שביעית משמטת את המלוה – A person who loans his fellow and the Seventh Yeaer passed upon him after the loan [was made], he cannot claim [repayment of] his loan from his fellow, as it is written (Deuteronomy 15:2): “every creditor shall remit the due that he claims from his fellow.”

בשטר – that he wrote for him a document [for which] an obligation for which property is pledged and he mortgaged land upon the lender that looks like he who deposits as surety lands with him, nevertheless, the Seventh Year cancels it (i.e., the loan).

שקנה ממנו באמנה – that he bought from him in good faith.

ואם עשאה מלוה – that he intended [this] with the purchaser and the creditor settles the interests on the debtor as a loan (the note stating the combined amount of principal and interest as principal).

הראשון משמט – if he purchased it in good faith the first time from the hstore, and he retracted and purchased it a second time, the first [purchase] is made into a loan and is cancelled, but not the second. If he retracted and purchased it a third time, the first and second are made into a loan and the Seventh Year cancels them, but not the third, and such is the case always. The last one (i.e. purchase), the Seventh Year does not cancel and all the others, the Seventh Year cancels them, for since it was appropriate for that he should give him the money of the first one prior to his purchasing the second debts for merchandise payable at certain seasons and he did not give it, the first one becomes a loan, and similarly at all times. But the Halalkha is not like Rabbi Yehuda.

כל מלאכה שפוסקת בשביעית – if he hired this man from labors that stop in the Seventh Year, meaning to say, from labors that are forbidden to perform them in the Seventh Year such as plowing and reaping and working the land, this salary is made like a loan in the Seventh Year, and the Seventh Year cancels it, and if not, that this payment that he is obliged to him was from the rest of the labors that are not forbidden in the Seventh Year, it is not made like a loan and the Seventh Year does not cancel it. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yossi.

השוחט את הפרה – in the Seventh Year, and divided it [among the purchasers] on the first day of the two days of the holiday of Rosh Hashanah, if Elul was intercalated [by addin to it an additional day – thirty days], it is found that the first day that it (i.e., the cow) was divided, it was a weekday, and it was the last day of Elul of the Seventh Year, and the Seventh Year cancels [a debt] at its end, as it is written (Deuteronomy 15:1): “Every seventh year (literally, at the end of Seven Years) you shall practice remission of debts.”

האונס והמפתה (see Deuteronomy 22:19) , that they give fifty Shekel [as a fine].

והמוציא שם רע – that gives one hundred.[Shekel].

וכל מעשה בית דן – money that they wrote upon it a religious decision, you are obligated to give it to him.

אין משמיטין – for since the Jewish court that made a religious decision regarding the money [is considered] as collected, and as if it reached his hand.

המלוה על המשכון – as it is written (Deuteronomy 15:3): “but you must remit whatever is due you” except for that “whatever is due you from your kinsman.”

והמוסר שטרותיו לב"ד – as it is written: “[but you must remit] whatever is due you from your kinsmen,” except for someone who hands over his bonds to a court [for collection] since the Jewish court has the obligation towards his brother.

פרוזבול אינו משמט – The word פרוז is an ordinance (for the public welfare) (see comment of Rav Hisda in Talmud Gittin 36b); the word בול is for the rich (and Rashi’s commentary at the top of Talmud Gittin 37a), as it written (Leviticus 26:19): “And I will break your proud glory. [I will make your skies like iron and your earth like copper].” And Rav Yosef (see Talmud GIttin 37a) stated that these are the cities in Judea. An ordinance was made for the rich that they would not transgress on [the verse] (Deuteronomy 15:9): “Beware lest your harbor the base thought, [‘The seventh year, the year of remission, is approaching’],” and there is an ordinance for the poor that they would find someone who will lend to them, for the cancelling of cash debts in the present time is Rabbinic, as it is written (Deuteronomy 15:2): “This shall be the nature of the remission: every creditor shall remit the due that he claims from his fellow…,” as the Biblical verse speaks of two remissions: one is the remission of land and one is the remission/cancellation of cash debts, for at the time when one remits/cancels land debts, you remit/cancel cash debts, and at the time when you don’t remit land debts, you don’t remit/cancel cash debts; and it is Rabbinic, for they ordained the cancellation of cash debts at this time, and because of this, there was power in the hand of Hillel to establish Prozbul to cancel/release the law of remission, for the cancellation of cash debts is none other than from the words of the Scribes.

זהו גופו של פרוזבול – its essential principle and its root.

והדיינים חותמים למטה או העדים – For this purpose, it is taught “the judges or the witnesses” to teach you that a witness is able to become a judge or a judge [is able to become] a witness, for according to the Rabbis a witness becomes a judge, and Prozbul is a Rabbinical ordinance.

פרוזבול המקדם – that its time is early, that it was written in Kislev and the its time that is written within it is from the previous Tishrei, it is Kasher/fit, because the prerogative of the lender is impaired in this, for a Prozbul does not profit other than to loans from before it, for when they are transferred to the Jewish court, they are cancelled, it is found that they cause loss in what that its time had been advanced, but a postdated Prozbul is invalid, for he made the time later amd the je the borrower between them, and when he produces this Prozbul and the the Jewish court sees the time, they think that the loans preceded the Prozbul and it is found that he collects unlawfully

שארי חוב המוקדמים פסולים – as for example, that it refers to Nisan and he wrote in the document the time of the previous Tishrei, they are invalid because he collects unlawfully from the mortgaged property between Tishrei and Nisan, and te Rabbis fine im, that he should not collect at all with this document from the mortgaged property, and even from Nisan and beyond, as a decree lest he collect from them unlawfully between Tishrei and Nisan. But however, the document is not invalid on account of the witnesses that affixed their signatures to it who were wicked who signed the antedated document falsely, for the witnesses would be able to state that that we affixed our names on the essence of the loan and not on the time, and we did not come to testify that it was written and signed on that day.

והמאוחרים כשרים – because the lender’s prerogative has been weakened, that he doesn’t seize the sold property other from the time that is written in the document.

כותבין פרוזבול לכל חד ואחד – for each and every loan it is necessary that he will transmit his documents to the Jewish court and it will write him a Prozbul, therefore, like when five [people] borrow from one [person], it doesn’t write other than one Prozbul, for there is only one lender here, and even though that there are many borrowers, that when the lender will have one Prozbul on everything that is enough.

אלא על הקרקע – unless the borrower has real-estate, for then, the liability is considered as collected in the hand of the Jewish court and we don’t don’t call him (Deuteronomy 15:2):”he shall not dun [his fellow or his kinsman].”

אם אין לו – if the borrower/debtor [lacks land], and the lender has [land], the creditor/lender transfers to him from his field a small piece and writes upon it a Prozbul, and even if the debt is one-hundred Maneh, because a small piece of land is worthy to collect through it all of his debt, as for example, regarding that he collects and then collects again until he completes all of his debt.

היתה לו – if the borrower/debtor had a mortgaged field in the city, whether others had mortgaged it to him or whether he mortgaged it [as a security] to others, they write a Prozbul.

כותבין לאיש על נכסי אשתו – such as the land of the wife’s estate of which the husband has the fruition [without responsibility for loss or deterioration].

על נכסי אפוארופין – that they lend for the needs of the orphans as the orphans have no property.

כוורת דבורים וכו' – when it (i.e., the beehive) is attached with plaster, everyone admits that it is like land/real estate for all things, but if it was placed upon pegs, everyone admits that it is like utensils and is not like land/real estate; they did not dispute other than when it was lying on the ground and not attached with plaster.

ר"א אומר הרי היא כקרקע – and like land/real estate, it is acquired with money, a document and a claim of undisturbed possession during a legally fixed period.

וכותבין עליה פרוזבו – if the debtor/borrower has a beehive, it is like he had land/real estate.

ואינה מקבלת טומאה – in the manner that real estate is attached and is not susceptible to ritual uncleanness.

והרודה – from the honeycombs that are within it on Shabbat, he is liable for a sin-offering like someone who tears off something from the place where it is attached, as it is written (I Samuel 14:27): “And he (i.e., Jonathan) dipped it into the beehive of honey [and brought his hand back to his mouth and his eyes lit up],” bu what connection has he forest with the honey, but rather, just as the forest, he who plucks/detaches from it on the Sabbath is liable for a sin-offering, even honey that one removes [from the beehive] on the Sabbath is liable for a sin-offering. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Eliezer.

המחזיר חוב בשביעית – at the end of the Sseventh Year, which is its year of cancellation of debts, for the Seventh Year does not cause the release from debt other than at its end as it states (Deuteronomy 15;1): “Every seventh year (literally, at the end of the Seventh Year) [you practice remission of debts].”

אמר לו אעפ"כ – the borrower/debtor says to him (i.e., the creditor/lender), even so/nevertheless, I want to repay you.”

יקבל ממנו – is that all? But rather, he is permitted to say to him, that his has hand will be stretched out to receive [payment] from him when he says to him, “I cancel [the debt].”

שנאמר וזה דבר השמטה – meaning to say that mere speech that he he emits from his lips that he cancels is enough, and the first word that he stated, “I cancel” is sufficient, and he does not need to say and repeat, as it states (Deuteronomy 15:2): “This shall be the nature [of the remission],” you have nothing other than the first word, and similarly (Deuteronomy 19:4): “Now this is the case [of the manslayer who may flee there and live].”

המחזיר חוב בשביעית (one who repays a debt cancelled by the Seventh Year) – the borrower/debtor says to the lender/creditor, “even so/nevertheless,” and returns to him his money, the Sages are pleased with him.

לא יחזיר לבניו – he is not obligated to return [the debt] to his children (i.e., of the convert), if the convert died.

ואם החזיר רוח חכמים ננוחה הימנו – and exactly to his children that were converted with him, because an idolater inherits his father from the Torah, as it is written (Deuteronomy 2:5): “I have given the hill country of Seir as a possession to Esau,” and if he doesn’t return [the loan] to his (i.e., the convert’s) children, one can suspect lest they will return to their original nature when they say,” if we were idolaters, we would inherit their fathers, and it would be necessary to return [the debt] to them, but if their parents were not were lacking holiness (i.e., the children were conceived while they were heathens) but at their births, they were in holiness (i.e., the children were born when they became Israelites), they didn’t inherit their fathers from the Torah, for their inheritance would not ever be appropriate for them , one cannot suspect this less they return to their original nature, and one who ever restores it (i.e., the inheritance) to them, the Sages are not pleased with him.

כל המטלטלין נקנין במשיכה – and whenever he did not take possession by drawing or seizing an object each one of them can retract, and even though he (i.e., the potential purchaser) gave the money, the monies do not purchase until he draws/seizes the object that is acquired, but nevertheless, a person who fulfills his word and doesn’t retract, and even if he did not take possession by drawing or seizing an object, the Sages are pleased with him, for it is taught in a Baraitha (Talmud Bava Metzia 49a on Leviticus 19:36): “You shall have [an honest balance, honest weights,] an honest ephah, and an honest hin,” that your “no”/negative response will be in righteousness and your “yes”/positive response will be in righteousness.