עשרה יוחסין עלו מבבל – that Ezra set aside all of the ineligibles who were in Babylonia and they were brought up with him, in order that she shouldn’t be mixed with traced genealogies, because there was no Jewish court there.

חללי – Kohanim who were born from those who had been ineligible for the priesthood, such as a widow [married to] to a High Priest or a divorcee, the female issue of a Kohen’s illegitimate connection (or a Kohen’s wife illegitimately married to him), and/or a harlot to a common Kohen.

חרורי – freed slaves.

נתיני – Gibeonites who were circumcised in the days of Joshua, and were prohibited from marrying into the community [but would serve as water drawers and hewers of wood].

שתוקי ואסופי – we will explain them further on (Mishnah 2).

גיורי וחרורי ממזרין כו' כולם מותרים לבא זה בזה – for a community of converts is not considered a community, and Mamzerim are not warned about that they should not enter the community of converts, but Levites, and Israelites cannot [marry] with a Mamzer. And the illegitimate child of unknown fatherhood and the foundling, whose father and mother are unknown, are doubtful Mamzerim (i.e., illegitimate) and are permitted to be mixed with certain Mamzerim, for we say that into a clear congregation he may not enter, but into a doubtful congregation he may enter.

שתוקי. כל שהוא מכיר את אמו – that he calls, “Daddy,” but his mother silences him.

בדוקי – that they examine the mother. If she said that she was impregnated by an appropriate individual, the child is appropriate. And the Halakha is according to Abba Shaul.

כל האסורים לבא בקהל – even though we have taught in the beginning (Mishnah 1), that illegitimate children and Gibeonites who were circumcised at the time of Joshua are permitted to marry each other, it comes to tell us, for example, that an Ammonite or Moabite convert may marry an illegitimate child, an illegitimate child of unknown fatherhood and a foundling whose mother and father are unknown.

ר"י אוסר – It explains in the Gemara (Kiddushin 74a-b) that this is how it should understood. Rabbi Yehuda who prohibits a convert [marrying] an illegitimately-born woman, that these words refer to a convert of all the other heathens who is permitted to enter the congregation [of Israel], he is the one who is prohibited to marry an illegitimately-born woman, according to Rabbi Yehuda who holds that a congregation of converts is a congregation. But an Ammonite or Moabite convert who is prohibited from entering the congregation [of the LORD], Rabbi Yehuda would admit that he is permitted to [marry] an illegitimately-born woman.

ודאן בודאן מותר – such as an illegitimately-born child with a Gibeonite.

ודאן בספיקן – An illegitimately born child and a Gibeonite with an illegitimate child of unknown fatherhood and a foundling whose mother and father are unknown.

ספיקן בספיקן – an illegitimate male child of unknown fatherhood with an illegitimate female child of unknown fatherhood and a male foundling whose mother and father are unknown with a female foundling whose mother and father are unknown and [the case of] a male foundling whose mother and father are unknown with an illegitimate female child of unknown fatherhood. Even though each of these contains a doubt, it is prohibited, lest one was really “kosher/fit” and the other was unfit. And the Halakha is according to Rabbi Eliezer.

וכותי – this is its doubt, since they are not expert in the laws of Jewish divorce and betrothal. And nowadays, they (i.e., the Rabbis) made them to be like complete heathens for all their matters.

ארבע אמהות – two from the side of the father and two from the side of the mother.

שהם שמונה – four from [the side of] the father and four from [the side of] the mother. And what are they? Her mother, her mother’s mother, the mother of her father’s mother, the mother of the mother of her father’s mother, the mother of her father, the mother of her father’s mother, the mother of her father’s father, the mother of the mother of her father’s father. We examine them so that there was not among one of them a disqualification/blemish.

ואם היתה לויה וישראלית – And a Kohen comes to marry her.

מוסיפין עליהן עוד אחת – one mother for each and every pair, such as her mother, and her mother’s mother, and the mother of her mother’s mother, and similarly for all of them, and that we examine the mothers, but we don’t examine the fathers, lest there is a disqualification in her father or in her father’s father, because it is the manner of people, when they put each other to shame through a dispute, they put each other to shame through traced genealogy for if there was any disqualification from the side of the fathers, it was known. But the women do not put each other to shame with disqualification of genealogy but rather through unchastity, and if there is within them a matter of disqualification of genealogy, it has no voice. And this obligatory examination is not mentioned, other than with a family that raises a protest against her legitimacy, but a family that does not have an suspicion about he, does not require an examination, for all families stand under a presumption of fitness, and the man alone must check when he comes to marry a woman from a family where there is a doubt, but the daughter of Kohen who comes to marry does not have to check upon the man [and his family], for there is no specific law prohibiting women of legitimate birth to marry men of illegitimate birth (see Talmud Yevamot 84b), and the daughter of a Kohen is permitted, ab initio, to marry a convert and a man unfit for the priesthood because of his father’s illegitimate connection, and the same law, all the more so, applies for the daughter of a Levite and an Israelite woman.

אין בודקין מן המזבח ולמעלה – He began to examine the mothers, and found that her father’s father served at the Altar, there is no need to examine after the mother of her father’s father, since her son served at the Altar, it is known that he is of legitimate descent.

ולא מן הדוכן ולמעלה – if he found that he as a singer on the platform.

ולא מן הסנהדרין ולמעלה – and especially from the Sanhedrin/Jewish court that was in Jerusalem, and even from those who adjudicated only monetary cases, for they would not place anyone from the Sanhedrin other than a Kohen, Levite or Israelite of legitimate descent, as it is states (Numbers 11:16): “And let them take their place there with you,” those that are similar to you in descent and in wisdom.

וגבאי צדקה – since they would quarrel with these people, they would seize the Tzedakah, and even on Fridays, if they had with them a matter, it would have a voice.

בערכי ישנה של צפורי – In the Sanhedrins of the city whose name is Yeshanah, which is near to Sepphoris.

ערכי – Sanhedrins where they would arrange and establish the genealogies.

אסטרטיא של מלך – in the monthly division of each month to go out to the wars of the House of David, a particular family in a certain month. And they would not go out to war other than those with legitimate descent , so that their merit and the merit of their ancestors would help them.

בת חלל זכר פסולה מן הכהונה לעולם – the daughter of his son or the daughter of his son’s son, until the end of all the generations, but the daughter of his daughter from an Israelite [father] is fit for [marriage into] the priesthood.

בת גר זכר – even from an Israelites woman, is ineligible for [marriage into] the priesthood, just like the daughter of one unfit for the priesthood on account of his father’s illegitimate connection.

ור"א בן יעקב אומר וכו' – We bring to a conclusion in the Gemara (Kiddushin 78b) that he (i.e., a Kohen) who comes to take counsel, we give him a ruling in accordance with Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov, that a Kohen should not marry the daughter of a male and female convert, but if he marry [the daughter of converts], the Halakha is according to Rabbi Yosi, and we do not compel him to divorce her (literally: “we do not withdraw her from his hand), and his seed from her is fit [for the priesthood].

האומר בני זה ממזר הוא אינו נאמן – for he is a relative in relation to him, and a relative is not fit to testify.

ואפילו שמיהם – the husband and his wife, and it is not necessary that the father alone testifies that he is an illegitimate child, for he is not believed, who is not certain [of the child’s paternity], but even the mother who is certain [of the child’s paternity], she is [also] not believed (see Kiddushin 78b).

אפילו על עובר שבמעיה – who does not enjoy the presumption of fitness.

ר' יהודה אומר נאמנים – The reason of Rabbi Yehuda is that it is written (Deuteronomy 21:17): “[Instead, he must accept [the first-born, the son of the unloved one, and allot to him a double portion of all that he possesses….” – he will be accepted/recognized to others. From here [we learn that] the father is believed to disqualify his son, but the mother is not believed to disqualify her son. And especially regarding his son he believed, but not on the son of his son, for if this son had children, he would not not believed to disqualify them. And the Halakha is according to Rabbi Yehuda.

וכן האשה שנתנה רשות לשלוחה – it was necessary for the Tanna [of our Mishnah] to inform us that the father that made [someone] his agent to betroth his daughter and a woman that made [someone] her agent to betroth herself, for had [the Mishnah] only mentioned [the case of] the father, I would think that the father that has established his traced genealogy, and when he found that he is of legitimate descent, he betrothed her to himself. And the case where say that he annulled his agent, but a woman who does not establish a traced genealogy, even though she betrothed herself, we don’t rely upon her betrothal, nor did she annul the agent, for she thought that perhaps, the agent would find a person of greater connection than this. And if we only mention about the woman, I would think that because the woman carefully investigates and marries, when she betroths herself, she voids the agent. But the man, who is not strict about his daughter, if she marries any husband, he has not voided the agency of the agent, and he who came first and betrothed her, though that perhaps he is not found. It is necessary. (See Tractate Kiddushin 79a)

אינו צריך להביא ראיה לא על האשה – for she is of distinguished birth/well-connected , for she was examined when she got married.

ולא על הבנים – the small children who are clinging to/running after their mother.

לא יתיחד איש אחד עם שתי נשים – because they are light-headed and they both enjoy being enticed.

אבל אשה אחת מתיחדת עם שני אנשים – for one is embarrassed from his fellow. And the Halakhic decision is that a woman should not be alone with two men, and all the more so, one man with two women, other than if there were two women who were rivals or sisters-in-law (i.e. widows of a brother who died without issue), or a woman and the daughter of her husband, or a woman and her mother-in-law, or a woman with a baby girl that knows the flavor of sexual intercourse and does not deliver herself to sexual intercourse, since these [pairs[ hate each other and are fearful one of the other, and similarly, she is afraid of the minor lest she see her and tell. And we whip on the private meeting of a free woman with a man, and on the private meeting with those [forbidden] because of incest , other than a married woman who is not whipped , in order that we would not cast suspicion on the legitimacy of her children (see Talmud Kiddushin 81a), but it is permitted to be alone with an animal and with a male, for Israelites were not suspected on pederasty and on relations with animals.

הגדילו זו ישנה בבסותה וכו' – and this is case where the daughter was from twelve years of age and the boy from thirteen years of age and one day. And at the time where she is embarrassed to stand before him unclothed, even younger than this, they sleep he with his clothes [on] and she with her clothes [on].

רווק – free, without a wife.

לא ילמד סופרים – he should not accustom himself to be one of the Scribes, that is to teach young children, because the mothers of these young children are found near him to bring their children to the school.

אף מי שאין לו אשה – even though he is not free, but rather, he has a wife who does not dwell with him, he should not teach young children. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Eliezer.

וחכמים מתירין – And the Halakha is according to the Sages, for Israelites were not suspected of pederasty.

כל שאומנותו בין הנשים – for the work of his craft is done for woman, and the women need him.

לא יתיחד עם הנשים – and even with many women, because they become intimate with him, and are partial with him. But if there was another man with the two women, the Mishnah would teach that he shouldn’t, [but] three or four are even better. But Maimonides interprets that we don’t permit it, even because of the needs of his life to be intimate with woman, since his livelihood is from them.

חמר גמל וספן – all these are the trades of robbery, when they sleep on the roads, they go in and collect wood and fruit from the vineyards, and furthermore, they have the advantage over other people and violate their conditions.

רועה – [his cattle] for he removes the cattle to graze in the field of others.

חנוני – is trained/experienced in fraud, to urinate water in wine and place pebbles in wheat, for a person is obligated to teach his son a clean craft.