מבוי – which is not wide sixteen cubits, even though it is open from its two points into the public domain; alternatively, it is sixteen cubits wide but it is not open, but one head is open to the public domain and the other head is closed, but from the Torah, it is permitted to carry in it without any repair, but the Rabbis made a decree against it, lest they come to carry in full public domain and they permitted with an establishment of a stake fastened in the ground (by the side of a wall, serving as a mark or as a fictitious partition for the purpose of enabling those who live in an ally to move objects on the Sabbath) or a beam/post so that it will have recognition/a sign. But if he placed the beam above twenty cubits high, he should lower it, meaning to say, he should lower the beam so that it will be lower than twenty cubits high, for higher than twenty cubits, it is not discernible to the eye/the eye is attracted, and if [his] beam has a ceiling (see Talmud Eruvin 3a – for different opinions of the meaning of his word), which means drawings/embroidery and is open even higher than twenty cubits, he does not have to lower it, for through these drawings/embroidery, it is discernible to the eye/the eye is attracted.

רבי יהודה אומר א"צ – for the reason of the beam is not because of recognition but because of a partition since we said, the mouth of the ceiling goes down and closes up, and since his is the case, what difference does it make within twenty [cubits] and/or higher than twenty [cubits], but the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yehuda.

והרחב מעשר אמות ימעט – for more than ten cubits, it is not called an opening, but rather a breach, and we require an opening. Therefore, he should reduce the width of the entrance and reduce it to ten [cubits] or less.

ואם יש לו צורת פתח – in every place where the Sages stated “a form of a doorway” (in width), even if his a reed from here and a reed from there ten handbreadths high or more, and a reed on top of them, even though it doesn’t touch them and even though it is higher than them more than three handbreadths. And all of the cubits that are taught in this Mishnah and in all of [Tractates] Eruvin, and Sukkah and Kilayim, a cubit is six handbreadths and each handbreadth is four fingers with the thumb, but sometimes one needs to measure a “sorrowful” (pressed together) handbreadth (i.e., four fingers closely joined), meaning to say, that one should not make a space in the fingers with the thumb between one to the other, but rather, they would be pressed against each other and touching each other, and sometimes, one must make a space between each digit so that they do not touch each other and this is called the liberal (or smiling) handbreadth. How is this the case? At the time when the measurement Is with the “sorrowful” (pressed together) handbreadth, it is stringent such as an alley entrance which is higher than twenty cubits, he should lower it, and a Sukkah which higher than twenty cubits is invalid, we measure with a “sorrowful” handbreadth, but at the time when the measurement is with a liberal (or “smiling”) handbreadth which is stringent, such as an alleyway entrance, its height cannot be less than ten handbreadths; a Sukkah which is higher than ten handbreadths, we measure with the liberal handbreadth.

הכשר מבוי – its preparation and designation of the alley to carry within it through a combination of alleys.

ב"ש אומרים לחי וקורה – both of them (i.e., a stake and a beam) are necessary and that they hold from the Torah that we require four complete partitions and it was brought as a traditional interpretation of a written law [dating back to Moses as delivered from Sinai) and the particular application is a square-block of a stake and a crossbeam.

ובה"א או לחי או קור – for from the Torah three [complete] partitions are required and further nothing else and it was brought as a traditional interpretation of a written law [dating back to Moses as delivered from Sinai] either a stake of some small size or a beam to be recognized as a partition. And the alley that we are speaking of here is a closed alley from three directions and the fourth direction is open to the public domain and its length is greater than its width, for it its length was like its width, it would be like a courtyard whose opening was breached to the public domain and one would need a board/bar of four handbreadths and a bit more (see Talmud Eruvin 5a) or two boards/bars of a bit of size and similarly, a courtyard which was breached into the public domain and its length was greater than its width, it is judged to be an alley which is permitted with a stake or a board. But an alley that was made valid with a stake is different than an alley made valid with a beam, for an alley which was made valid with a stake, it is as if it has four partitions and a person who throws [something] from the public domain into it is liable, but an alley made valid with a beam, even though it is permissible to carry within it through a combination, it is not like a completely private domain and a person who throws [something] from the public domain into it is exempt, for we hold that a beam is because of recognition and a stake because of a partition.

רבי אליעזר אומר לחיים – he holds like the School of Shammai that requires a stake from one side and the other, but the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Eliezer.

אמר תלמיד אחד – He is Rabbi Meir.

שהוא פחות מארבע אמות – the width of its opening.

אמר רבי עקיבא על זה ועל זה נחלקו – The first Tanna/teacher also this is how it should be read: It does distinguish between wide and narrow and the Talmud explains that there is a difference between them: An alley that has less than four handbreadths in the width of its opening – one of them holds that it requires neither a stake nor a beam and the other one holds a stake or a beam but it is not made clear from their words which of them holds that it is required and which of them holds that it is not required.

רחבה כדי לקבל אריח – that it would be appropriate to build upon it a fixed, permanent building.

והאריח חצי לבנה של שלשה טפחים – it is found that the אריח/small bricks/bond-timber is a handbreadth and-a-half wide.

דיה לקורה ברוחב טפח – this is how it should be read: since the crossbeam is a handbreadth wide, that one-half handbreadth that remains – since the small brick is one-and-one-half handbreadths wide, it is possible to rub a salve of plaster a finger [width] here and a finger [width] from there and through this it will be wide enough to hold the small bricks and this is how it is explained in the Gemara (Talmud Eruvin 14a).

בריאה לקבל אריח – strong [enough] to endure the weight of the small bricks that it wouldn’t break. And this is the Halakha.

היתה של קש ושל קנים – Rabbi Yehuda stated this but the Halakha is not according to him.

עקומה – the small bricks are not able to rest upon it (when it is curved) and similarly when it is round, a small brick cannot rest upon it.

if it has in its circumference: Which is to say, what is the round measurement required to render [the beam] proper? Anything that has in its circumference three handbreadths, which requires a string of three handbreadths to encircle it around, it is known that it has a width (diameter) of one handbreadth, if you divide [it]. As so do we find with the basin that Shlomo made (II Chronicles 4:2), "ten ells from its edge to its edge and five ells of height and a line of thirty ells encircling it around." Hence for every ell in width (diameter), there are three ells in circumference.

לחיים שאמרו – the stakes that Rabbi Eliezer and the Sages disputed about; for according to Rabbi Eliezer, two are required, and the Rabbis require only one and this is its measurement.

גבהן עשרה טפחים – like the measure of the height of he alley for its height cannot be less than ten handbreadths, and even if the alley was much higher, it is enough with a stake that is ten handbreadths high.

ורבי יוסי אומר רחבן שלשה – and Rabbi Yosi states that its width is three [handbreadths] for it requires something important as a partition, but the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yosi.

ורבי יוסי פוסל – for we suspect lest it die, and it would not be ten [handbreadths] high, and doesn’t give his attention and relies upon it.

ומטמא משום גולל – if they made it a stone placed on top of a burial cave it defiles forever and if a person or utensils came in physical contact with it, it is like the tent of the dead, even if he was removed from there, as it is written (Numbers 19:16): “And in the open, anyone who touches a person [who was killed or who died naturally, or human bone, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days].” But the Rabbis expound upon it to include the stone placed on top of the burial cave and the frame supporting the movable stone of a tomb. The "גולל"/the stone placed on top of a burial cave is the covering of the grave.

ור"מ מטהר – the reason of Rabbi Meir is because he holds that any partition made of something living is not a partition, and it is not the Halakha.

ור"י הגלילי פוסל – as it is written (Deuteronomy 24:1): “”and he writes her a bill [of divorcement, hands it to her, and sends her away from his house].” Just as a scroll lacks a living spirit/life, so too, anything that does not have a living spirit/life. And the Rabbis: If it (i.e., the Torah) had written “and he writes her in a bill,” it would be as you said, but now that it is written [in the Torah]: “and he writes her a bill” – it comes to count things, but the Halakha is according to the First Tanna/teacher, [and if he wrote] her a bill of divorce on the horn of the heifer, and he gave her the heifer, for now it does not require cutting after it had been written, it is valid. But, if he did not give her the heifer, but rather the horn, since it requires cutting, one does not divorce by it.

ולא יהיה פרצות יתרות על הבנין – and even if they are small breaches/gaps, less than ten [handbreadths], if the breach/gap is greater than the standing part, it is not a partition, and even if it corresponds to the standing part, it is prohibited.

כל פרצה שהיא בעשר אמות מותרת – as long as the standing part greater than it; alternatively, what is breached is like the standing part, it is a partition and even corresponding to the breach/gap, it is permitted.

יתר מכאן אסור – even one breach/gap that is greater than ten [cubits] prohibits the entire circumference, and even if the standing part is greater than it, for people don’t make openings greater than ten [cubits] and it would be a breach, and especially if it lacks the form of an opening, but if it has the form of an opening, even greater than ten [cubits], it is an opening.

מקיפין שלשה חבלים – it refers to a caravan that camped in the valley

זה למעלה מזה – on top of pegs surrounding from the lowest rope to the ground less than three [handbreadths] and behold it is like all of it is standing, for everything less than three [handbreadths] is considered like a “labud” (something solid/compact)/a legal fiction of considering separate parts as united, if the gap is less than three handbreadths (see Talmud Sukkah 16b), and from it to the middle [rope] is less than three [handbreadths], you have it that it stands as six handbreadths less the two small amounts in the two airspaces, and from the middle [rope] to the upper [rope], which is less than three [handbreadths], you have nine handbreadths standing in three airspaces less than three small amounts.

שיעור עובי החבלים יותר על טפח – three small amounts in orde that there can be between everything ten handbreadths.

מקיפין בקנים – wedged in and standing and this is a partition of warp but of ropes it would be a partition of woof.

בשיירא דברו – they were lenient regarding them since they don’t need anything other either a warp such as reeds or a woof, such as ropes, but for an individual, they were not lenient , but rather until it has [both] warp and woof and three people [in it], they are like a caravan.

כל מחיצה שאינה של שתי וערב כו' - Rabbi Yosi the son of Rabbi Yehuda disputes on that of his father, and states that even for a caravan, it requires warp and woof.

אחד משני דברים – either warp or woof and there is [a difference] between the earlier Rabbis and the latter Rabbis, for the earlier Rabbis did not permit for an individual other than something similar to a caravan on the way, since it cannot make an appropriate partition and it is not in a settlement, but the latter Rabbis stated that one of two things, whether for an individual or a group, whether on the road or in a settlement, and the Halakha is according to them, but that one person or two that dwelled in the wilderness are not able to make a partition larger than field requiring two Se’ah of seed which is one-hundred cubits long by fifty cubits wide like the courtyard of the Tabernacle and three people or ore are a caravan and they are able to make a large partition and even several miles according what they need and for the utensils that they use and for their animals, as long as there not remain a free space within the partition greater than the field requiring two Se’ah of seed.

פטרו במחנה – for those who go out to war and even to an optional war [to gain territory outside the Land of Israel].

מביאין עצים – and we don’t suspect them of theft, and even if their owners cut them and made of them packages.

ופטורים מרחיצת ידים – [exempt from washing the hands] before the meal, but for the water [for washing] after the meal, they are obligated, since it was established on account of the danger of the Sodomite salt that blinds the eye, the danger is graver than the prohibition.

ומדמאי – that they don’t have to separate the tenth of a tenth of doubtfully tithed produce such as if they took grain from an ignoramus [who does not observe the laws of tithing properly].

ומלערב – The Eruvim of courtyards such as from tent to tent in the camp surrounded by partitions, but the Eruvim of borders/limits they are required to make [those Eruvim].