באחד באדר משמיעין על השקלים – the Jewish court sends [messengers] throughout the cities of Israel and announces that they should bring their Shekalim (i.e., one-half-shekel per adult male, as per Exodus chapter 30, verses 11-16), because on the first of Nisan, one needs to bring community sacrifices from new Terumah/priest’s due, as it is written (Numbers 28:14): “That shall be the monthly burnt offering for each new moon of the year.” Renew and bring a sacrifice from the new Terumah, for we derive the months of the year of here (Numbers 28:14) from (Exodus 12:2): “It shall be the first of the months of the year for you.” Therefore, we advance it by thirty days, which is from the first day of Adar to announce that they should bring their Shekalim.

ועל הכלאים – We announce that they should reduce the other seed until there should not remain in it one-quarter of a Kab for a Seah, as is taught in Chapter Two [Mishnah One] of Mishnah Kilayim: that every Seah that has one-quarter of a Kab from another species should reduce it, and our Rabbis explained that after the seeds have ground, even one in one-thousand one must uproot everything, for every two kinds and every one kind singly is permitted, but they forbade through mixtures – but relinquishment does not belong witht his, for specifically, when they estimate after that which has been combined at the time of seeding, there is no need other than to reduce, for according to the Torah, one in two is cancelled out, but they don’t call seeding “mixed seeds” other than because of merely appearance’s sake , one must reduce, but after they grew, there is no need for renunciation, but one must uproot everything so that nothing would remain other than one of the species.

בחמשה עשר בו קורין את המגילה בכרכין – [cities] surrounded by walls from the days of Joshua the son of Nun for since it was necessary to teach [in the Mishnah] that on the fifteenth of Adar money-changers sit in the country, it teaches also everything that they would do on that day.

ומתקנים את הדרכים ואת הרחובות – and the marketplaces that were ruined vy rains during the days of he winter, we repair them for the those who come up on Pilgrimage (i.e., at Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot). But there are those who interpret – because of the killers who murder people unintentionally that are able to flee from before the blood avenger as it is written (Deuteronomy 19:3): “You shall survey the distances, [and divide into three parts the territory of the country hat the LORD your God has allotted to you, so that any manslayer may have a place to flee to].”

ואת מקואות המים – if plastered increased in them, we clean them and if their measurement is lacking, we conduct drawn water to them and complete them according to measurement – if they had there the majority of forty Se’ah from that which was proper.

ועושים כל צרכי רבים – such as monetary cases, capital cases and laws of striping and the redemption of valuation of a person or animal dedicated to the sanctuary, property set apart for priest’s or temple use, sanctified property and the handing of the bitter water to the suspected wife and the burning of the heifer and the boring through of the Hebrew bondsman’s ear, and the purification of the leper and the sending to open cavities of collected waters in order that they be found there for the people to drink from them in the days of the summer – all of these are the needs of the many.

ומציינין את הקברות – so that they will not spread tent-like for Levitical uncleanness for Kohanim arising from their being under the same shelter over a corpse, and make them pure, and this marker is when they cleanse the plaster and pour it around the grave, but during the rainy season, the plaster is dissolved/diluted and one must go back and mark it.

ויוצאים – messengers of the Jewish court.

אף על הכלאים – for even though they announced about them on the first of Adar, they do not rely upon the announcement lest the owners did not uproot them (i.e., the mixed seeds), and they themselves go out and uproot them.

היו עוקרים ומשליכים לפניהם – in front of the owners of the fields in order that they will be embarrassed but these owners of the fields were happy since they weeded their fields for them, and furthermore, they would place them before their animals, they (i.e., the Rabbis) established that they would throw them on the roads, and still the owners of the fields were happy that they (i.e., the inspectors) would weed for them.

התקינו שיהו מפקירין כל השדה – the confiscation by the court (disposing of private property by the process of law) is valid (see Talmud Gittin 36b).

במדינה – in Jerusalem and they would exchange the one-half Shekel to people that each one would bring from the coinage of his country and did not know how many of them come out to one-half Shekel.

ישבו במקדש – because the time would get close that they would sit in the Temple in order that they would hurry to bring [the one-half Shekel]. And Maimonides explained that all the cities of Israel were called "מדינה"/Country/provincial towns, and on the twenty-fifth, they would sit in the "מקדש"/Sanctuary in Jerusalem.

התחילו למשכן – for whomever did not bring their [one-half] Shekel.

את מי ממשכנין לוים – to exclude from the one who states that the Levites do not take pledges, as it is written (Exodus 30:14): “Everyone who is entered in the records, from the age of twenty years up, [shall give the LORD’s offering],” but the Levites were not counted from age twenty years.

אבל לא נשים- (Exodus 30:12): “Each shall pay the LORD a ransom for himself,” is written, and not a woman.

ולא עבדים – for slaves are not obligated other than in commandments that women are obligated for.

וקטנים – even if he brought forth two [pubic] hairs and he is less than twenty years of age.

שוב אינו פוסק – his father, once he had begun, but if his father died, he pays the Shekel on his own.

ואין ממשכנין את הכהנים – even though they are obligated in the one-half shekel.

מפני דרכי שלום – because the service of the Sacrifices is upon them, they extend to them honor and rely upon them that they would not have to delay [bringing] their Shekel; alternatively, they would delay and the Jewish court would not grant upon them a gift like they give from the Temple treasury to the rest of those who do the Holy work as we will explain further on.

כל כהן ששוקל אינו חוטא – for even though he is not obligated to give the [one-half] Shekel, and you might think that I would say that if he gives the [one-half] Shekel, it would be found that the community sacrifice is offered from an individual, this comes to inform us that he does not sin since he gives this one-half-shekel to the community completely, and we should not suspect that he would not completely deliver it appropriately.

כל כהן שאינו שוקל חוטא – and the Biblical verse (Exodus 30:14): “Everyone who is entered into the records,” he expounds it this way: He who passes through the Sea of Reeds, that is Kohanim, Levites and Israelites, all who passed through the sea “on the records”, whether they were counted alone, whether they were counted with Israel, “shall give the LORD’s offering,” and even though in the Torah portion of "אלה פקודי"/”These are the records [of the Tabernacle],” it is written (Exodus 38:25): “The silver of those of the community who were recorded,” for six-hundred and three-thousand [and five-hundred and fifty men]” (Exodus 38:26). That is written for the Terumah of the sockets, but for that Terumah, the Levites did not take part, but the Terumah of the community sacrifices, the Kohanim, Levites and Israelites were equal.

לעצמן – for their benefit, but this is not for a homily, for specifically, in the meal offering of the Kohen alone, the Biblical verse stated (Leviticus 6:16) : “[So, too, every meal offering of a priest] shall be a whole offering”/"כליל תהיה" - and not with that which has the participation with the community. But the Halakah is that the Kohanim are obligated to bring the one-half Shekel and we don’t exact pledges from them for the sake of peace (see end of Mishnah 3).

מקבלין מידם – and with the condition that they will hand them over to the community completely for just as a community sacrifice is not offered by an individual.

קיני זבים וזבות – turtle-doves and young pigeons that men with flux and women with discharges bring and it speaks of Cutheans alone, for men with flux and women with discharges are not with idolaters.

כל שהוא נידר ונידב מקבלין מידם – as it teaches in a Baraitha (Talmud Menahot 73b): (Leviticus 22:18): “When any man (איש איש) [of the house of Israel or of the strangers in Israel presents a burnt offering as his offering for any of the votive or any of the freewill offerings that they offer to the LORD],” to include the non-Jews who offer votive or freewill offerings like an Israelite. But I don’t have anything other than a burnt offering, as it is written (Leviticus 22:18): “that they present a burnt offering as his offering”. From where do I learn peace offerings? The inference teaches us “for any of the votive”. From were do we include the bird offerings and the meal offerings and the wine and the frankincense and the wood? The inference teaches us: “for any of the votive or any of the freewill offerings that they offer to the LORD.”

וכן הוא מפורש על ידי עזרא – for the Cutheans wanted to assist them (i.e., the Jews), and they sent to them (Ezra 4:2): “Let us build with you, for we too worship your God [having offered sacrifices to Him since the time of Esarhaddon of Assyria who brought us here].” What did they respond to them? (Ezra 4:3): “It is not for you and for us to build a House [to our God, but we alone will build it to the LORD God of Israel, In accord with the charge that the king, King Cyrus of Persia, laid upon us]” together to our God, for you have no portion or righteousness or memory in Jerusalem.

קולבון – קל/easy בון /to understand – that is to say, something light and small that we add to the one-half Shekel to harmonize between them.

השוקל ע"י אשה [וכו'] פטור – for example that he lent them since they are exempt, they are not obligated in agio/surcharge, but he pays the debt for them, even paying the half-shekel for someone who is obligated, he is exempt from the surcharge, as is mentioned later.

אם שקל על ידו ועל יד חבירו – when he lends him, we are speaking about and he pays a full shekel – one half of a shekel for himself and another half-shekel that he lends to his fellow.

חייב קלבון אחד – for he holds that whomever gives the one-half shekel that is clearly defined in the Torah is exempt from the surcharge, as it is written (Exodus 30:13): “This is what everyone….shall pay”/"זה יתנו" – like this he will give and no more; and the second one who gave a full Shekel, does not give other than one surcharge.

ר' מאיר אומר שני קלבונות – Rabbi Meir holds that the person who pays in the one-half shekel is obligated for a surcharge, therefore two paid in a full Shekel [together] are liable for two surcharges, but the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Meir.

הנותן סלע – that is a full shekel to the money changer of sanctified contributions, and he takes from it the one-half shekel that remains to him with him, and the Shekel that is mentioned here is the one-half shekel.

נותן ב' קלבונות – in this the first Tanna/Teacher [of our Mishnah] agrees that he gives two surcharges, one surcharge to keep the balance from the one-half shekel that he takes from the sanctified monies, and the other, for since he did not give the one-half shekel as is delineated in the Torah, he is obligated for the surcharge.

השוקל ע"י עני – for a poor person

פטור – since he gives it to them as a gift.

האחין השותפין שחייבין בקלבון – brothers who are partners that split and came back and became partners again – are obligated for the surcharge like two people who gave Selaim.

פטורים ממעשר בהמה – all cattle that are born to them all the days of their partnership do not need to be tithed, for we expound in the [last] chapter of [Tractate] Bekhorot (see Chapter 9, Mishnah 3 – Talmud Bekhorot 56b) (Numbers 18:15): “]The first issue of the womb of every being, man or beast, that is offered to the LORD,[ shall be yours/יהיה לך;” – yours but not of a partnership, and we establish this verse with tithes, and even though that it is written with regard to first born.

וכשחייבים במעשר בהמה – that is when they didn’t divide it, then they are obligated for tithing, as we expound – that he is able, even if they didn’t purchase it as that which belongs to the estate (before division), as the inference teaches us, “it will be”/יהיה – in all cases (see Numbers 18:18).

פטורים מן הקלבון – for the money of their father stands in its legal status as it is like a father who gives for his sons and for or for his neighbors and is exempt.

מעה כסף – one twenty-fourth of Selah, and its weight is sixteen S’eorot.

חצי מעה – one forty-eighth and its weight is eight S’eorot, and the Halakha is according to the Sages.