אין אסור משום כלאים אלא צמר ופשתים – as it is written (Deuteronomy 22:11): “You shall not wear cloth combining wool and linen.” [The word] שעטנז is a generalization; צמר ופשתים /wool and linen is a specification/detail; a generalization and a specification/detail, the generalization refers only to that which was specified in the details. Wool and Linen, yes, [are forbidden together]; something else is not [forbidden together]. But צמר/wool is the wool of sheep or rams alone, as it is written (2 Kings 3:4): “Now King Mesha of Moab was a sheep breeder; and he used to pay as tribute to the king of Israel the wool of one hundred thousand lambs and of one hundred thousand rams.” You do not have it called mere wool, but rather the wool of rams, but he rest of wool, one needs to give an epithet, the wool of camels, the wool of hares, the wool of goats.

ואינו מטמא בנגעים אלא צמר ופשתים – as it is written (Leviticus 13:47): “When an eruptive affection occurs in a cloth of wool or linen fabric.”

אין הכהנים לובשים לשמש במקדש אלא צמר ופשתים – for regarding the clothing of the priests, it is written (Exodus 39:27-29): “They made the tunics of fine linen of woven work, [for Aaron and his sons];…and the linen breaches of fine twisted linen,” which is a flax that grows in linen stalks, that is to say, a singular red from each seed, but no two reeds grow from one seed. And regarding the sashes/אבנט (verse 29), it is written (Exodus 39:29): “blue and purple and crimson yarns, [done in embroidery -as the LORD had commanded Moses].” “And blue/תכלת” -the wool that is colored with the blood of the purple-shell used for dying tekhelet, “and purple/ארגמן”- that is colored by the color ed whose name is ארגמן/purple, which is LAKA in the foreign tongue; and “crimson yarns/תולעת שני” which is colored in the color red that they call CARMAZI.

שטרפן – that mixed them.

מותר – to mix flax with them because the wool of lambs/sheep is nullified through the majority of [wool of] camels.

וכן פשתן וקנבוס – that became combined – and the majority is from the hemp, it is permitted to bring wool and to mix with them.

השיריים והכלך (silk and cissaros-blossoms/a woolly substance growing on stones on the Dead Sea that looks like gold, and being very soft – resembles sheep-wool) – they are species of silk, and the כלך/cissaros-blossoms/ a wooly substance) grows in the sea-towns/mercantile ports and its shape/form is like the shape of gold and it is exceptionally soft and similar to wool.

אבל אסורים – for they come o be exchanged/switched with wool and linen. But because they are were not found among them , people would not recognize them and they would come to switch/exchange them, therefore, they are prohibited for appearance’s sake. But nowadays, that the silk is found amongst us and all know and recognize it, there is no prohibition of any species of silk with wool or linen. And similarly, hemp is permitted whether with wool or with linen, for everyone recognize it.

הכרים והכסתות אין בהם משום כלאים – because they are made for ling on and the Torah stated (Leviticus 19:19): “you shall not put on cloth [from a mixture of two kinds of material],” but you are permitted to insert them underneath you. But these words [are applicable] when they are hard and thin and placed on top of a couch, then they are permitted when one’s skin doe not [touch] them, but if they are soof or filled or even empty and placed on top of a bed, even ten mattresses one on top of the other with mixed seeds underneath them, it is prohibited to sleep upon them because they are bent underneath him and they are wrapped on his skin.

אין עראי לכלאים – for temporary dressing [of mixed seeds] is dressing.

אפילו על גבי עשרה – and even though he does not benefit from the mixed seeds [from these ten garments].

את המכס – I saw that for some of my teachers that explained, for example, that in a place where the Jews pay customs to the custom-collector who stands from near him , and he wears mixed seats in order that he should not be recognized that he is a Jew (see Tractate Bava Kamma 113a). But it appears to me to steal the customs, because a person a person does not give customs from the clothing that he wears. But [the teacher of] this anonymous Mishnah [holds] that a thing that he doesn’t intend upon is prohibited, and he disputes upon the other anonymous teacher who teaches (see Mishnah 5 of this chapter) that clothes dealers sell [garments of diverse kinds] in their usual manner.

מטפחות הידים – [hand towels] that one dries their hands with when they ritually wash their hands.

מטפחות הספרים – that they place on the Torah scroll.

ומטפחות ספג – that one dries with them all of his body after he bathed.

ר' אלעזר אוסר – [Rabbi Elazar prohibits] hand towels because sometimes he warms his hands with them, and scroll wrappers sometimes, he places it on his chest and becomes warm, and towels, sometimes that he sees his Rabbi and wraps himself up in it. And the Halakha is according to Rabbi Elazar.

מטפחות ספרים (barbers’ towels) – that they shave people, and spread upon them a towel in order that their clothes do not become dirty.

אסורים משום כלאים – and in this the first [anonymous] Tanna agrees because they have a have a top and we wear them like clothing. And this is proved in the Jerusalem Talmud.

תכריכי המת – [the shrouds] that the dead is buried in them, they don’t have [the obligation to observe the Mitzvah of] Kilayim/mixed seeds as it is written (Psalms 88:6): “abandoned among the dead, [like bodies lying in the grave of whom You are mindful no more,” because a person died, he becomes free from [observing] all of the commandments (see Tractate Niddah 61b).

ומרדעת חמור – this is harder than mattresses and cushions, therefore, even if his skin touches, we are not troubled by it lest a shred of the garment used as a mattress winds itself around his body, and especially, when the mixed seats are recognized and appear in it, but a piece of clothing that where the mixed seeds are beyond recognition, he should not make it into a pack saddle for a donkey, for we are concerned lest he take from it a piece of cloth/patch for his clothing, since the mixed seeds are not recognized.

מוכרי כסות מוכרים כדרכן – they wear clothing containing mixed seeds to demonstrate to the purchaser the measurement of its length and width, as long as they don’t intend to have them (i.e., the purchasers) benefitting from them, for even though if he intends [to do so], there is the prohibition from the Torah, but if he does not intend [for purchasers to violate the Torah regulation], it is permissible ab initio. And such is the Halakha.

מפשילין במקל (the scrupulous carry the mixed material garment in bundles over their shoulders) – they place the staff on their shoulders and the [garment of] mixed seeds are placed at its end, and their shoulders do not touch the mixed seeds.

תופרין כדרכן – they place the mixed on the knees and the legs when they are sewing.

הברסין והברדסין (birrus – a cloak of thick woolen material and Brundisian cloaks) – both are made from wool and they cover with it the beds but some of them are thin and others are thick.

דולמטיקיון (dalmatic) - wool pants covering the legs; KAKTZISH in the foreign tongue.

מנעל הפינון (felt shoes) – shoes that are made from the refuse of wool.

עד שיבדוק – lest perhaps there is flax mixed in them.

הבאים מחוף הים וממדינות הים – from the seacoast which is from abroad.

שחזקתו מן הקנבוס – this Mishnah is teaching at first about a time when flax/linen was not found in every place, but at the present time where flax/linen is found everywhere, everyone needs to examine, therefore, a person who purchases clothing sewn by a heathen in the present time shojld not wear it until he examines it well.

ומנעל של זרב (cloth-lined shoe) – leather shoes which are covered inside with felt or with thick wool and reach until the leg, like those that they call in the foreign tongue BORZKISH or in Arabic KUPASH, and because they are made to warm the foot, they are called זרב /cloth-lined as is the language (Job 6:17): “But when they thaw, they vanish.”

אין בהם משום כלאים – we are not concerned lest linen/flax is combined/mixed in with them.

שוע טווי ונוז (hackled, spun or weaved) – שוע – is combed/hatched with a comb and שוע/hackled is smooth. A smooth [skinned] man (i.e., like Jacob, see Genesis 27:11 when he says to his mother Rebecca: “But my brother Esau is a hairy man and I am smooth-skinned”) which we translate in Aramaic as גבר שעיע/smooth-skinned man.

נוז – twisted, that is two threads twisted together. And the essential principle from the Torah about Kilayim/mixed seeds is that the wool will be combed and spun and weaved alone. And similarly, the linen will be combed and spun and weaved alone, and after that, they will be weaved/plaited together or combined together with two stitches that are like a weaving. And because of this, Scripture needed to permit Kilayim/mixed seeds in Tzizit/ritual fringes because the threads of Tekhelet are woven, as it is written (Numbers 15:38): “let them attach a cord of blue [to the fringe at each corner],” spun and woven, and similarly the white string, when they combine them together with two stitches, this is complete Kilayim/mixed seeds according to the Torah. But it is taught in the Mishnah hear, that there is no prohibition because of mixed seeds/Kilayim other than spun or woven, as it states (Deuteronomy 22:11): “You shall not wear cloth combining wool and linen,” not for expounding a Midrash is weaving from Shaatnez/mixed cloth, for weaving is from “together”/יחדו (end of Deuteronomy 22:11) it is derived, for we expound from it that even two stitches are a combination, and we don’t bring Shaatnez other than because of spinning. But I saw that one of our Rabbis who explained that hackled or combed/שוע of he wool alone and the linen is alone, and weaving/נוז, that is to say, and afterwards that is both of them woven together and this fits well with the language of the Mishnah extremely well, and this is what is implied in the Jerusalem Talmud and in many commentaries that I found of my Rabbis/teachers as an explanation to שוע טווי ונוז/hackled, spun or weaved. But all of them have a refutation outside of that which doesn’t not have a refutation.

נלוז ומליז – curved and someone who is tortuous in the ways of his father that is in heaven up on him. It is the language of (Proverbs 3:21): “My son, do not lose sight of them.”

הלבדים (felted stuff/cloaks) – hackled/combed wool without spinning and weaving, and they make from it clothing. But if he combined/mixed wool and linen together and made from them clothing, they are prohibited from the Rabbis, for specifically from the Torah it requires that all three of them are hackled, spun and weaved, but from the Rabbis one of these is enough, or hackled/combed, or spun or woven, and these since they are hackled, they are forbidden from their (i.e., the Rabbis’) words.

פיו של צמר בשל פשתן (fringe of wool fastened onto [garment] of linen) – the weaving after they complete the clothing that is customary to make on its rim and four thick threads in order that the clothing will endure, and it is called a fringe [knotted to the border], but if the clothing is of linen, it is forbidden to make its fringe [knotted to the border] of wool.

מפני שחוזרין לאריג (because the threads [of the fringe] interlace the web [of the garment]) – for they surround the web/weaving. Another interpretation: they are similar to the web/weaving.

משיחות של ארגמן (ribbons of purple)– that which remains over and ropes of purple colored wool.

אסורות – [it is forbidden] to gird to top of a cloak of linen.

מפני שהוא מולל עד שלא קושר (because he hems [the purple band] before he knots it) – for I is their custom to attach through hemming the wool outfit with the linen cloak prior to tying its loins.

ולא יקשור סרט של צמר בשל פשתן – a person should not make belts/girdings of wool and belts/girdings of linen and tie them to each other.

אע"פ שהרצועה באמצע – as for example, a belt of wool that here are bands of linen at one end and bands of wool at the other end and when he girds it, he ties the two heads/ends of wool and of linen with each other, for if this were not the case, it is obvious that it is permitted, for they are the daily actions regarding clothing of wool that hey place underneath them skins of cloth used as a blanket when they are sewn in linen.

אותות הגרדיים – it is the manner of the weavers and launders to mark the name of the owners on the clothing in an embroidered work in order that one’s [clothing] will not get switched with that of his fellow. But if the clothing is of wool and the marks are of linen or the opposite, it is forbidden because of Kilayim/mixed seeds.

תכיפה א' (one stitch) – one stitch that that the needle inserted in the clothing one time alone.

אינו חבור – for ritual impurities and spiritual purity. BU t if one of them became defiled, its neighbor/partner was not defiled, and if he sprinkled upon one of them, he didn’t sprinkle on its neighbor.

ואין בה משום כלאים – if one is of wool and the other is linen and he combined them in one stitch.

והשומטה בשבת (he who undoes the fastening on Shabbat) – in order to return and to sow, he is exempt, for it is not like tearing in order to sow two stitches where one is liable.

עשה שתי ראשים לצד א' (brought both ends of the thread to one side) – as for example, he transferred the needle once but did not transfer all of the thread but transferred the needle a second time, and it was found that he two ends [of the thread] are on on side and tied them, but if he didn’t tie the tw ends together, it is not enduring.

עד שישלש – that he would bring in and take out and return and bring in three times [i.e., one complete and one incomplete stitch]. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yehuda.

השק והקופה מצרפין לכלאים – if one piece of wool clothing is attached to a sack and [and another] piece of linen clothing is attached to a basket, and he attached them together with two stitches, they combine, even though they are not attached to two utensils, and we don’t say that this one stands alone and that one stands alone and are not connected. And the same law applies if they are attached to the rest of the utensils, for their law is like that of a sack and a basket.