But behold: The matter of the gathering of cucumbers.

Rabbi Akiva learned it from Rabbi Yehoshua: By way of a question.

Kinuf: Four posts and a canopy draped over them, as we say in Sukkah (10a).

To remove the tefillin of his father. As he held that Shabbat is not a time for tefillin. So it is [hence] forbidden to wear them, lest he go out with them to the public domain.

That father went insane: And he is close to death. As if his mind was composed, he would have removed his tefillin.

A prohibition [punishable by] stoning - the lighting of a lamp and the insulation of hot water - whereas they are dealing with a matter that is only a rabbinic Shabbat prohibition. For there is no prohibition of work (melakha) in placing tefillin [on oneself] on Shabbat, and even if he went out with them into the public domain. As it is in the way of clothing, and it is an ornament for him on weekdays.

At a distance of four cubits: Because of the excommunication; for they excommunicated him during the disagreement about Akhnai's oven in Bava Metzia (59b).

What is his: With what will be his death?

Yours will be worse than theirs: Because your heart is as wide as a hall; so if you had served me, you would have learned much Torah.

He raised: Rabbi Eliezer [raised] his two forearms.

That are being rolled up: Just like when a Torah scroll is being rolled up and the writing is concealed, so too is the Torah in my heart being hidden and concealed as I die. For they did not serve me and learn from me.

And I have not taken away from my teachers, even like a dog lapping from the sea: According to their wisdom, which was great, my learning only counts as having taken away and received a little wisdom from them, like a dog who laps from the sea. And likewise have my students not even taken away and received from my wisdom, to take away from the surplus of my wisdom over theirs, that which a paintbrush removes from a tube in one dip.

And I have not taken away: Meaning to say, I have not removed from their wisdom - such that they were greater than me at the beginning; and they are greater than me also now. For I only learned a little of their wisdom from them.

A tube (shifoferet): A tube into which one inserts blue dye. It is a cylinder of wood or of silver into which we stick a brush and dip into the blue dye and extract it.

With regard to a snow-white leprous mark: With regard to the laws of the sightings of blemishes (negaim).

With regard to the planting of cucumbers: The laws of types of sorcery, through which a whole field is made full of cucumbers.

They said to him, "A ball and a last, etc.": A ball is a pelote covered with leather and tightly stuffed with ram's wool inside it. And likewise their leather last was like a type of shoe filled with hair inside it, with its opening sewn [shut]. And they would make shoes on it, the way our cobblers do with a wooden mold.

An amulet: It is of leather, filled inside and one carries it on the neck for beauty.

A small weight: Like an ounce-weight that we make from lead and cover with leather, so that it not lessen (from wear). But it is not customary to cover a large weight with leather.

And a string of a pearl: We sew the pearl with leather and hang it on the neck of an animal for medication.

What is it (its law): For Rabbi Eliezer and the Sages disagreed about these in the Order of Tahorot (Kelim 23). And the Sages say [that] they cannot contract impurity, since a leather vessel cannot contract impurity unless it has a receptacle. For behold it is compared to sack. And these [items] - since their receptacle is made to fill permanently with a filling inside it - [are] not called a receptacle. But Rabbi Eliezer says [that] it does contract impurity, as a receptacle made to be filled is [still] called a receptacle. And they also disagreed about a ball and a last that tear and their hollow is visible: For the Rabbis conceded that they can contract impurity, as behold there is [now] a receptacle. But they argued about the matter of immersion. As the Sages say [that] what is inside separates [it from the purifying water], but Rabbi Eliezer says [that] what is inside does not separate, as it is all one vessel. And at the time of his death, they wanted to know if he reversed himself. So they asked him, "What do you say about those two disagreements?" He said to them [that] they are impure even intact and the impurity touches [them] from the outside.

And their purification is as they are: That is to say if they tear - such that the Sages concede that they can contract impurity, but argue with me, saying that the filling separates - I stand by my words that the filling does not separate, so that we immerse them as they are.

What is [the law with a] shoe that is on a last: As they also argued about this in the Tosefta of Tahorot: The Sages say [that] since it is not lacking work that requires a craftsman - since an ordinary person can remove it from the last - it is already called a vessel. But Rabbi Eliezer renders it pure, since its work has not yet been finished [so it is not yet a vessel].

The vow is permitted: Since they had excommunicated him.

Between Caesarea and Lod: As they were carrying his bier from Caesarea to Lod.

He began in the row: As they were making a row around the bier to eulogize [him].

I have many coins to exchange.

But I do not have a money changer to sort them: Meaning to say, I have many questions to ask, but there is no one to ask.

R' Eliezer did the sorcery so R' Akiva could study their performance to prosecute sorcerers.