עגלה ערופה בלשון הקדש – what the elders say (Deuteronomy 21:7): “Our hands did not shed this blood,” and the Kohanim state (Deuteronomy 27:8): “Absolve, O LORD, Your people Israel [whom You redeemed, and do not let guilt for the blood of the innocent remain among Your people Israel],” it was necessary to state this in the Holy Tongue (i.e., Hebrew).

שנאמר כי ימצא וכו' – and in the same portion it states (Deuteronomy 21:7): ‘And they shall make this declaration,” and it states further on (Deuteronomy 27:14): “The Levites shall then proclaim [in a loud voice to all the people of Israel.” Just as there it is in the Holy Tongue (i.e., Hebrew), even here is in the Holy Tongue.

היו יוצאים – and they come there and measure from the slain to the side of the villages that surround him to know which is closest.

אין ב"ד שקול – a Jewish court is not made where it will be possible to divide into equal shares but rather, that the majority will be on the one side, to fulfill (Exodus 23:2): “[you shall not give perverse testimony in a dispute] so as to pervert in favor of the mighty.”

נמצא סמוך לספר – near the border of non-Jews

לא היו מודדים – they would not measure, as it is written (Deuteronomy 21:1): “someone slain is found [lying in the open],” excluding someone who brings himself that is nearby the border of the non-Jews as if he brought himself to death.

לעיר שאין בה ב"ד לא היו מודדין. אין מודדין אלא מעיר שיש בה ב"ד – this is what he said: if he is found near a city that lacks in it a Jewish court, we don’t measure it, but rather, [near to] a city that has a Jewish court close to it. What city that has a Jewish court near it? And if he did not repeat this teaching, I would think that we don’t measure at all, the inference teaches us (Deuteronomy 21:3): “The elders of the town [nearest the corpse] shall then take a [heifer which has never been worked, which has never pulled in a yoke],” anyמway, for this “the city” is an additional Biblical verse” for one could have written “and the city that is closest to the slain and its elders went out.”

מכוון – squeezed in–confined, that it is not closer to this or fro that one, even as much as a thread’s length.

מביאות שתי עגלות דברי ר"א – but the Halakha is not like this, but rather, both bring one heifer jointly . And we state this in the Gemara in [Tractate] Bekhorot [18a).

אין ירושלם מביאה עגלה ערופה – as it is written (Deuteronomy 21:1): “in the land that the LORD your God is assigning you [as a possession) to possess,” excluding Jerusalem that was not allotted to the tribes.

נמצא ראשו במקום אחד – now the Tanna is not speaking about the matter of measuring, since the end (actually, the beginning of Mishnah 4 of this chapter) teaches, from where do they measure–"מאין מודדין" – it follows that in the first part of the Mishnah we do not deal with measurement, but rather, we are dealing with the corpse of a person whose relatives are unknown and whose burial is obligatory on everyone that acquires its place for where his head is found in one place and his body in another place, we bring the head to the body and we bury it where the body is found, for the body fell in its place for the head is unsteady, which are the words of Rabbi Eliezer.

רבי עקיבא אומר מוליכין הגוף אצל הראש – for the head, where it fell, it fell, and its body runs and goes, and the Halakha is according to Rabbi Akiva.

ר:א אומר מטיבורו – he holds that the real life is in his navel.

ר' עקיבא אומר מחוטמו – real life is from his nose (cessation of breath from the nostrils is the main sign of death – see Talmud Yoma 85a), as it is written (Genesis 7:22): “All in whose nostrils was the merest breath of life.”

מקום שנעשה חלל מצוארו – it is not called slain, other than from the neck, as it is written (Ezekiel 21:34): “you shall be wielded over the necks of the dishonored withed ones.” Therefore, from it (i.e., the neck) they would measure, as it is written (Deuteronomy 21:3): “[The elders of the town nearest] to the corpse,” But the Halakha is according to Rabbi Akiva.

נפטרו זקני ירושלם – who do not come other than to measure, as it is written (Deuteronomy 21:2): “Your elders and magistrates shall go out and measure [the distances from the corpse to the nearby towns].”

אע"פ שאינו איתן כשר – it did not state "איתן"–everflowing–strong wadi (Deuteronomy 21:4) as an indispensable condition but rather for the Mitzvah.

בקופיץ – a large knife.

מאחריה – opposite its neck.

מקומה אסור – forever.

ומותר לסרוק שם פשתן – work that is not on the body of the land, as it is written (Deuteronomy 21:4): “[a heifer] which has never been worked, which has never pulled a yoke.” Just as sowing is special which is on the main body of the land, so also, all work which is on the main body of the land.

לנקר את האבנים – to chisel the stones.

ולא בא לידינו ופטרנוהו – without food.

ולא ראענוהו והנחנוהו – without accompaniment.

תצא ותרעה בעדר – like other non-holy animals.

כפרה ספיקה – which had performed its own [work].

ואחר כך נמצא ההורגד ה"ז יהרג – as it is written at the end of the portion of the heifer whose neck was broken (Deuteronomy 21:9): “Thus you will remove from your midst guilt for the blood of the innocent.”

עד אחד אומר ראיתי ועד אחד אומר לא ראית – as for example when both came at the same time [then] they would break the neck. But if one came first and said “I saw the killer”, and they believed him like two [witnesses]. For the Torah believed him, as it is written (Deuteronomy 21:1): “the identity of the slayer not being known,” but if they did know, even through one witness, they don’t break the neck, even though one witness had come and afterwards his testimony is contradicted, the second is not believed, because the words of the one is not in the of two [witnesses].

עד אחד אומר ראיתי ושנים אומרים לא ראית היו עורפים – as, for example, the two [witnesses] and the one are invalid witnesses, for in the case of invalid witnesses, one goes according to the majority of opinions.

בטלה עגלה ערופה – because they knew of them who was accustomed to kill.

בטלו האשכולות – a person who has everything (this is a Notarikon – describing the word אשכולות – see the commentary of Tosafot Yom Tov who also quotes Maimonides on this matter), meaning to say, their Torah is true without reproach.

הודיית מעשר – the confession of the tithe (Deuteronomy 26:13): “I have cleared out the consecrated portion from the house; and I have given it to the Levite,” because Ezra fined the Levites that they did not give to them the tithe [of the tithe] when he came up [to the Land of Israel] from the Diaspora, and the Levites did not go up with him, and he (i.e., Ezra) commanded that they should give the tithe [of the tithe] to the Kohanim, and Yohanan the High Priest annulled the confession because he was not able to say, “and I have given it to the Levite.”

בטל את המעוררים – for the Levites would say on each day on the platform (Psalms 44:24): “rouse yourself, why do you sleep, O God.” He stated: Is there sleep before God? (see Talmud Sotah 48a and Tosefta Sotah 13:9). And he stood and annulled them.

ואת הנקפין – that they would wound the calf of the sacrifice between its horns in order that blood would fall between its eyes so that it would not see and it would be easy to bend over and to slaughter it and he would stand and annul it for it appeared as having a blemish (and unfit for the altar) and he established for them rings in the ground for them to place the neck of the animal within it.

נוקפין – beat and its example [Tractate Hullin 7b], “no person bruises his finger here on earth [unless it was so decreed against him in heaven].”

היה פטיש מכה בירושלים – on the Intermediate days of the Festival those artisans of copper and iron would beat with a hammer in order to perform work which cannot be postponed without irretrievable loss, and he stood and cancelled them because the thing becomes more known and there is a disregard of the Intermediate Days of the Festival.

ובימיו אין אדם צריך לשאול על הדמאי – for he said to the people of his generation that just as regarding the great heave offering–priest’s share of the crop, its punishment [for non-fulfilment] is death, so too, the tenth of the tenth [given by the Levites to the Kohanim] and separation of priestly shares is required before one is able to partake of them, [non-fulfillment] is punishable by death and he established that they should take out from the doubtfully tithed produce only the tenth-of-a-tenth and the Second Tithe, and they should not take out it the First Tithe and the Poor Man’s Tithe for one can say to the Levite and–or the Poor Person: Bring proof that it is produce from which priestly gifts and tithes had not yet been separated and take it. And from this ordinance and onward, a person who takes his fruit from the marketplace would not ask if they had been properly prepared [by the giving of the priestly gifts and tithes] or not, but immediately, he separates from them the tenth-of-the-tenth and the Second Tithe, and consumes the rest for anyone who purchases from those who did not observe certain religious customs regarding tithing, their produce is considered doubtfully tithed.

סנהדרין – the judges are there, and they are called a Sanhedrin in that they detest a majestic appearance–an imposing figure in judgment.

בטל השיר – as it is written (Lamentations 5:14): “The old men are gone from the gate, The young men from their music” when the elders who were the Sanhedrin who were sitting at the gate were made idle, the young men were also made idle from their music.

משמתו נביאים הראשונים – all the prophets are called the Early Prophets, except for Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi and their associates for they were the Latter [Prophets] who were during the days of the Second Temple.

השמיר – a kind of worm-like creature like the size of a barley-corn that they would show it–place it upon the stones marked with ink and they would split open on their own, [and through it] would open the stones of the Ephod and the Breastplate, as it is written concerning them (Exodus 28:20 – see also Talmud Sotah 48b): “in their mountings,” that they would be complete and not lacking [but he would write on them with ink] and the Shamir would show them outside upon the ink.

ונופת צופים – honey that comes from a place whose name is the inner portion of the cells and is more praiseworthy.

ופסקו אנשי אמנה – that believe in the Holy One, blessed be He.

הטהרה בטלה את הטעם – the ritual purity that ceased from Israel, the taste and aroma of the fruits were abolished, for at the time that Israel was ritually pure and engaged in ritual purity, even the Holy One, blessed be He would purify the produce from a bad taste and a bad smell.

מעשר בטל שומן דגן – for the tithe was called fat, as it is written (Numbers 18:12): “All the best of the oil.”

בפולמוס של אספסיינוס – the army that Vespasian brought against Jerusalem.

גזרו על עטרות חתנים – they would make garlands for the grooms from salt stone which is clear like the appearance of a jewel and they dye it with sulfur–bitumen like the appearance of embroidery which they call NEEL. And there are those who interpret–explain it as garlands of myrtle and of roses and both are forbidden, but only garlands of reeds are permitted.

ועל האירוס – it is made like a winnow–sieve whose walls are round and they spread on its mouth a thin piece of leather and beat it with a thin mallet and it emits a clear sound and it the foreign language we call it TANBORO.

עטרות כלות – similar to a city that is made from gold.

ושלא ילמד אדם את בנו יונית – the explanation is Greek wisdom and there are hints and riddles that the Greeks had and only those who were accustomed to them would know them, and in the Gemara (Talmud Sotah 49b) it explains the reason because of an incident when the Hasmonean kings fought one another (the allusion is to the struggle between the two sons of Alexander Jannaeus, Hyrcanus and Aristobulus; Hyrcanus had the assistance of the Romans who besieged Jerusalem). Those who were inside would let down to those who were outside denarii (i.e., money) in a basket and haul up for them [animals for] the daily offerings. There was one elder there who was learned in Greek wisdom, speaking with them in Greek: As long as you are engaged in the Temple service, they will never surrender to you. That same day, they let down denarii in the basket and hauled up for them a pig. At that time, they said: “Cursed be the person who raises a pig and cursed be the man who teaches his son Greek wisdom.

בפולמוס האחרון – this is the destruction of the [Second] Temple and it was of Titus.

באפריון – like a tent of golden robes and cloaks.

ורבותינו התירו שתצא כלה באפריון – because of modesty and such is the Halakha.

בטלו מושלי משלים – such as the parables of the foxes that we state in [Tractate] Sanhedrin [38b] when Rabbi Meir would expound on the lesson and would divide his exposition into three parts: one-third devoted to legal discussion, one-third to homily and one-third to parables.

השקדנים – they are attendant on the doors of the Academy–Bet Midrash night and day as we state in [Tractate] Yevamot [63b] as Ben Azzai stated: What can I do when my soul is attached to–in love with the Torah.

הדרשנים – he was expert in Midrash and the rationales of the Biblical verses, as it states [Talmud Berakhot 12b – actually Tractate Berakhot, Chapter 1, Mishnah 5]: “And I did not succeed (in proving) that the Exodus from Egypt should be mentioned at night until [I heard] the exposition of Ben Zoma.”

בטל כבוד תורה – He would give attention to expound upon each and every stroke on letter [Tractate Menahot 29b]. This is the great honor of the Torah which has nothing to abolish it.

שבטלו אנשי מעשה – they do wondrous deeds as we state in [Tractate] Taanit [25a]: he will ordain that vinegar should burn, and to goats that they should bring wolves on their horns.”

קטנותם של חסידים – they wee the pious individuals walking and becoming scarce and he was from their most inferior and their end.

משמת רבן גמליאל הזקן בטל כבוד התורה – and until he died [Tractate Megillah 21a], there was health in the world, and hey would study the Torah while standing. And when he died, feebleness of strength came to the world and they began to study while sitting, and this is the abolishment of the honor of the Torah.

משמת רבי בטלה ענוה – the students of Rebbe (i.e., Rabbi Judah the Patriarch) added and wrote this in the Mishnah.