ארבעה אחין. חולצות ולא מיבמות – since both of them are levirate relations one to the other. The first [brother] who undergoes levirate marriage came in contact with the sister of his levirate relation and is like his wife.

ב"ש אומרי יקיימו ובה"א יוציאו – In the Gemara (Talmud Yevamot 28a) reverses them that the School of Shammai states that they should be put away (i.e., divorced), and the School of Hillel states that they may remain wedded, for in every place, the School of Shammai is stringent and the School of Hillel is lenient except from those known places where the School of Shammai is more lenient and the School of Hillel is more stringent (see, for example, the first five Mishnayot in Tractate Eduyot, Chapter 5, of which this text is taken), and thus we say, that generally, the School of SHammai in the place of the Schol of Hillel is not a Mishnah, meaning to say, that wherever we find in the Mishnah that the School of Shammai are lenient and the School of Hillel, where it is their manner to be lenient, but and it is found now that the School of Shammai stands in the place of the School of Hillel, it is not a Mishnah and it is a corrupted text and it is necessary to reverse it unless it is from the known Mishnayot which are from the leniencies of the School of Shammai and the stringencies of the School of Hillel. And in Tractate Eduyot (Chapter 5, Mishnah 5), in the name of Rabbi Eliezer, it enumerates the leniencies of the School of Shammai and the stringencies of the School of Hillel.

איסור ערוה – such as, for example, his mother-in-law and the mother of his mother-in-law.

ומותר באחותה – for she is not the sister of his levirate relation for a woman forbidden to a man on account of consanguinity is not lying before him for levirate marriage.

איסור מצוה – lying before him from the Torah, therefore, he is forbidden to her sister, for she is the sister of his levirate relation.

אחותו כשהיא יבמתו – her sister of a woman forbidden to a man on account of consanguinity, when she is his sister-in-law, the wife of her husband’s brother when she falls [with her] for levirate marriage.

או חולצת או מתיבמת – for she is not the sister of his levirate relation for there is no prohibition on account of consanguinity is not lying before him (see also Tractate Yevamot, Chapter 2, Mishnah 3).

ור"ש פוטר – (see Tractate Yevamot 28b) – the reason of Rabbi Shimon as it is written (Leviticus 18:18): “Do not marry a woman as a rival to her sister [and uncover her nakedness in the other’s lifetime],” at the time that they are made rival/co-wives to each other, such as the example of here, where both of them are levirate relations to him for levirate marriage. You should not have a legal acquisition neither to this one nor to that one, and the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Shimon.

ואחד מופנה – without a wife (i.e., single, a bachelor).

אשתו עמו – for since the School of Shammai holds that she is [his] wife through statement of intention [of levirate marriage] is considered as married, and when her sister fell after this [through the death of her husband, the second brother], she was not forbidden because of her being the sister of his levirate relation.

מוציא אשתו בגט – for the statement of intention of [eventual] levirate marriage is not strong to compare it to someone married, and this prohibits her because of her being the sister of his levirate relation, and it requires a Jewish bill of divorce because the statement of intention which is partial betrothal/Kiddushin and Kiddushin is not released without a Jewish bill of divorce. And she requires Halitzah for since the statement of intention is not complete Kiddushin/betrothal, she is still his levirate relation and requires Halitzah for her levirate connection. And in the opening clause [of the Mishnah], he gives her a Jewish bill of divorce, and then performs Halitzah to her, and such is the Halakha.

נכרית – she is not related neither to this [woman] nor to that one.

נכרית חולצת ולא מתיבמת – the same law applies even if he did not make a statement of intention [of levirate marriage], and he died, the non-related woman undergoes Halitzah, but she does not perform levirate marriage because she is the rival/co-wife of a married woman through levirate connection, and this that taught that one makes a statement of intention was in order to exclude this from the words of the School of Shammai who said that the statement of intention acquires a complete acquisition, and even Halitzah also is not requirement, which comes to teach us that she needs Halitzah.

שעה אחת – through the falling of the first [wife] when she fell from his first brother [who had died] and for since his wife is alive, and this one is prohibited to him as the wife of his brother for he has children, but, regarding her non-related rival/co-wife, the law is not explained and seems logical that she performs Halitzah but does not engage in levirate marriage.

וכולן – the fifteen [cases] of incest (see Tractate Yevamot, Chapter 1, Mishnah 1), of a woman forbidden to a man on account of consanguinity that they had with his brothers a doubtful betrothal/Kiddushin or doubtful Jewish divorce for there is a doubt of the rivals of a woman forbidden on account of consanguinity.

חולצת – but it does not free her without anything for perhaps she is not the rival of a a woman forbidden on account of consanguinity.

ספק קרוב לו – for there were eight exactly defined cubits between them in the public domain, and the four cubits of a person acquires for him there, and he threw it, doubtfully within his four cubits and doubtfully within her four cubits.

זיקת שני יבמין – for as long as this living brother didn’t marry her, the levirate relation of first is upon him and the levirate relation of the second was added upon him because of the statement of intention he made [to perform a levirate marriage], and when he died, there remained upon her the levirate relation of two brothers-in-law.

רש"א וכו' – since he holds that it is doubtful to us if the statement of intention [of performing levirate marriage] acquires completely or does not acquire at all, therefore, he performs levirate marriage on whichever of them that he desires, for if the statement of intention [to perform levirate marriage] acquires, he does not have anything other than the levirate relation of the second but if the statement of intention [of levirate marriage] does not acquire, he has nothing upon him other than the levirate relation of the first woman.

וחולץ לשניה – for one does not free him from [sexual intercourse] with the other, for perhaps the statement of intention [of levirate marriage] does not acquire, and there was two sisters-in-law that come from two homes. But there is no levirate marriage with both for perhaps the statement of intention [of levirate marriage] acquires, and there would be two sisters-in-law coming from one house. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Shimon, and even though we state in our Mishnah that the levirate relation of the two brothers-in-law is from the Torah from a Biblical verse (Deuteronomy 25:5): “Her brother’s husband shall unite with her: [he shall take her as his wife and perform the levir’s duty],” in the Gemara (Tractate Yevamot 31b) it proves hat the levirate relation of two brothers-in-law is Rabbinic as a decree, lest the people state that two sisters-in-law coming from the same house (i.e., widows of the same brother) may both be taken in levirate marriage.

היו אחין – even because of [the prohibition of] marrying the wife of your brother, etc., and even though we hold that this prohibition does not take effect upon another prohibition, this Tanna/teacher holds that an inclusive prohibition and a prohibition that adds and a simultaneous prohibition, like here, that a prohibition occurs on top of another prohibition and he is liable to bring a sacrifice on each and every prohibited act [performed] (i.e., a person may sometimes consume one piece of food and incur the penalty of four sin-offerings and one guilt offering - see Talmud Yevamot 34a).

ומפרישין אותן – so that they will not return to their husbands.

שמא מעוברות הן – and the offspring will be illegitimate/Mamzerim and we need a probe to distinguish between kosher seed/offspring and disqualified seed/offspring (i.e., seed that was sewn in holiness and seed that was sown in unholiness) so that the fetuses will not be left in doubt with [regard to] their husbands.

ואם היו כהנות – daughters of Kohanim.

נפסלו מתרומה – from eating heave-offering (i.e., Priest’s due) of the house of her father, even after the death of her husband, and even though she was a ravaged woman.