכם – so as to not leave a place for sectarians to err with their words.
שמא תחובו חובת גלות – that is to say, even though that in the place you are in, there are no sectarians, there is a suspicion lest it causes sin and that you will become liable for exile, and you will be exiled to a place where there are people who make a clear argument in Torah that is not according to the Halakha, and they are a nickname for evil waters, for you will understand from their words things that are not appropriate and the coming students will drink after them from those things which are the words of heresy and they will die in their sin.
ונצא שם שמים מתחלל – they will leave those opinions idle in the world, such as what occurred to Antignos of Socho with Tzadok and Baitos his students, as he said to them: Do not be like servants who serve their master in order to receive a reward, and they said (Avot D’Rabbi Nattan chapter 5), it is possible for a worker to perform work all day long and work hard and in the evening he does not receive his reward, and they went out to heresy – them and their students, and they are called Sadducees and Boethusians until today.

Mishnah 12

הוי מתלמידיו של אהרן אוהב שולם ורודף שלום – It was explained in Avot D’Rabbi Natan, how was Aaron one who loves peace? When he would see two people quarreling, he would go to each one of them, without the knowledge of his fellow, and say to him: “See your friend, how he regrets and beats himself on the fact he sinned against you and he says to me, when I come to you, you should forgive him.” And as a result of this, when they would meet each other, they would kiss each other. And how would he bring human creatures to Torah? When he would know of a person who committed a sin, he would befriend him and show him a shining face, and that person would be embarrassed and say: “Had I known this righteous individual, my evil deeds would distance him from me, and as a result of this, he would return to the good. This is what the prophet (Malachi) testifies about (Malachi 2:6): “He served me with complete loyalty and held the many back from iniquity.”

Mishnah 13

נגד שמא אבד שמא – He whose name is followed at a great distance because of rulership and Rabbinic office, will quickly lose his name, since the Rabbinic office buries its owners. This is against the language of “pulling.” The Aramaic translation of משכו/pulls him is long-suffering.
ודלא מוסיף – The individual who does not add to his learning.
יסיף – it will diminish from his lips what he has already learned and he will forget his learning. And there are those who have the reading יאסף/will exterminate, that is to say, he will be gathered unto his people not at the appropriate time.
ודלא יליף – this is more difficult than someone who does not add/increase [to his learning], therefore he liable for death, that is to say, he is worthy to be killed, as It states (Talmud Pesahim 49b). An ignoramus is permitted to tear him like a fish and to seize him.
ודישתמש בתגא – The individual who uses the crown of the Torah is like a person who uses its vessels who has passed on from the world. IT is taught in the language of Ishmael (Arabic) a crown. But there are those who interpret תג"א as an abbreviation for “the last male student,” as it is prohibited for a person to use students who are not his students. And I have heard that [the phrase] ודישתמש בתגא [means] using the Divine name, who passes on and is no more, for he has no share in the world to come.

Mishnah 14

אם אין אני לי – if I do no not merit (i.e., advocate) for myself, who will advocate for me?
וכשאני לעצמי – and even if I advocated for myself, what is this merit, and through what will I be thought of as opposed to what I am obligated to do?
ואם לא עכשיו – in this world.
אימתי – for after death, it is impossible to attain additional merit. Another explanation, if not now in the days of youth, when, lest in the days of my old age, [the opportunity] will not arise.

Mishnah 15

עשה תורתך קבע – that Torah should be the essence of your engagement in the day and in the night, and when you become weary from the study, do work, and not that work should be your primary engagement, and when you turn aside form work, engage in Torah study. And I found it written, “Make your Torah study fixed, that you should not be strict with yourself and lenient with others, or strict with others and lenient with yourself, but that your Torah study should be fixed for you like with others, for it says in Ezra (7:10): “For Ezra had dedicated himself to study the Teaching of the LORD so as to observe it, and to teach laws and rules to Israel,” just as he dedicated himself to do thus, he would would teach the Children of Israel.

Mishnah 16

עשה לך רב – regarding the manner of instruction it speaks now. If a judgement comes before you and you have difficulty with it, get for yourself a teacher/Rabbi. והסתלק מן הספק – and you do not make a legal decision upon it yourself, for that which is for the community, for it they brought something torn/unkosher before him for he would assemble to the general public for the Kallah (i.e., the assembly of students in the months of Elul and Adar) the ritual slaughterers of Matta Mehasia for just as they arrive, that it should come from Keshorah.
ואל תרבה לעשר אומדות – for when he separates the tithes from an estimate, he is not saved from the corruption/disgrace if he gives less from what is appropriate to give from his tithes correctly prepared and the young poultry are disgraced. But if he gives more than what it would be appropriate to give, his fruits are correctly prepared but his tithes are disgraced.

Mishnah 17

ולא מצאתי לגוף טוב אלא שתיקה – he who hears his disgrace and is silent.
ולא המדרש הוא עיקר אלא המעשה – and you should know that the silence is good. And even the Rabbinic explanation and the commentary and the speaking of Torah, there is no measure greater than this for there is no principle of the receiving of a reward other than for the action, for a person who expounds but does not fulfill it, it would be better for him if he would be silent and not expound it.
וכל המרבה דברים מביא חטא – for such we found with Ever who increased words and said, “God said not to eat of it and not to touch it” (Genesis 3:3), for she added touching which was not forbidden to her, and the serpent urged her until she touched it for it (i.e., the serpent) said to her, just as there is no [punishment of] death for touching it, so too, there is no [punishment of] death for eating of it. And through this, she came to sin for she ate from the fruit for didn’t Solomon state (Proverbs 30:6), “do not increase your words lest it prove you to be a liar.”

Mishnah 18

העולם עומד – the public welfare of humans is maintained, and this not like the “world standing” above (in Mishnah 2 of this chapter).
על הדין – to acquit the innocent and to make the guilty liable.
ועל האמת – that people should not lie to their fellow.
ועל השלום – between kingdoms and between a person and his fellow.

Chapter 2



Mishnah 1

רבי אומר שיבור – that he should make clear/ascertain.
כל שהיא תפארת לעושה ותפארת לו מן האדם – it will be pleasing for him and the other people will benefit from him. And this is what it will be when he will walk among all the measures in the middle path and will not lean towards one of the two extremes, for if he is most stingy, it is a glory for him, for he will amass much funds but people don’t glorify him in this measure, but it is not glorious to those who practice it and it is not pleasant for him, but if he disperses more than is worthy, the people who receive it from him glorify him, but it is not glorious to those who practice it and it is not pleasant for him, for he comes to poverty on account of this. But the measure of generosity which is the middle ground between stinginess and dispersion [of funds] which is glorious for its practitioner, for he guards his money and does not disperse it more than is worthy, and is glorious for him from other people, for people glorify him that he gives like it is worthy for him to give, and similarly, is the law in all other qualities.
שאין אתה יודע מתן שכרן של מצות – it is not explained in the Torah the reward for fulfilling a positive commandment, nor the punishment for someone who neglects from doing them, for had the punishments for negative commandments had been explained, stoning, burning, killing and decapitation, extirpation and death at the hand of heaven and stripes. The lighter punishment is for lighter sin, ad the more stringent [punishment] for the more serious [transgression].
והוי מחשב הפסד מצוה – what you lose from your business and your money because of engagement with the [performance of] a commandment, as opposed to the reward that will accrue to you from it in this world or in the world-to-come, which will be more than that loss.
ושכר עבירה – the benefit that you will enjoy from the sin [committed] as opposed to the loss that will eventually come to you from it.

Mishnah 2


שיגיעת שניהם משכחת עון – Since the [study of] Torah weakens the strength of a person and work crushes and breaks the body and as a result, the evil inclination disappears from him.
וכל תורה שאין עמה מלאכה – and if you say that you should always be laboring in Torah, and its weariness causes sin to be forgotten, for what is the need for work, therefore, it was necessary to state that any Torah [study] that lacks work [accompanying it] leads to idleness, for it is impossible for him [to exist] without sustenance (i.e., food) to attack and rob people and cause them to forget their learning.
יהיו עוסקין עמהם לשם שמים – and not in order to take the wreath/crown and to say: Such-and-such I have done for the community.
שזכות אבותם מסייעתן – for the merit of the fathers of the community and their righteousness which exists forever is what assists those who engage with them to bring their righteousness to light, and not from the good side of the striving of those who are engaging them.
ואתם מעלה אני עליכם שכר – even though the matter does not come to a good completion from the perspective of your actions, other than because of the merit of the deeds of the community fathers, I credit you worthy of reward as if you had performed a great salvation in Israel because you are engaged in this for the sake of Heaven. Another interpretation: All who engage with the community to compel or force the community towards [the fulfillment of] a certain commandment for charitable purposes or to redeem the captive, you will engage with them for the sake of Heaven, for the righteousness of the community fathers assists them to give what was legislated upon them, and even at great cost, and the acts of charity will stand for them forever. And you are engaged to compel the community for [the performance of] this Mitzvah, I credit you as if you have performed this Mitzvah from your own actual financial resources. But Maimonides explains that for you, I credit you with a reward as if you have performed this [commandment] for at the time that you are engaged with the community, you have been interrupted from the performance of some other commandment for the sake of the needs of the community, I credit you with a reward as if you had performed that commandment that you had been interrupted from.

Mishnah 3

הוו זהירים ברשות – you who engage with the needs of the community, even though you need to consult with the authorities in order to care for the needs of the many, be careful, etc.

Mishnah 4

עשה רצונו כצונך – disperse your money for the needs of Heaven, according to your will, as if you have dispersed them for your needs, for if you have done so, He will make your will like His will, He will grant you good will.
כדי יבטל רצון אחרים – that He (i.e., God) will invalidate the counsel of all who rise up against you for evil. But I heard that this is none other than a matter of honor/respect towards what is above (i.e., God), for it is as if it is written that He will annul His will for the sake of your will, like that which they said (Chapter 6) Tractate Shabbat 63a במה אשה /”In what does a woman go out (on Shabbat):” Anyone who performs a Mitzvah in the proper manner even a decree of seventy years is cancelled on his behalf.
אל תפרוש מן הציבור – but rather, join [with them] in their troubles, for the person who separates himself from the community does not [merit to] see the comfort of the community (Tractate Taanit 11a).
ואל תאמן עצמך עד יום מותך – For Yohanan who served in the High Priesthood for eighty years, at the end became a Sadducee (Tractate Berakhot 29a).
ואל תדין את חברך עד שתגיע למקומו – If you see you fellow who comes to a trial and falter, do not judge him for guilt until you yourself come to a trial like his and are rescued.
ואל תאמר דבר שאי אפשר לשמוע וסופו להשמע – that is to say, your words should not be doubtful that it is impossible to understand from the outset and at first examination [of them], nor rely that if the listener will [examine them] deeply, that he will eventually understand them, for this will bring people to error with your words, lest they err and go to heresy through you. Another explanation: Do not reveal your secrets even with your own self, saying that there is no one that would hear you, for someday it will be heard, for the bird of the heaven will transport the voice (i.e., “the walls hear”), for according to this commentary, the reading is that it will ultimately be heard. But Rashi has the reading: “Don’t say something that is possible to hear, that will in the end be heard, and regarding words of Torah, do not say regarding words of Torah that you can hear now that you will ultimately hear them at the end, but rather, incline your ear and hear it immediately.
לכשאפנה – from my business, I will engage in [the study of] Torah.

Mishnah 5

בור – empty from every thing and even the nature of give-and-take he does not know, and he is worse than the Am HaAretz/ignoramus. The Aramaic translation of (Genesis 47:19): “that the land may not become a waste” – that the land will not be a waste/uncultivated.
ולא עם הארץ חסיד – but it is possible that he will be a person who fears sin, for he is a specialist in the nature of give-and-take.
ולא הביישן למד – for a person who is bashful to ask lest they mock him will remain with his doubts.
ולא הקפדן – the teacher/Rabbi who is strict with his students when they ask him will not teach properly, but he needs to explain the manner of interpretation of Halakha to his students.
ולא כל המרבה בסחורה מחכים – as it is written (Deuteronomy 30:13): “Neither is it beyond the sea.” The Torah is not found with those who go beyond the sea (Tractate Eruvin 55a).
ובמקום שאין אנשים – to sit at the head [of the class] and to give instruction.

Mishnah 6

על דאטיפת אטיפוך – you were evil, plundering humanity and causing them to float on the river and in the same manner, they measured you.
וסוף מטיפיך יטופון – the matter was not given over to their hands to kill you but rather to a court of Jewish law, and the Holy One, blessed be He gives you over to their hands when they assess guilt on the guilty, and in the future, He will claim from them your death.

Mishnah 7

מרבה בשר מרבה רימה – The individual who overeats and overdrinks until he becomes fat and of much flesh, increases upon himself worms in the grave and worms are difficult to the dead as a needle in the flesh of the living. And this Tanna comes to teach us that are excesses are difficult for a person other than an excess of Torah and knowledge and tzedakah.
מרבה דאגה – lest he steal it or lest robbers come upon him and kill him. And one pious person would pray that God would save me from the scattering of the soul, and they asked of him, “what is the scattering of the soul?” He said to them that his many possessions would be scattered in many places and one would have to scatter his soul to think about here and there.
מרבה נשים מרבה כשפים – He took a Mishnaic lesson and continued – that at the beginning, a person decorates himself and eats and drinks and gains weight, and afterwards desires to increase his possession and after he has increased his possessions and sees that he has enough to support many wives, he increases [the number of] his wives, and after he has increased [the number of] his wives, each one requires a maidservant who will serve her, hence he has increased his maidservants; and since he has many members of his household, he needs fields and vineyards to provide wine and food to the members of his household, and he increases [the number of] his slaves to work the fields and the vineyards. For this purpose, it is taught in this Order of the Mishnah.
מרבה תורה מרבה חיים – as it is written (Deuteronomy 30:20): “For thereby you shall have life and shall long endure upon the soil [that the LORD swore to your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give to them].”
מרבה חכמה – that he gives a reason for his words and his explanations gratify the hearts of those who listen; 
“the more sitting” – many students gather together and come to hear his logical arguments. And there are those who have the reading: “The more sitting, the more wisdom” – for he who increases his students, his students sharpen him, and add and increase to his wisdom.
מרבה עצה – he who increases to take advice, increases [his] understanding; he understands a matter from the midst of that matter, from advice that his advisers give him.
מרבה צדקה מרבה שלום – as it states (Isaiah 32:17): “For the work of righteousness shall be peace.”

Mishnah 8

אל תחזיק טובה לעצמך – to say that I have studied much Torah and because he did not leave aside neither Bible nor Mishnah, nor Halakha nor Aggadah that he did not learn (Tractate Sukkah 28a; Tractate Bava Batra 134a), he would say this.
בור סוד – We have the reading "בור סוד" and not "בור סיד" – that is to say, like a cistern plastered with lime/plaster.
שאינו מאבד טפה – such is he that he does not forget a single thing from his learning.
אשרי יולדתו – he is happy with good qualities until the entire world says about him: “Happy is the one who gave birth to him.” But there are those who say: “on account of the fact that she caused him that he would be wise,” for she would go around to all of the Houses of Study that were in her city, and she would say to them: “I pray thee – have compassion on this fetus that is in my womb that he will be wise, and from the day that he is born, she did not remove his bed from the House of Study, in order that nothing would enter his ears other than words of Torah.
חסיד – for he practices equity/inside the line of the law.
ירא חטא – He who is stringent upon himself and forbids himself things that are permitted from his fear lest he come to sin, for if this were not the case, what advantage to him would it be for even an ignoramus can become an individual who fears sin.
מעין המתגבר – his heart is wide and he adds logical interpretations and dialectics from his own mind.
אבא שאול אומר משמו – of Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai.
ואלעזר בן ערך בכף השניה – I found it written that Abba Shaul never disputed the first teacher [of the Mishnah], and both of the things were said by Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai and both of them are true, for in the matter of expertise and memory, Rabbi Eliezer outweighs him, but in the matter of acuteness/quickness and dialectics, Rabbi Eleazar ben Arakh outweighs him.

Mishnah 9

עין טובה – he is satisfied with what he has and does not request additional things and is not jealous when he sees that his friends have more than him.
חבר טוב – when he reproves him when he sees hm doing something not worthy.

הרואה את הנולד – looks forward and glances at what will become and from that, he finds that he considers the loss of a Mitzvah corresponding to its reward, and the reward of a sin corresponding to its loss.
לב טוב – for the heard is that which presents all o the other powers and I is the source from which flows all of the activities, and even though there are activities for special limbs, nevertheless, the power which animates all movements is the heart, therefore, Rabbi Eleazar said: “a good heart.” And because of this, Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai stated : I prefer the words of Eleezar ben Arakh to your words.”
איזו היא דרך רעה שיתרחק ממנה האדם – it was made necessary to ask from this, for he did not comprehend from their first words that the evil path is the opposite of the good path, for not all that is good is the opposite of what is bad, for the measures of piety are that of equity which is good, and whomever is not pious and establishes his words on the laws of the Torah is not evil. For it is possible to say that with satisfaction and it is that the good eye is the good way. The request of the advantages is not the evil path, for he does not damage any individual through this and similarly with the other qualities. Therefore, it was necessary to ask of them – what is the evil path that a person should distance himself from.
הלוה ואינו משלם – It is the reverse of one who can foresee the future, for if he does not pay, he will not find anyone who will [ever] lend him [anything], and he will lie in hunger, but he did not say merely, “he who does not see the result” because it is possible for an individual that will not see the result, so that he not come to a stumbling block, and he will save himself from the coming of this result.
וצדיק חונן ונותן – The Holy One, blessed be He is the righteous one of he world who is gracious and gives to the lender what was borrowed from him and not repaid, hence the borrower remains liable to God.

Mishnah 10

הם אמרו שלשה דברים – in civility an din ethics and qualities, for in the areas of the forbidden and the permitted and the exempt and the obligatory, many things were said; alternatively, these three things should always be things accustomed to say.
יהי כבוד חברך חביב עליך כשלך – and when should this be? that he will not be easily angered. For if you are easily angered, it is impossible that you will not despise the honor of your fellow, which is one word. “Repent one day before your death/demise” is two. And the third is that “you should warm yourself before the light of the Sages”, etc.
שוב יום אחד לפני מיתתך – since a person does not know when he will die, he should do acts of repentance today lest he die on the morrow.
והוי זהיר בגחלתן – you should not act with them in an irreverent manner.
שלא תכוה – so tht you will not be punished at their hand.
נשיכת שועל – its cure is difficult for its teeth are thin, curved and crooked and the physician needs to cut the flesh with a surgeon’s knife and to widen the bite.
עקיצת עקרב – worse than a snake’s bite.
ולחישתן – their speech.
לחישת שרף – that the vapor that comes from the mouth of the venomous serpent at the time that it hisses/whispers. Another explanation: This venomous serpent does not receive a whisper like other snakes as it is written (Psalms 58:6): “So as not to hear the voice of charmers [or the expert mutterer of spells],” so a Sage if he provokes him and comes to appease him, he will not receive his appeasement.

Mishnah 11

עין הרע – like the evil eye/עין רעה – that he is not satisfied with what he has, and runs after other things. But there are those who interpret עין הרע /the evil eye who brings in the evil eye into the finances of his fellow or his children and causes him harm.
ושנאת הבריות – baseless hatred. An Maimonides explains that that he detests the community of other human beings and loves to dwell alone. But I heard that a difficult person who brings upon himself the hatred of humanity and causes that everyone hates him.

Mishnah 12

התקן עצמך ללמוד תורה – that he should not say that since my father is a Sage and that the father of my father is a Sage, for Torah scholarship likes to come around to its in again (to be hereditary in the family – see Tractate Bava Metzia 85a), and I don’t have to seek after it.
וכל מעשיך יהיו לשם שמים – even at the hour when you are engaged in eating ad drinking and good manners/pursuit of a trade, don’t intend to benefit your body but rather, you should be healthy to perform the will of your Creator.

Mishnah 13

הוי זהיר בקרית שמע – to recite it at its appropriate time, and similarly regarding the Amidah to recite each and every Amidah/prayer at its appropriate occasion.
קבע – like a person who has upon him an obligation – something fixed and states: When will I unload from myself this obligation. Alternatively – [the word] קבע – like a person who has establishes a set time to read a specific chapter, one Torah portion – that he says while merely studying, and does not say in the language of supplication, like a person requesting mercy.
כי אל חנון ורחום הוא – who wants with supplication and through these supplication he is comforted immediately.
ואל תהי רשע בפני עצמך – don’t do something that today or tomorrow you will do harm to yourself through it. And Maimonides explained אל תהי רשע בעיניך/do not be evil in your own eyes – that is to say, do not account evil to yourself – for through this you will go out to an evil culture completely. But I heard : do not be evil in this matter – that you will separate yourself from the community and you will stand all by yourself.

Mishnah 14

לאפיקורוס – the language of being ownerless, who despises the Torah and considers it as if it is ownerless. Alternatively, he places himself like someone ownerless and does not have compassion on his soul fearing lest evil come upon him because he despises the Torah or those who study it.
ודע לפני מי אתה עמל – in this response that you make to an Epicurean – that he will not seduce your heart to turn to his opinion.

Mishnah 15

היום קצר – the life of this world is short.
והמלאכה מרובה – The Torah is longer than the land by a measure.
ובעל הבית דוחק – as it states (Joshua 1:8): “but recite it day and night.”

Mishnah 16

לא עליך המלאכה לגמור – your reward [from] God is not to complete all of it in order that you will lose your reward if you don’t complete it. For lest you say, I do not engage in study and I do not take a reward, you will not be a free person to be idle, for by force, the yoke lies upon you to serve/worship.
לעתיד לבא – in the world to come.

Chapter 3



Mishnah 1

עקביא. מטפה סרוחה – a drop of effusion of semen; but even though at the time of conception it is not putrid/decomposed for it does not decay in the womb of the woman until after three days and when it becomes putrid, it is not worthy of being emit semen, nevertheless, it is called a טפה סרוחה/ a putrid drop because it is close to becoming putrid immediately when it is outside the womb of the woman, and the one who looks at it when it comes from a putrid drop is saved from pride. And a person who looks at the future to go to the place of dust and any kind of worm is saved from desires and the lust for money. And he who looks at the future to provide a judgement and [final] accounting separates himself from sin and does not stumble if he becomes a victim of sin.

Mishnah 2

בשלומה של מלכות – and even all of the nations of the world.
חיים בלעו – as it is written (Habakkuk 1:8): “You have made mankind like the fish of the sea,” (Tractate Avodah Zarah 4b). Just as the fish in the sea – all who are larger than their fellow swallow up their fellow, so too human beings. And wee it not for the fear of the kindom, all who is greater than his fellow swallows up his fellow.
יראי ה' איש אל רעהו – here are two.
וידום – the language of the “a soft murmuring sound/a still, small voice” (I Kings 19:12), in the manner of teaching something individually when he teaches it in a whisper.
כל נטל עליו – as if the giving of all of the entire Torah was for his sake alone.

Mishnah 3

לא אמרו עליו דברי תורה – and during the Blessing after the Meals when they make the blessing over the table, they fulfill their religious obligations and it is considered as if they had recited over it words of Torah. Such is what I heard.
מזבחי מתים – an idolatrous offering, as it is written (Psalms 106:28): “They attached themselves to Baal Peor, ate sacrifices offered to the dead.”
מלאו קיא וצואה – idolatrous worship is called excrement as it is written (Isaiah 30:22): “’Out!’ you will call to them.”
בלי מקום – so that they do not mention the name of God [Praised be He] on the table.
שנאמר וידבר אלי זה השלחן אשר לפני ה' – immediately when he speaks words of Torah it is called the table that is before God. And there are those who say more the beginning of the verse he goes out, as it is written (Ezekiel 41:22): “A wooden altar three cubits high [and two cubits long and having inner corners; and its length and its walls were of wood. And he said to me, ‘This is the table that stands before the LORD.’].” Do not read the word אמות /cubits but as אמות /mothers of the nations, as there is the traditional reading where the vowels guide us; three corresponding to Torah, Prophets and Writings, and we say that Bible, Mishnah and Talmud – a person must speak of them at the table, for this is what is called the table before the Lord. Such is what Rashi explained.

Mishnah 4

הנעור בלילה ומהלך בדרך יחידי – and someone who considers in heart words of exaggeration.
הרי זה מתחייב בנפשו – because the nighttime is an occasion for those who do damage, and a person who walks on a path alone is in danger because of robbers and several evil occurrences, but if he would be considering the words of Torah, his Torah would protect him.

Mishnah 5

עול מלכות – the burden of the king and officers.
דרך ארץ – labor and the trouble of making a living in order that his work will be blessed.
הפורק ממנו עול תורה – a person who says that the yoke of Torah is difficult and I cannot suffer it.

Mishnah 6

עשרה שהיו יושבים בדין – we have this reading.
בעדת אל – no community is less than ten as it states concerning the spies (Numbers 14:27): “How much longer shall that wicked community [keep muttering against Me]?” This excludes Joshua and Caleb which makes ten.
ומנין אפילו חמשה שנאמר בקרב אלהים ישפוט – three judges and two litigants.
ומנין אפילו שלשה. שנאמר ואגודתו על ארץ יסדה – the fire and the air and the water, which are three. (Amos 9:6: “[Who built His chambers in heaven] and founded His vault on the earth,”] “and founded His vault on the earth” – on the foundation of the world he surrounded them, these are three that are called vaults; alternatively, we found three that are vaults: a bunch of hyssop which are three stalks, and there are books in which it is written: And from where [do we learn] even five, as it states (Amos 9:6): “and founded His vault on the earth,” for a person ties up in his hand one which has five fingers, and the total of the fingers of the hand is called אגודה/band/bunch/bundle. And at the beginning of the verse (i.e., Amos 9:6) he states: “Who built His chambers in heaven” – that is to say, the Divine Presence goes down below to the world when there is a band engaged in Torah. And from where [do we learn] that even three, as it states (Psalms 82:1): “among the divine beings He pronounces judgment.” – that there are three judges.
כי נטל עליו – it is the language of סכך/covering. The Aramaic translation of “And you will cover and take, that is to say, that God’s Divine Presence covers over him.

Mishnah 7

תן לו משלו – do not be prevented from engaging in the needs of heaven, whether from your body or from your money, that you don’t give of what is yours – not from your body and not from your money for you and your money is His (i.e. God’s).
מה נאה אילן זה מה נאה ניר זה – this is the law regarding all idle conversations, but that it spoke in the ordinary manner, for it is the manner of those who walk on the path to speak about what their eyes see. But there are those who say that it comes to teach us something extra for even though that it is an individual opinion, a person recites the blessing: “Praised is God for such as is in the world,” even though we consider it as if he has forfeited his soul because he stopped from his studies.
ניר – a ridge of the plough, like (Jeremiah 4:3): “Break up the untilled ground [and do not sow among thorns].”

Mishnah 8

כל השוכח דבר אחד ממשנתו – on account because he did not review it, we consider it as if he is liable for death and because of his forgetfulness, he comes to permit what is forbidden and is found that a stumbling block has come to him, and his inadvertent error counts as something done on purpose. Alternatively, he becomes liable for his own soul because that Mishnah would have preserved him, and because he forgot it, it does not protect him.
תקפה עליו משנתו – for it was difficult for him and through the difficulty in it, he forgot [his learning].

Mishnah 9

כל שיראת חטאו קודמת לחכמתו – I learned that in his thoughts he places the fear of sin to his wisdom, for he thinks in his heart: “I will learn so that I will become one who fears sin,” and that is because they said that the beginning of thought is the conclusion of the deed.
חכמתו מתקיימת – for wisdom brings him to what his heart desires, and he enjoys it.
וכל שחכמתו קודמת ליראת חטאו – that he doesn’t learn in order to do, for since his heart does not turn to be someone who fears sin, his wisdom does not endure and because it prevents him from going after his stubbornness, there is an end to it, which he detests and sets aside.

כל שמעשיו מרובים מחכמתו – here we are speaking of someone who is zealous to perform a positive commandment, and above [when speaking of] where his fear of sin precedes his wisdom, we are speaking of his being careful with negative commandments.

Mishnah 10

כל שרוח הבריות נוחה הימנו – whomever is beloved below knows that he is beloved above (i.e., with God).
שינה של שחרית – he who continues to sleep until the period for the recitation of the Shema passes.
ויין של צהרים – which pulls at the heart of man, as it is written (Ecclesiastes 2:3): “I ventured to tempt my flesh with wine” and to bring myself to drunkenness.
ושיחת הילדים – which idles their fathers from engaging in [the study of] Torah.
וישיבת כנסיות של עמי הארץ – who gather together and speak of idle things.

Mishnah 11

המחלל את הקדשים – A person who brings the Holy things of the Altar to become a rejected sacrifice in consequence of an improper intention in the mind of the officiating priest or a portion of the sacrifices left over beyond the legal time and bound to be burned or ritually impure, or a person who commits a religious transgression and derives benefit, whether of the Holy things of the altar or the Holy things of the Temple treasury.
והמבזה את המועדות – he does work on the Intermediate Days of the Festival, or acts on them like a weekday while eating and drinking.
והמלבין פני חבירו ברבים – He who is embarrassed, his face is at first red and afterwards, white, for the soul has two movements – one towards the outside and one towards the inside. For when we embarrass someone, at first the spirit shakes towards the outer side like one who is filled with rage and his face reddens, and when he cannot find a rational how he can remove the embarrassment from his face, he worries on the inside and the spirit enters his inner side because of he the pain, and his face becomes pale and white. And this is what they said (Tractate Bava Metzia 58b) concerning the whitening – that it goes from red and becomes white.
והמפר בריתו – that he did not circumcise or that he did circumcise but he pulled his foreskin to cover over his circumcision in order that he should not appear that he is circumcised.
והמגלה פנים בתורה – he perverts the interpretation of the Torah to be not in accordance with its accepted understanding, like the person who translates (Leviticus 16:21): “Do not allow any of your offspring to be offered up to Molech,” – and from your offspring you shall not give to become with child in Romedom (i.e., identifying Molech with Rome and misinterpreting "להעביר" for the purpose of making it applicable to sexual connection with Romans). But this is not the plain meaning of the Biblical verse, and in the same manner who makes tainted interpretations. Another explanation of someone who perverts the interpretation of the Torah who dares to transgress the words of the Torah in public with a high hand, and he has no embarrassment [at doing so].
אע"פ שיש בידו תורה ומעשים טובים – and he did not return in repentance from one of these sins that were in his hand. Even though all these sufferings came upon him and he died from his sufferings, he has no share in the World to Come. But if he returned in repentance prior to his death, there is nothing that stands in the way of repentance.

Mishnah 12

הוי קל לראש – before a great, elderly man who sits at the head of the Yeshiva/academy, be easy to perform his duties and serve before him.
ונוח לתשחורת – to a young man whose hair is black, you don’t have to make it easy upon yourself so much but stand before him with pleasantness and calmness.
והוי מקבל וכו' – corresponding to all people, whether the head or the young, stand in joy, “receive” like paying respects to, visiting upon, from the Aramaic translation corresponding to accept. Another explanation: be easy to the head of your leaders when you are young, make it easy to perform the will of your Creator. And in your elder years, when your face has become blackened from age, be pleasant to him.

Mishnah 13

מסורת סייג לתורה – The tradition that the Sages passed to us with its defective and plene [letters] (see Talmud Kiddushin 30a) that are in the Torah are a fence and a strengthening to the Written Torah., for through their hands, we understand how many commandments there are and how to do them, like [the example] בסכת בסכת בסכות/the word “Sukkot” (Leviticus 23:42-43) written twice “defectively” and once full – for from it we learn to validate a Sukkah with three walls, and like the passage "מועדי ה' אשר תקראו אתם" /”[these are] the set times of the LORD that you shall celebrate as sacred occasions” (Leviticus 23:37; see also verses 2 and 4 of this chapter) which is written defectively in three places, to teach – אתם/them – even if they are sinning inadvertently, even if they are sinning wantonly, even if they are in the minority.
מעשרות סייג לעושר – as it is written (Deuteronomy 14:22): “You shall set aside every year a tenth part”. Set aside a tenth part so that you shall be coming wealthy (Tractate Taanit 9a).
נדרים סייג לפרישות – at the time when a person begins abstinence/self-restraint and is fearful that he should not transgress, he accepts upon himself in the language of a vow that he will not do such and such. And through this, he conquers his inclination.
סייג לחכמה שתיקה – in what we establish, if through silence from words of Torah, it is already written: (Joshua 1:8) “You shall meditate on it [day and night]” etc., or by silence from gossip and slander and these are a curse from the Torah. But he should not speak other than being silent in those words that are permitted between a person and his fellow that a person should limit speaking of them all that is possible. And on them, Solomon said (Proverbs 17:28): “Even a fool, if he keeps silent is deemed wise, [Intelligent, if he seals his lips].”

Mishnah 14

חבה יתירה נודעת לו – Maimonides explained a great love God showed humanity when he informed him and said to him: “see that I have created you in the image [of God” for when a person does good to his fellow and informs him of the good that he did with him. For it is necessary to explain the great love that was made known to them. Love is revealed and divulged that God did not only have concealed love that God [may He be blessed], has with humanity, for even a revealed and known love for all.
שנאמר כי לקח טוב – all of the story of Creation, as it is stated in it: “And God saw that this was good” (Genesis 1:10,18,21,25). It (i.e., the world) was not created other than for the Torah which is called a gift (see Tractate Taanit 7a), just as the Torah states (Deuteronomy 32:2): “May my discourse come down as the rain.”

Mishnah 15

הכל צפוי – all that a person does in his remotest recesses is revealed before Him (i.e., God).
והרשות נתונה – it is in the hand of a person to do good or evil, as it is written (Deuteronomy 30:15): “See, I set before you this day [life and prosperity, death and adversity].”
ובטוב העולם נדון – with the quality of mercy and despite this, not everything is equal in this quality because everything is according to the multitude of action. A person who increases the doing of good deeds we give him great mercy, and the individual who lessens [the doing of] good deeds, we lessen for him mercy. Another explanation: “And everything is according to the majority of the actions” – since through the majority of a person’s actions he is judged, if most are merits, he is innocent, and if most are wrong-doings, he is guilty. But Maimonides explained “Everything is foreseen” – all the deeds of a human beings what he did and what he will do in the future, everything is revealed before Him (i.e., God), and you should not say that since the Holy One, blessed be He knows what a person will do, if so, he is forced through his deeds that he will be righteous or wicked, since free will is given in his hand to give good or evil and there is nothing that will force him at all, and since this is the case, the world is judged through its goodness, to be called to account from the wicked and to give a good reward to the righteous. For since the sinner sins willingly, he is worthy of being punished and the righteous was righteous willingly and is worthy of receiving a reward. And everything is according to the majority of his deeds, according to how a person continuously strives to do good, so his reward is great for he is not like someone who distributes one-hundred gold coins to tzedakah on one-hundred occasions to one who gives them on one occasion, and this is the reading of Maimonides. And everything is according to the majority of his deeds, but not according to the deed.

Mishnah 16

הכל נתון בערבון – the feet of a person are a surety to him, for wherever he wants to go, they will lead him” (Tractate Sukkah 53a).
ומצודה פרושה – suffering and death.
החנות פתוחה – and people enter there and take debts for merchandise that are payable at certain seasons.
והחנוני מקיף – and he believes all who come to take; such it is that people sin every day and the Holy One, blessed be He, waits for them until their time comes [to die].
הפנקס פתוחה – to write in it the debts for merchandise so that he won’t forget.
והיד כותבת – so that you would not say that even though the ledger is open, sometimes, the storekeeper is preoccupied and he doesn’t write down everything, therefore, it (i.e., the Mishnah) states that hand is writing.
וכל הרוצה ללוות וכו' – that is free will is granted as stated [in Mishnah 15] above, for no one is forced to borrow against his will.
והגבאים – suffering and evil occurrences.
לדעתו – sometimes he remembers is obligations and says that it is beautiful that I judged.
ושלא לדעתו – sometimes he forgot and calls a travelling salesman corresponding to the judgment of the Holy One [blessed be He].
ויש להם על מה שיסמוכו – on the notebook and on the storekeeper who Is faithful regarding his notebook; such are these sufferings which are adjoined to the deeds of a human being that are mentioned before the Holy One [blessed be He], even though they are forgotten by man.
והדין דין אמת – The Holy One, blessed be He, does not deal despotically with His creatures (Tractate Avodah Zarah 3a).
והכל מתוקן לסעודה – both the righteous and the wicked have a share in the World to Come after their obligations have been collected from them.

Mishnah 17

אם אין תורה וכו' – his give-and-take is not pleasant with humanity.
אין דרך ארץ – his Torah will be end up being forgotten.
אם אין דעת וכו' – knowledge is that is finds a rationale for the matter. And understanding – he understands the matter from within the matter but doesn’t show him the reasoning. But if there is no knowledge to give the reasoning for the matter, there is no understanding, for after he did not know the reason for something, it is as if he did not know it. But nevertheless, understanding precedes, therefore, if there is no understanding, there is no knowledge.
אם אין קמח אין תורה – whomever lacks what to eat, how can he engage in Torah study?
אם אין תורה אין קמח – what value does it serve if he has the wheat in his hands but he lacks Torah? It would be better for him if he didn’t have wheat and he died from hunger.

Mishnah 18

קנין – the sacrifices of fowl which ae called “nest” – referring to the nest of a bird. And there are within it (i.e., the Tractate) stringent Halakhot such as if an obligatory offering got combined with a freewill donation or a burnt-offering whose action is performed above, together with a sin-offering whose action is performed below.
ופתחי נדה – the laws of the menstruant woman/Niddah who lost track of her menstruation cycle and needs to watch until the starting time of her menstruation. And sometimes, she is required to immerse [in the Mikveh] ninety-five immersions according to the one who states that immersion at the appropriate time is a Mitzvah.
הן הן גופי הלכות – the principles of the Oral Tradition, for which we receive for it a reward.
תקופות – the matter of the movement of the constellations [in the sky].
וגמטריאות – the value of the letters.
פרפראות לחכמה – like the auxiliary dessert that is customary to eat at the conclusion of the meal to conclude in a joyful manner – so too these auxiliary forms of wisdom which give honor to their owners in the eyes of humanity.

Chapter 4



Mishnah 1

בן זומא – because he did not live long, he was never ordained that he would be called “Rabbi.” They called him by the name of his father, and similarly, Ben Azzai, and both of their names were Shimon.
איזהו חכם – this is how it should be read: How should a Sage who is worthy that he should glory in his wisdom.
הלמד מכל אדם – and even though he is younger than him, for since he doesn’t care for his honor and learns from those younger than him. Things are recognized that his wisdom is for the sake of Heaven, and not to be arrogant or to glorify himself.
שנאמר מכל מלמדי השכלתי – and at the end of the verse (Psalms 119:99): “[I have gained more insight than all my teachers,] for Your decrees are my study,” that is to say, I would study Torah from all of my teachers, even from those younger than me, and I would not be concerned for my honor, for your decrees are my study, for my intentions are for Heaven alone. And similarly… איזהו גבור – who is worthy that he should glory in his courage; he who conquers/masters his passions.
שנאמר טוב ארך אפים מגבור – this is the explanation of the Biblical verse (Proverbs 16:32): “Better to be forbearing [than mighty],” he who comes from side of might of the conquest of the [evil] impulse, not from the side of softness of nature and similarly, “to have self-control than to conquer a city” – from the king who after he has conquered the city and the people rebelling against hm come to his hand, he has self-control and doesn’t kill them.
איזהו עשיר – who is worthy to glorify in his riches, he is happy with his portion.
איזהו מכובד – since all three of these good things which are mentioned above which are the wisdom and the courage and the wealth. He who is worthy of them is honored from himself in the eyes of God and mankind, and even if humanity doesn’t honor him on account of these, therefore, the Tanna attached to them and said: Whomever has these qualities and is honored through himself, what should he do, for he will be honored from others as he honors humanity.
וכי מכבדי אכבד – These things are a Kal VaHomer/an inference a minori, for just as the Holy One, blessed be He who is the King of Glory and everything that He created in His world, He did not create other than for His honor and He honors those who honor Him, all the more so for flesh and blood (i.e., humanity).
ובוזי יקלו – we learned from the modesty of the Holy One, blessed be He. He did not say, “those who despise Me I shall curse”, but rather, they will be cursed on their own (“but those who spurn Me shall be dishonored” – I Samuel 2:30). But regarding the honor of the righteous, he was stricter, as it states (Genesis 12:3): “And curse him that curses you.”

Mishnah 2

שמצוה גוררת מצוה – such is the manner of the world – for he who does one Mitzvah, it is pleasant for him to do others, and one who starts with a sin, it is difficult to separate [himself] from them. And furthermore, the reward for a Mitzvah is [another] Mitzvah, for from Heaven you receive assistance and you designate by hand whomever had performed one Mitzvah that he will do another in order to give him a reward for both, and similarly, the “reward” for a transgression/sin, etc. Another explanation: that the reward for a Mitzvah is a Mitzvah, for all that a person is rewarded and derives joy in the performance of a Mitzvah is considered for him like a Mitzvah in and of itself. And he takes a reward on the Mitzvah that he did and for the joy and benefit that he enjoyed while doing it.
ושכר עבירה עבורה – For the reward and the benefit that arrives to a person in the performance of a transgression is considered to him as transgression in and of itself. But he is whipped for the transgression that he performed and on the “reward” and “enjoyment” that he receives for doing it.

Mishnah 3

אל תהי בז לכל אדם – to state what can so-and-so actual do to harm me?
ואל תהי מפליג – he distances himself from all matters that he has to concern himself with, he should not say that it is far away and that he doesn’t have to worry about it.

Mishnah 4

מאד מאד הוי שפל רוח – even though that in other qualities, the middle ground is the most praised, the quality of pride is not like this, but rather, he should incline to the furthest pole of humbleness of spirit, for pride is the most detestable, and further, most human beings fail in this and no one is exempt from it. Therefore, one must make an additional distance [from this].

Mishnah 5

הלמד על מנת ללמד מספיקין בידו ללמוד וללמד – This is our reading, and this is its explanation: He who studies in order to be able to always engage in Torah [study], he doesn’t have it in his mind to perform deeds of lovingkindness for humanity is like Rabbah (Tractate Rosh Hashanah 18a) who engaged in Torah but did not perform deeds of lovingkindness even though that he wanted to engage in deeds of lovingkindness, nevertheless, he is enabled to study and to teach, and his thought is fulfilled. But a person who studies in order to perform [commandments], for he wants to engage in Torah and to also be able to engage in deeds of lovingkindness like Abaye (there – Tractate Rosh Hashanah 18a), who engaged in Torah and in deeds of lovingkindness, he is enabled to complete his thought process and become worthy to study and to teach and to observe and to perform [deeds of lovingkindness]. But there are those who explain that a person who studies in order to be able to teach in order that he be called “Rabbi,” and we have the reading that he is not enabled to study and to teach, and in most of the books, I have found like the first reading, which is the essential.
אל תעשם עטרה להתגדל בהם – you should not say that I will study in order that I will be called “rabbi” and he will be will refute me on my head, but rather, learn from love and the honor will eventually come.
ולא קרדום לחפור בהם – and not the study of Torah in order to render from it work that one supports oneself through it like making the words of the Torah a spade to dig with them (the means for selfish ends). And the individual who does this religiously desecrates the holiness of the Torah and is liable for death at the hands of Heaven, for he has benefited from that which has been sanctified. But those who teach young children take their reward from the protection of the young ones alone, for they protect them so that they do not transgress and cause damage and the renumeration for teaching the values of punctuation signs or accents. But the reward for study, it is forbidden to take, as it is written (Deuteronomy 4:14): “At the same time the LORD commanded me to impart to you laws and rules for you to observe [in the land that you are about to cross into and occupy]” that the Lord my God commanded me – jus as I do it for free, so you do it for free. And such is that law that it is forbidden to take renumeration for teaching the law, but the renumeration for idleness alone [is permitted] – something that is recognized – how much he would lose from being idle from his work in order to hear the claims of the litigants, as long as he takes the same from both of them, but if he were to take more from this one, his judgments are nullified. And just as the Torah permitted a Torah scholar to benefit from the words of the Torah is that he his wares should be sold in the marketplace prior to other people and also that he would be exempt from taxes and taxes from crops and other farmer’s products delivered in kind. And even the capitation tax the community is obligated to give for him, and even if he is rich and has a lot of money and he can request from the court to exempt him. But if the Torah scholar is sick and afflictions have come upon him and many people bring him large portions of food because of the honor of his Torah, it is a Mitzvah upon him that he should take these. But this not suitable from the words of the Torah, for it is impossible for him to sustain himself in another manner. And similarly, a Torah scholar that the community appointed him over them as a leader of the community or as head of the school. But the person who engages in the needs of the community is permitted to take from them a reward, and even more money than he needs to support himself, in order that his meals be healthy. And through this, he will be great and appropriate and be desirable in their eyes, as we find with regard to the High Priest (Tractate Yoma 18a) that it is written regarding him that he is greater than his brothers and he Sages expounded that they make him greater than his brothers – that his brother Kohanim who make him rich from their own and the early Sages who were prevented from this possessed a quality of piety but this is not from the law.

Mishnah 6

כל המכבד את התורה – He who expounds upon the defective writing/omission of the vowel letters and the addition of letters that are in the Torah, demonstrating the reason for each and every stroke on the letters to say that there is no irrelevant argument, you have no greater honor to the Torah than this. Alternatively, [it means] he who honors the Torah scroll and honors those who study Torah and engage in it, all these are included within those who honor the Torah.

Mishnah 7

החושך עצמו מן הדין – in a place where there is someone greater that him; alternatively, he states to the litigants that they should compromise.
פורק ממנו איבה – that a person leaving from the court trial guilty hates the judge for he says in his heart, but not the opposite if I am acquitted.
וגזל perhaps the acquitted with be found guilt as it is found that the stolen [object] comes into his hand.
ושבועת שוא – perhaps he will be required to take an oath to the individual who is not liable for one, and it is found that he is comes to a false oath; alternatively, the Tanna calls a lying oath a false oath such as the person who says I did not borrow and the borrower, at the time of his oath had a false oath come from his mouth.
והגס לבו בהוראה – without examination and without delay.

Mishnah 8

אל תהי דן יחידי – even though the individual is an expert/specialist, one can judge. But it is the manner of piety that even if he is an expert/specialist, he should not serve as judge alone, and especially if the litigants have not accepted him upon themselves as a judge; but if the litigants accepted him upon themselves as a judge, he may judge singularly and even according to the manner of piety.
שאין דן יחידי אלא אחד – the Holy One, blessed be He, who is singular/unique in His world.
ואל תאמר – to your fellows who are disagreeing with you, “accept my opinion,” that I am an expert and without your participation/fusion, I would be able to judge.
שהן ראשין ולא אתה – for since you combined them with you, it is appropriate that he will decide the law for the majority.

Mishnah 9

המקיים את תורה מעוני – that he is pressed for food and is exempted from his work in order to engage in [the study of] Torah.
המבטל את התורה מעושר – on account of the great financial resources, he has to give attention to here occasionally and to there occasionally and he has no time to engage in [the study of] Torah.

Mishnah 10

הוי ממעט בעסק – lessen the engagement in your business and your work so that your primary engagement with be with [the study of] Torah.
והוי שפל רוח בפני כל אדם – to learn even from one who is lesser than you in wisdom.
יש לך בטלים הרבה כנגדך – that will assist you in your idleness. Another explanation: there are in the world several idle individuals who are wicked and evil beasts who are idle and through them, the Holy One, blessed be He will bring retribution upon you.
ואם עסקת בתורה – It (i.e., the Torah) will pay your reward and not via an agent, and through that, the good quality is greater than the quality of retribution.

Mishnah 11

פרקליט – an angel who is a good advocate.
קטיגור – an evil advocate/prosecutor and the word קטיגור is calling a vendor. But סניגור/advocate is the opposite of קטיגור. Its explanation is someone who hates vendors.

Mishnah 12

יהי כבוד תלמידך חביב עליך כשלך – for such we found with Moss who said to Joshua his student (Exodus 17:9): “Pick some men for us [and go out and do battle with Amalek],” he made him equal to him.
וכבוד חבירך כמורא רבך – for Aaron said to Moses (Numbers 12:11): “O, my lord, [account not to us the sin which committed in our folly].” But he (i.e., Aaron) was his older broker in age, and he called him, “My lord.”
ומורא רבך כמורא שמים – as it is written (Numbers 11:28): “My lord Moses, restrain them!” – all of them from the Torah since they rebelled against you, it is as if they rebelled against the Holy One, blessed be He and they are liable for destruction.

Mishnah 13

הוי זהיר בתלמוד – that your study should be in the details and according to Halakha.
שגגת תלמוד עולה זדון – if you error in your teaching because our wee not exact in your studies and you come to permit what is forbidden, the Holy One, blessed be He will consider it for you as if you had done it wantonly.
שלשה כתרים הם – that are written in the Torah that the Torah obligates that you act towards them with respect/honor.
כתר תורה – it is written concerning it (Leviticus 19:32): “[You shall rise before the age] and show deference to the old,” that individual who has acquired wisdom.
כתר כהונה – it is written concerning it (Leviticus 21:8): “and you must treat them as holy, [since they offer the food of your God;] they shall be holy to you, [for I the LORD who sanctify you am holy.”
כתר מלכות – it is written concerning it (Deuteronomy 17:15): “you shall be free to set a king over yourself,” that your fear of him be upon you.
וכתר שם טוב – He who possesses in his hand good deeds and his reputation is good on account of his deed, we did not find the crown of the Torah in him, that we would be obligated to grant him honor, for it is greater than all of them, for the other three “crowns” require it, for if he is a Torah scholar but those who have heard him hate him, it is permissible to despise him, and if he is a High Priest, we state in Tractate Yoma (71b): The children of the nations will come to peace for they perform the actions of Aaron [who loved peace and pursued peace], but the sons of Aaron will not come to peace if they don’t perform the deeds of Aaron,” and if he is a king, it is written (Exodus 23:27): “[You shall not revile God,] nor put a curse upon a chieftain among your people,” while doing the deeds of your people.

Mishnah 14

הוי גולה למקום תורה – if there are no Sages/Torah scholars in your place.
ואל תאמר שתבוא אחרי – That Sages/Torah scholars will come here.
שחביריך יקיימוה בידך – and do not rely that when your friends come from the house of the Rabbi/teacher, that they should fulfill the Torah from your hand, that you will learn from them what they learned from the Rabbi/teacher, but rather you should exile yourself to the place of the Rabbi/teacher for hearing it from the student is not the same as hearing it from the Rabbi/teacher. Another explanation: that your fellows will fulfill it from your hand – what am I telling you? Exile yourself to a place of Torah so that your fellows will fulfill it from your hand – for even if you are exceptionally sharp and a master of dialectics, the Torah will not be fulfilled through you – other than through your fellows when you engage in give-and-take with them that is to say, at its conclusion, and do not lean upon your understanding alone.

Mishnah 15

אין בידינו – like, it was not in his hand (Tractate Yevamot 105a), that is to say, the matter is not known to us why the ricked prosper and for what reason the righteous suffer afflictions. Another interpretation: We do not have in our time in the Diaspora neither from the ease and quiet that the Holy One, blessed be He regularly gives to the wicked in order to banish them from the World to Come. But not even from the special afflictions for the righteous which are afflictions out of love which lack the neglect of the study of the Torah, that is to say, we have departed from the community of wicked individuals for we don’t have the ease that the wicked have but we have not arrived to the community of the righteous, for our afflictions are not of love as are the afflictions of the righteous.
הוי מקדים שלום לכל אדם – and even to the idolaters in the marketplace.
הוי זנב לאריות – to those greater than you.
ולא ראש לשועלים – to those lesser/smaller than you.

Mishnah 16

פרוזדור – gate house, which in Aramaic translation is vestibule room.
טרקלין – the place of the seat of the king. So,you prepare yourself in this world in our that you be worthy for the World to Come.

Mishnah 17

יפה שעה אחת בתשובה – for the needs of repentance and good deeds.
מכל חיי העולם הבא – because at that same time, repentance and good deeds do not benefit a person for the World to Come is not other than to receive the reward for what a person fulfilled in this world.

Mishnah 18

אל תרצה את חברך בשעת כעסו – as it is written (Exodus 33:14): “I will go in the lead and will lighten your burden.” [Berakhot 7a]: God said to Moses: Wait until my face of anger passes.
ואל תנחמנו בשעה שמתו מוטל לפניו – for at the time of the Destruction [of the Temple], God, as it were was mourning, he requested of his ministering angels to comfort Him, and the Holy Spirit answered them: “don’t rush to comfort Me.”
ואל תשאל בשעת נדרו – to find an opening to permit him [the fulfillment of] his vow, because then each and every opening that you will find for him, as we found that when the Holy One, blessed be He swore to Moses that he would not enter the Land, he did not supplicate immediately but waited and afterwards he began to supplicate.
בשעת קלקלתו – when he was ruined by sin/collapsed under influence of corporal punishment, because he was embarrassed from everyone, and such you find when the first man (i.e., Adam) sinned, God did not appear to them until they had made apparel, as it is written (Genesis 3:7): “and made themselves loincloths,” and afterwards (verse 8): “They heard the sound of the LORD God [moving about in the garden at the breezy time of the day].”

Mishnah 19

בנפול אויבך אל תשמח – this verse is in Proverbs (24: 17), but Samuel the Small was accustomed to reprove people with this quality.
פן יראה ה' ורע בעיניו – as if He is your agent to fulfill your desires.
והשיב מעליו אפו – (verse 18) – and as it is not written ושב/turns but rather והשיב/averts – which implies that He will remove you from your enemies and will return to you.

Mishnah 20

על נייר חדש – which exists/is established. This is the reading of [what one learns] in one’s youth is not forgotten.
ענבים קהות – that did not fully ripen and they blunt the teeth. Thus is the wisdom of the youth that had not completely settled, his words are not accepted and not settled upon the heart.
יין מגתו – that its sediment/lees are combined in it. Such is the wisdom of youth which contain a mixture of doubts.
רבי אומר אל תסתכל בקנקן – Rebbe (i.e.. Rabbi Judah the Patriarch) disagrees with Rabbi Yosi the son of Rabbi Yehuda and says that just as there is a new vessel full of old wine, so there is a child whose flavor is that of the elders, and there are elders who have less than the level of the wisdom of the child.

Mishnah 21

והתאוה – the individual who requests to fulfill his desires in eating, drinking and sexual activity, and so forth.
והכבוד – that people should honor him.

Mishnah 22

הילודים למות – those who are already born will in the future die.
והמתים – will in the future live and stand for the Day of Judgment – these for the World to Come and these for shame and eternal damnation.
וחיים לדון – stand to be judged on the Day of Judgment.

ולהודיע – [and to inform] to others.
ולהודע – to understand on his own.
הוא היוצר – that the entire world is in His hand like clay in the hand of the potter (see Jeremiah 18:6). And what is the reason? Because He is the Creator who created the entire world from nothing; therefore, He can do according to His will.
הוא המבין הוא הדיין – after He has understood all of their deeds, He brings them to judgement before Him.
הוא בעל דין – for He summons the sinners.
והוא עתיד לדון – in the World to Come.
ולא משא פנים ולא מקח שוחד – that he does not play favorites even to someone entirely righteous that He will not punish him for a light sin that comes to his hand. And He does not take bribe for the commandment because of the sin, but He gives a reward for [the performance of] a Mitzvah and Punishes for a transgression. Such has Maimonides explained.
ודע שהכל בא לפי חשבון – penny by penny combines to a large sum; so also light transgressions when they are many add up to a large amount.
שעל כרחך אתה נוצר – for when the soul does not want to depart from the curtain of heaven – a pure place where the souls are placed, and to enter into the womb of the woman in a defiled place, but an angel comes and removes it against its will and brings it into the womb of the woman.
ועל כרחך אתה נולד – at the time of the birth, it does not want to leave, and an angel removes it against its will.
ועל כרחך אתה חי – there is a person who is depressed from his afflictions and wants to die, but cannot.

Chapter 5



Mishnah 1

בעשרה מאמרות – [the phrase] ויאמר /and He (i.e., God) said is found in the Creation [narrative, it is also a statement as it is written (Psalms 33:6): “By the word of the LORD the heavens were made.”
שמאבדים את העולם – for whomever destroys one soul from Israel is as if he has destroyed an entire world (see Tractate Sanhedrin, Chapter 4, Mishnah 5 – though the textual reading probably should NOT be נפש אחת מישראל – but rather, נפש אחת – giving his phrase even greater power). But the wicked of the world destroy their souls as if they destroy the world. This is what I have found. But it appears to me that they actually destroy the world, for they cast the deciding vote of the entire world to the balance of evil, and is found that the world is destroyed/lost on their account.
שנברא בעשרה מאמרות – but it is not similar to one who destroys the work that had been done in one day to work that had been done over several days.

Mishnah 2

להודיע כמה ארך אפים לפניו – even you should not be astonished that he prolonged for the idolaters all these years that they would subjugate his children that is greater that he prolonged for the generations. That from Adam until Noah and afterwards they were swept away/drowned [by the Flood].
וקבל עליו שכר כולם – he (i.e., Abraham) performed many good deeds corresponding to that that all of them would have been worthy of accomplishing. Therefore, all of them wee saved through his merit. And because he took upon himself the Yoke of the Commandments in this world corresponding to all of them, so he received in the World to Come the reward corresponding to all of them. For every person has two portions: One in the Garden of Eden and one in Gehenna; if he merited, he takes his portion and the portion of his fellow in the Garden of Eden. If he was found guilty, he takes his portion and the portion of his fellow in Gehenna.

Mishnah 3

עשרה נסיונות – 1) Ur of the Chaldees when Nimrod cast Abraham into a fiery furnace (note: this is Midrash and not found at all in the text of Genesis); 2) (Genesis 12:1): “Go forth from your native land [and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you]”; 3) (Genesis 12:10): “There was a famine in the land, [and Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land]”; 4) (Genesis 12:15): “and the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s palace.”; 5) The battle of the Kings (Chapter 14); 6) the presence of [The Covenant] between the pieces (Genesis 15) where He (i.e., God) showed him (i.e., Abraham) the subjugation of the kingdoms [of the world]; 7) Circumcision (Genesis 17:9-14); 8) (Genesis 18:2): “So King Abimelech of Gerar had Sarah brought to him.”; 9) (Genesis 21:10): “Cast out that slave-woman (i.e., Hagar) and her son (i.e., Ishmael).”; 10) The Binding of Isaac (Genesis 22).

Mishnah 4

עשרה נסים נעשו לאבותינו במצרים – that they were saved from ten plagues. And all of them were on the Egyptians and not the Israelites.
ועשרה על הים – 1) (Exodus 14:21): “The waters were split”; 2) That the sea became like a kind of tent, and the Israelites entered into it, as it is written (Habbakuk 3:14): “You will crack [his] skull with Your bludgeon,”; 3) that the bottom of the sea became dry without mortar and mud as it is written (Exodus 14:29): “But the Israelites had marched through the sea on dry ground.”; 4) That the bottom of the sea that the Egyptians tread through when they were chasing after them (i.e., the Israelites) became moistened and became mortar and mud, as it is written (Habbakuk 3:15): “Stirring the mighty waters.”; 5) that the waters that were curdled/made thick in the bottom of the sea were not of one piece, but rather like small bricks and the stones of a building that were arranged one next to the other, as it is written (Psalms 74:13): “It was You who drove back the sea with Your might,” that it was made similar to crumbs; 6): that the curdled/thickening waters became hard/stiff like stones, as it is written (Psalms 74:13): “who smashed the heads of the monsters in the waters,” and the Egyptians were called sea-monsters; 7) That twelve decrees were made on the sea in order that each and every tribe could pass through in its own path. And this is as it is written (Psalms 136:13): “Who split apart the Sea of Reeds,”; 8) that the water curdled/coagulated like a sapphire, lapis lazuli and glass/crystals in order that the tribes could see each other, for the pillar of fire would enlighten it for them. And this is what is written (Psalms 18:13): “dark thunderheads, dense clouds of the sky [were His pavilion round about Him],” that is to say, the gathering of the waters were like the dense clouds of the sky like essence of the heavens in purity; 9) that sweet waters came out from it that they would drink them. And that is when it says (Exodus 15:8): “the floods stood straight like a wall,” (see also Jeremiah 18:14 and Psalms 16:16); 10) that after they drank from them (i.e., the waters) what they wanted, the rest of them would curdle and become piles, as it is written (Exodus 15:8): “At the blast of Your nostrils the waters piled up, the floods stood straight like a wall.”
עשר מכות הביא הקב"ה על המצריים במצרים – [the abbreviations for the ten plagues used in the Passover Haggadah:] דצ"ך עד"ש באח"ב.
ועשרה על הים – these correspond to the ten “fallings” that are in the Song of the Sea of Reeds (Exodus Chapter 15): 1) (Exodus 14:30): “Thus the LORD delivered”; 2) (Exodus 15:1): “He has hurled into the sea,” 3) (Exodus 15:4): “He has cast into the sea,”; 4) (Exodus 15:4): “[And the pick of his officers] are drowned in the Sea of Reeds.”; 5) (Exodus 15:5): “They went down into the depths [like a stone],” 6) (Exodus 15:6): “[Your right hand, O LORD,] shatters the foe!].” ; 7) (Exodus 15:7): “[In your great triumph] you break Your opponents,” ; 8) (Exodus 15:7): “[You send forth Your fury], it consumes them like straw,” ; 9) (Exodus 15:10): “[You have made Your wind blow,] the sea covered them,” ; 10) (Exodus 15:10): They sank like led [in the majestic waters].” These are the ten fallings. But (Exodus 15:12): “[You put out Your right hand,] the earth swallowed them” is not part of the count of fallings, for this is for their good in that they were worthy of burial.
עשר נסיונות נסו אבותינו להקב"ה במדבר – two were at the sea, one while going down there. It is stated (Exodus 14:11): “[And they said to Moses:] ‘Was it not for want of graves in Egypt [that you brought us to die in the wilderness’]” and one when they went up (Exodus 15:23-24): “They came to Marah, [but they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter…And the people grumbled against Moses,”; one in Rephidim (Exodus 17:2): “The people quarreled with Moses.” Two in connection with the Manna: (Exodus 16:25): “Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath of the LORD; you will not find it today on the plain.” (Exodus 16:27): “Yet some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather, but they found nothing.” (Exodus 16:19-20): “Let no one leave any of it over until morning. But they paid no attention to Moses; some of them left of it until morning.” Two with regard to the quails. The first [of these - (Exodus 16:3): “when we sat by the fleshpots, [when we ate our fill of bread],” with the quails and the second (Numbers 11:4): “The riffraff in their midst [felt a gluttonous craving].” One with the [Golden] Calf and one with the with people bitterly complaining (see Numbers 11:1) and one with [the story of the Spies (Numbers 13-14). And this is the tenth as there it states (Numbers 14:22): “and who tried Me these many times (literally, “ten”) and have disobeyed Me.”

Mishnah 5

ולא אירע קרי לכה"ג – because it is a defilement that comes out from his body. This thing was more reprehensible and repulsive than the rest of the defilements.

ולא כבו גשמים אש של עצי המערכה – and even though the altar was in an open place
ולא נמצא פסול בעומר ובשתי הלחם ובלחם הפנים – for if there was found in them something invalid prior to the Mitzvah being performed, it was not possible to offer up others in their places. For the Omer is harvested at night and they would not harvest a great deal. But the two loaves [of bread] were baked from the eve of the Festival and its baking does not supersede the Festival, and similarly, the shewbread is baked from the Eve of the Sabbath (i.e., Friday).
צפופים – the language of “floating on the water” (see Tractate Sotah, Chapter 9, Mishnah 2 and Tractate Parah, Chapter 6, Mishnah 2) from the great numbers of the congregation/community are confined/pressed each person to his fellow, until their feet are taken from the ground and they are standing in the air.
ומשתחוים רוחים – at the time of the bowing, a miracle happened to them and they are bowing with a distance of four cubits from his fellow, in order that a person who would not hear his fellow when he confesses and mentions his transgressions.
צר לי המקום שאלין בירושלים – we have the reading. Because the place would prepare for them their sustenance, for no one would need to leave from there and stated, my sustenance [is scarce] and I am unable to live in Jerusalem, but there are books in which it is written "כשאלין"/when I will lodge, and this is stated for those who come up [to Jerusalem] for the Pilgrimage [Festivals], for not of them of them would be in distress when he would lodge in Jerusalem on account of the crowds of the place like (Isaiah 49:20): “The place is too crowded for me; Make room for me to settle.”

Mishnah 6

בין השמשות – on the eve of the Sabbath of Creation prior to the creation being completed.
פי הארץ – to swallow Korah and his band/congregation.
פי הבאר – the well of Miriam that would walk with Israel in the wilderness in all of the journeys/stations. But there are those who say that it opened its mouth and sang songs, as it is stated (Numbers 21:17): “Spring up, O well – sing to it.”
פי האתון – at twilight, it was decreed that it (i.e., the donkey) would speak with Balaam.

והמן – that fell for Israel for forty years in the wilderness.
והמטה – that the signs (i.e., miracles of the plagues) were performed with it and it (i.e., the staff of Moses) was of sapphire/lapis lazuli.
והשמיר – a sort of worm whose creation is like a barley-corn that when they would show it on the stones that were marked in ink, they would be split on their own and through it, they opened the stones of the Ephod and the breastplate as it is written regarding them (Exodus 28:20): “[They shall be framed with gold] in their mountings.”
הכתב – the form of the letters that were engraved in the tablets [of the Ten Commandments].
והמכתב – that they would be read from all four sides.
והלוחות – they were of sapphire/lapis lazuli, their length six and their width six and their thickness three like one stones whose length and width and thickness are equivalent, and they were divided into two and rolled and hewed from the revolution of the sun.
אף המזיקין – these are the demons that after the Holy One, Blessed be He created Adam and Eve, he was engaged in their creation, and when he created their spirits, he did not allow an opportunity to create their bodies until he sanctified the [Sabbath] day, and they remained as spirits without a bodfy.
ואילו של אברהם אבינו – it was decreed upon it (i.e., the ram Abraham found in the story of the Binding of Isaac, Genesis, chapter 22) that it would be (verse 13): “caught by the thicket by its horns” at the time of the Binding of Isaac.
אף צבת בצבת עשויה – it is the Aramaic translation of two pairs of tongs – the two pairs of tongues were not made other than from another pair of tongs. But the first – who made them? By force, they were made by Heaven on their own and they were created at twilight. But this is pushed aside in the Gemara (Tractate Pesahim 54a) in the chapter, “In a place where they had the practice/custom”/מקום שנהגו – and they stated that the first tongs were made in a frame/mold that they melted the copper in fire, and they poured it into the frame/mold and it became tongs immediately.

Mishnah 7

גולם – the language of roughly shaped; utensils which had not been completely formed. Such is the person who is not completely finished in his mind, not in qualities and not in wisdom, is called a גולם/clod.
אינו מדבר בפני מי שגדול ממנו בחכמה – for such we found with Eleazar and Itamar who did not want to speak in the presence of their father, Moses got angry with them, and Aaron responded.
ואינו נכנס לתוך דברי חברו – that he will not [disturb him], as it is written (Numbers 12:6): “and He (i.e., God) said, ‘Hear these my words: [When a prophet of the LORD arises among, I make Myself known to him in a vision, I speak with him in a dream],” wait for e until I speak, all the more so for a commoner.
ואינו נבהל להשיב – in order that his answer/response will be according to Halakha. And similarly with Elihu he says (Job 36:2 – the printer made a mistake in the text indicating that the passage comes from chapter 32): “Wait a little and let me hold forth; [There is still more to say for God].”
שואל כענין ומשיב כהלכה – to one thing he is appointed here and this is its explanation: the student asks according to the matter, meaning to say, in the same subject that they are engaged in, and then the Rabbi/Teacher responds according to the law. But if the student asks not according to the subject [at hand], he brings to the Rabbi that he will respond not in accordance with the law in the manner that Rabbi Hiyya said to Rav (Tractate Shabbat 3b): When Rabbi [Judah the Prince] was “holding” in that tractate, don’t ask him from another tractate and similarly, when you find people who were ritual defiled to the soul of a human being who saw Moses engaged in the laws of Passover, and asked him about this matter (i.e., ritual defilement).
ואומר על ראשון ראשון – and similarly we saw with the Holy One, Blessed be He, that Moses said to him (Exodus 3:11): “Whom am I that I should go to Pharaoh,” is the first [matter]; “and free the Israelites from Egypt” (Exodus 3:11) is the second. But God responded on the first [matter] (Exodus 3:12): “I will be with you,” and on the second: “And when you have freed the people from Egypt, you shall worship God at this mountain” (Exodus 3:12).
ועל מה שלא שמע אומר לא שמעתי – if he decides law from the logic of his mind, he should not say, “Such I have learned from my Rabbis/teachers.” For we found with the men of Haran when Jacob asked from them (Genesis 29:6): “He (i.e., Jacob) continued: ‘Is he (i.e., Laban) well?’ They answered, ‘Yes, he is, and there is his daughter Rachel coming with the flock,’” meaning to say this we now and if you ask more, here is Rachel is daughter coming with the sheep. And she will tell you, for we don’t know more than this.
ומודה על האמת – and even though he is able to affirm his words though the claims that are in his hand. And similarly, we found with Moses when Aaron kept silent and he (i.e., Moses) said to him: If you heard that in [regard to] the Holy Things of the [immediate] hour, you cannot be lenient with the Holy Things of the generations (Leviticus 10:20): “And when Moses heard this, he approved.” (i.e., examine also the previous verse when Aaron says to him: “See this day they brought their purification offering and their burnt offering before the LORD, and such things (i.e., the death of Nadav and Avihu) have befallen me! Had I eaten purification offering today, would the LORD have approved?”).
וחלופיהן בגולם – the reverse of these things, that their opposite is a Golem/clod.

Mishnah 8

רעב של בצורת – the rains are few and because of this the market price becomes more expensive.
רעב של מהומה – because of the ravaging troops/invaders, it is not possible to collect the grain.
רעב של כליה – the heavens are like iron and the earth is like copper.
שלא נמסרו לב"ד – they did not make a Rabbinic court of laws with them.
ועל פירות שביעית – that they do business with them and do not act towards them with the holiness of the seventh year [when the land is supposed to lie fallow].
ענוי הדין – that they know which way the law is tending and they delay and don’t make the final decision.
עוות הדין – to make the guilty innocent and the innocent guilty.
ועל המורים בתורה שלא כהלכה – to prohibit that which is permitted and to permit that which is prohibited.

Mishnah 9

שבועת שוא – in vain without any need.
חלול השם – he who transgresses in public wantonly. Alternatively, that people see and learn from his actions.
ועל השמטת הארץ – that they plow and sow in the Seventh year.
מפני מעשר עני שבשלישי – that in place of the Second Tithe that they separate in the other years of the seven year cycle. In the third and sixth years, they separate the Tithe for the Poor.
גזל מתנות עניים – gleanings, forgotten sheaves, and the corner of the field, single grapes and small, incompletely formed clusters of grapes.

Mishnah 10

שלי שלך ושלך שלךI - I do not want to provide you benefit and I hope that you will not benefit me.
ד"א זו מדת סדום – the matter is close to coming to that of the nature/disposition of Sodom that since he is accustomed to this, even with a matter where his fellow benefits and he [himself] is not lacking [anything], he would not want to provide benefit to his fellow, and this is the nature/disposition of Sodom for they intend to destroy civility amongst them but even though that the land before them was vast and they were not lacking anything.
שלי שלך ושלך שלי עם הארץ – that he benefits and causes benefit in equal measure, and this is the cultivation of the world, but he does not know Scripture, as it is written (Proverbs 15:27): “He who spurns (literally: “hates”) gifts will live long.” But this is the language of an ignoramus that is stated in every place that he wants the repair of the world, but he lacks the wisdom to distinguish appropriate repair.
שלי שלך ושלך שלך – humanity benefits from his possessions and he does not benefit from others.
חסיד – that he goes beyond the letter of the law.

Mishnah 11

נוח לכעוס ונוח לרצות יצא שכרו בהפסדו. קשה לכעוס וקשה לרצות יצא הפסדו בשכרו – a person who gets angry rapidly on everything, even though he returns and is becomes appeased/reconciled quickly, his loss is greater than his reward. For most of his actions are corrupted/ruined after he is easily angered on each and every thing, but one who is difficult to get angry even though he has the evil quality that he is hard/difficult to appease, his small loss that he difficult to appease is cancelled by his great reward that he is difficult to anger and most of his deeds are proper. But there are those who have the reading that is the reverse, and this reading appears to me to be the essence.

Mishnah 12

מהר לשמוע ומהר לאבד יצא שכרו בהפסדו – for after that he forgets what he learns what benefit there is in what he rapidly hears (i.e., learns), it is found that his loss is greater than his reward/gain.
קשה לשמוע וקשה לאבד יצא הפסדו בשכרו – that there is a good measure that there is in it that is greater than the measure that is lost for since, what that he heard (i.e., learned) after the difficulty [in retaining what he heard], he remembers and does not forget. What the result from this is that if there are two students, and we don’t have to provide sustenance other than to one of them, we will advance the one for whom it is difficult to lose (i.e., forget) over the individual who quickly hears/learns [but forgets quickly].
זה חלק רע – it does not belong to teach here, a righteous or wicked person, for this thing is not dependent upon his choice but rather on the lack that he had in him from the essence of his creation.

Mishnah 13

ארבע מידות בנותני צדקה – meaning to say, in the giving of Tzedakah but not in those who give Tzedakah in actually, for there are among them those who do not give, and similarly, close by (see Mishnah 14),
עינו רעה בשל אחרים – for he knows that Tzedakah enriches. But he does not want that others will become wealthy. Another explanation: there are those who are more concerned/care for the money of their relatives than their own money. And even though he gives [Tzedakah], he does not want that his relatives will give so that they don’t lose their money. And he begrudges that of others which is similar that he begrudges what is his that is in the concluding clause.

Mishnah 14

הולך ואינו עושה – he goes to the House of study to hear but does not review nor learn nor understand.
עושה ואינו הולך – he studies and reviews in the House of Study that is in his home.

Mishnah 15

ביושבים לפני חכמים – above (Mishnah 12) with the regard to the four qualities of students, it speaks of the matter the memory and the forgetfulness and now it speaks with regard to the matter of the straight logic and making something clear that is righteous from that which is not [completely] righteous.
סופג – it absorbs the water whether it is turbid or whether it is clear, so there is a person whose heart is wide and receives everything that he hears but he lacks the strength/power to sift the truth from the falsehood.
משפך – a utensil that we place on top of the jug or on top of the leather bottle when we want to fill it up with wine or oil.
שמכניס בזו ומוציא בזו – so [too], there is a person who receives everything that he learns and like he absorbs it, he discharges it [immediately].
משמרת – he removes everything that he hears in the House of Study and retains matters of vanity/idleness.
נפה – after he removes the bran-flour/flour of the second course and the coarse bran from the ground flour and there remains the thin flour with the choice thick flour, and it is the most important, we remove it with a very thin sieve/winnow which is a kind of white sandy matter in grain and there [yet] remains the important thick choice flour and similarly, they would use it for meal offerings, so also there are those individuals that have the strength/power to sift and to refine that which he learns and he absorbs the truth from the falsehoods and vanity.

Mishnah 16

כל אהבה שהיא תלויה בדבר בטל – that does not endure and that when the matter is removed, that there was a reason for that love, also that love ceases to exist, but any love that is not dependent upon a thing that ceases to exist but rather on a matter that exists, as for example, he love of the righteous and he Sages never ceases to exist, just as that the matter which is the reason for that love does not cease, so too, the love does not cease to exist.
אהבת אמנון ותמר – because of her beauty.
אהבת דוד ויהונתן – to complete the will of their Creator (i.e., God), that Jonathan said to David: “Yyou will be king over Israel and I will be your second-in-command.

Mishnah 17

כל מחלוקת שהיא לשם שמים סופה להתקיים – that is to say that the people engaged in the dispute exist and do not perish, like the dispute of/between Hillel and Shammai, for neither the students of the School of Shammai nor the School of Hillel did not perish, but Korah and his congregation perished. But I heard an explanation: its end is its desired destruction from its matter and that the dispute that is for the sake of Heaven – the object and desired end from that dispute is to attain the truth. And this endures as it is written from the disagreement the truth will be ascertained and just as it is made clear in the disputes of Hillel and Shammai that the Halakha is according to the School of Hillel. But the dispute that is not for he sake of Heaven, the desired end in it is the striving for power and the love of victory, this is the end and does not endure, like we saw in the dispute of Korah and his congregation that the end and conclusion of their intention was the striving for honor and rule, and they were the opposite.

Mishnah 18

אין חטא בה על ידו – in order that he will not be in Gehenna and his students in the Garden of Eden.
אין מספיקין בידו לעשות תשובה – that he will not be in the Garden of Eden and his students in Gehenna.
וזיכה את הריבה – that he taught Torah to all of Israel.
צדקת ה' עשה ומשפטיו עם ישראל – that his judgments of the Jewish people will be as if he did them.
אשר חטא ואשר החטיא את ישראל – following from the fact that it does not state [in the Biblical verse quoted in the Mishnah from I Kings 15:30] “on the sins of Jeroboam and Israel,” learn from it that everything is dependent upon Jeroboam..

Mishnah 19

מתלמידיו של אברהם אבינו – he learned from him and walks in his ways/paths.
עין טובה – he is satisfied with what he has and doesn’t covet the money of others, for so we found with Abraham who said to the King of Sodom (Genesis 14:23): “I will not take so much as a thread or a sandal strap of what is yours.”
ורוח נמוכה – greater modesty. And similarly, we found Abraham who says (Genesis 18:27): “I who am but dust and ashes.”
ונפש שפלה – carefulness and separation from [sexual] desires. And we found this in regard to Abraham, as it is written (Genesis 12:11): “I know what a beautiful woman you are,” for until now he did not know her from his great modesty, but regarding Balaam, we find an evil eye, for he would know that he was evil in the eyes of God that he would go to Balak and he would go in order to take a payment, as it is written (Numbers 22:18): “Though Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold.”
ורוח גבוהה – that he (i.e., Balaam) said (Numbers 24:4): “Word of him who hears God’s speech” and he knows the knowledge of On High.
ונפש רחבה – if he were not the master of his [sexual] desires, he would not advise to declare ownerless the daughters of Moab for fornication. And the Sages stated (Sanhedrin 108a): “Balaam had sexual intercourse with his ass.”
להנחיל לאוהבי יש – Abraham is called Lover, as it is written (Isaiah 41:8): “[But you, Israel, M servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen], Seed of Abraham My friend (i.e., literally, lover). "יש" / substance – in the world to come, "ואוצרותיהם אמלא"/that I may fill their treasures – in this world.
אנשי דמים – Balaam is called אנשי דמים/bloodthirsty, for he caused the destruction through his counsel of twenty-four thousand from Israel.

Mishnah 20

עז כנמר – this tiger was born from a pig in the forest and a lioness. For at the time of the heat (i.e., sexually) of the lions, the lioness places her head in the net-work/web of the forest and makes a noise and claims the male, but the pig hears her voice and copulates with her. And a tiger comes out between the two of them and because he is a “Mamzer”/illegitimate creature, he is insolent/impudent even though he has not that much bravery in him, so you should be strong and not be embarrassed to ask from your Rabbi/teacher what you didn’t understand, like that which we taught [in the Mishnah – see Tractate Avot, Chapter 2, Mishnah 5]: “That the bashful person does not learn.”
וקל כנשר – to review after your studies and not become weary as it is written (Isaiah 40:31): “As eagles grow new plumes: They shall run and not grow weary.”
ורץ כצבי – to presume after the portions.
וגבור כארי – to conquer your inclinations from the transgressions.
עז פנים – because insolence/impudence is recognized internally, as it is written (Proverbs 21:29): “The wicked one is brazen-faced; therefore he is called impudent/insolent.
שתבנה עירך במהרה בימינו – meaning to say, that just as that You have granted us this quality that is sign for the seed of Abraham who are bashful, compassionate and performing acts of lovingkindness, so may it be Your will that You will rebuild Your city.

Mishnah 21

בן חמש שנים למקרא – we derive it from Orlah/fruit that grows during the first three years after a tree was planted, as it is written (Leviticus 19:23-24): “Three years is shall be forbidden for you, not to be eaten In the fourth year all its fruit shall set aside for jubilation [before the LORD].” That his (i.e., the child’s) father teaches him the form of the letters and recognition of the vowel signs. (Leviticus 19:25): “And in the fifth year may you use its fruit – that its yield to you may be increased,” from here on feeds him [with knowledge] like an ox (see Talmud Bava Batra 21a).
בן עשר למשנה – that he studies Scripture for five hears, and five years [he studies] Mishnah and five years he studies Gemara, for the Master stated, any student who did not see a good sign in his studies for five years, will not ever see it, as it is written (Numbers 8:24): “This is the rule for the Levites. From twenty-five years of age up they shall participate in the work force [in the service of the Tent of Meeting].” That he comes and learns the laws of Temple Service for five years, and at age thirty he works.
בן שלש עשרה למצות – as it is written (Numbers 5:6): “When a man or woman commits any wrong toward a fellow man.” And regarding Shechem it is written (Genesis 34:25): “Simeon and Levi, two of Jacob’s sons, brothers of Dinah, took each his sword,” and Levi at that period was thirteen years old and they call him a “man”/איש .
בן שמונה עשרה לחופה – nineteen [times] the word Adam (i.e., the first human) is written in the portion of Genesis/Beresheet from (Genesis 1:26): “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness,” until (Genesis 2:22): “And the LORD God fashioned the rib [that He had taken from the man into a woman].” One is for itself, there remains eighteen for homiletical expounding.
בן עשרים לרדוף – after sustenance (i.e., food on his table) after he learned Scripture, Mishnah and Gemara and got married and gave birth to children, he needs to return and to search for sustenance. Another explanation: to pursue him from heaven and to punish him on his deeds, for the Jewish court on High does not punish for someone younger than twenty.
בן שלשים לכח – that the Levites would put up the Tabernacle and take it apart and load up the wagons and carry by shoulder from age twenty years and older.
בן ארבעים לבינה – that after forty years, that the Israel was in the wilderness, Moses said to them (Deuteronomy 29:3): “Yet to this day the LORD has not given you a mind to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear.”
בן חמשים לעצה – as it is stated regarding the Levites (Numbers 8:25-26): “But at the age of fifty they shall retire from the work force and shall serve no more. They may assist their brother Levites…, and what is the service? That he should give them advice.
בן ששים לזקנה – as it is written (Job 5:26): “You shall come to the grave in ripe old age.” [The word] בכל"ח – in Gematria is sixty.
בן שבעים לשיבה – as it is written in regard to David (I Chronicles 29:28): “He (i.e., David) died at a ripe old age, [having enjoyed a long life],” and lthe days of his life were seventy.
בן שמונים לגבורה – as it is written (Psalms 90:10): [“The span of our life is seventy years,] or given the strength, eighty years.”
בן תשעים לשוח – he goes bent and bowed. But there are those who say, it is the language of )Proverbs 23:27): “A harlot is a deep pit.”

Mishnah 22

הפוך בה והפוך בה – in Torah.
דכולה בה – that you will find everything in it.
וסיב ובלה בה – also until old age and hoary age you will not leave it (i.e., Torah).
ומינה לא תזוע – that you will not say, “I studied the wisdom of Israel, I [now] will go and study from the wisdom of idolaters for it is not permitted to study the wisdom of idolaters other than in a place where it is prohibited to think about/meditate upon words of Torah, as for example in the bathhouse and in the toilet, for they asked Rabbi Yehoshua [ben Hananiah]: What is the law about a person teaching his son the wisdom of idolaters? He said to them: “He can teach it at a time that is neither day nor night, for such is written (Joshua 1:8): “[Let not this Book of the Teaching cease from your lips,] but recite it day and night [so that you may observe faithfully all that is written in it].”

Mishnah 23

לשום צערא אגרא – according to the multitude of pain that you suffer in studying Torah and the performance of the commandment, so will be your greater reward.