1)

(a)The Mishnah rules that where the Minhag is to work until Chatzos - (midday), one may do so.

(b)The Tana rules that in a place where the Minhag is not to work until Chatzos - then one follows the Minhag.

(c)The reason for this Minhag is - so as not to forget to destroy one's Chametz, to Shecht one's Korban Pesach and to prepare one's Matzos for the Seider.

(d)And he says that somebody who goes from a place where the Minhag is to work to where the Minhag is not to work, or vice-versa - then he must adhere to the Chumros of both places.

2)

(a)The Mishnah concludes 've'Al Yeshaneh Adam Mipnei ha'Machlokes'. This connects with the previous ruling regarding someone who goes from a place where one does not work to a place where one does - inasmuch as he is then forbidden to do work like the Minhag of his home-town, and that he need not worry about contravening the local Minhag, seeing as people will think that he has no work to do, in which case it will not lead to Machlokes.

(b)'Nosnin alav Chumrei Makom she'Yatza mi'Sham no longer applies - the moment he decides not to return.

3)

(a)In similar vein, the Mishnah discusses someone who transports fruit from a location where 'they have finished' - (nothing of that particular species remains in the field at the end of the Sh'mitah year for the Chayos to eat, in which case one is obligated to clear out whatever is left of it from the house) to a location where they have not, or vice-versa.

(b)The Tana Kama rules that - either way, he is obligated to clear out that particular species from the house (See Tos. Yom-Tov).

4)

(a)Rebbi Yehudah's statement 'Omrim lo "Tzei ve'Havei l'cha Af Atah!" ' refers to where someone has pickled three kinds of vegetables in vinegar or in brine in the Sh'mitah-year - and where two of them have 'finished', but the third one has not.

(b)We extrapolate from the Tana Kama that as long as one of the species has not finished, the entire barrel is permitted - from his words 'from a place where they have not finished to a place where they have', implying that they have completely finished.

(c)Rebbi Yehudah is now saying - that whichever species cannot be found in the field is forbidden.

(d)We rule like Rebbi Yehudah in this case - because he concurs like Raban Gamliel in Maseches Shevi'is, like whom we rule there.

5)

(a)The Tana connects whether or not one may sell a Beheimah Dakah (e.g. a sheep) to a Nochri to the local Minhag. Some forbid it - because they decree a Beheimah Dakah on account of a Beheimah Gasah (e.g. a cow).

(b)The reason that the Chachamim forbade selling a Beheimah Gasah to a Nochri is two-fold. One reason is in case one comes to lend or to rent him one's animal - which is forbidden because one may thyen come to rent it over Shabbos, when one's animal is forbidden to work.

(c)The fact that the animal is now in the domain of the Nochri makes no difference - seeing as a borrowed or rented animal remains the property of the owner.

(d)The other reason is connected with the time of sale. If, while selling his cow on Erev Shabbos bein ha'Shemashos) - he shouts at it to make it leave his domain, he is subject to 'Mechamer Achar Behemto' (making his laden animal walk on Shabbos (See Tos. Yom-Tov).

6)

(a)The Tana Kama includes calves, foals and animals with broken limbs in the above prohibition. We might otherwise have thought that they are permitted - since they are all incapable of working.

(b)He nevertheless forbids it - because one may come to confuse them with cows, horses and animals whose limbs are not broken.

(c)Rebbi Yehudah permits selling a Nochri a broken animal - which will never be capable of working, but not a calf or a foal - which will when it grows up.

(d)The Halachah is - like the Tana Kama.

7)

(a)ben Beseira permits selling him a horse - because a horse is mainly used to carry people and animals (See Tiferes Yisrael), and animals, like people, tend to carry their own weight (in which case, it does not involve a Melachah d'Oraysa).

(b)The Halachah here too, is - like the Tana Kama.

8)

(a)One is permitted to sell a Nochri a Beheimah Gasah through an agent - provided the owner is not present at the time of the sale.

(b)We are not afraid that he might ...

1. ... lend or rent it to him over Shabbos - because he has no mandate to do so.

2. ... sell it to him just as Shabbos is entering and break Shabbos in the way that we described earlier - because as opposed to the owner, with whose voice the animal is familiar, it does not recognize the voice of the agent.

9)

(a)As in the previous Mishnah, the Tana connects whether or not one may eat roasted meat on Seider-night and whether one kindles a lamp (before 'Kol Nidrei') for Yom Kipur night, to the local Minhag. Some forbid ...

1. ... eating roasted meat on Seider-night - because it looks as if one is eating a Korban Pesach in Chutz la'Aretz (See Tos. Yom-Tov).

2. ... kindling a lamp for Yom Kipur night - in case upon perceiving his wife, he has a desire for her, and intimacy is forbidden on Yom Kipur.

(b)On the other hand, others permit it - because, seeing as intimacy by the light of a lamp is forbidden, it will have the opposite effect of reducing the chances of intimacy.

(c)The Mishnah permits kindling lights in ...

1. ... Batei-Medrash, Batei-Kenesiyos, and in ...

2. ... dark alleyways ...

(d)... because intimacy does not generally take place in those locations.

(e)He also permits kindling lights in the room of a sick person.

10)

(a)The Mishnah rules that ...

1. ... doing Melachah on Tish'ah-ba'Av too - is a matter of Minhag.

2. ... Talmidei-Chachamim - everywhere tend not to do it.

(b)Raban Shimon ben Gamliel states - that everybody should make himself a Talmid-Chacham in this regard.

(c)It does not look as if one is boasting - because people will assume that it is a matter of not having work to do.

11)

(a)According to the Chachamim, the practice in Yehudah was to work on Erev Pesach until midday, whereas in the Galil (the north of Eretz Yisrael) - they did.

(b)They disagree with the opening Mishnah in the Perek (regarding the Minhag of not working on Erev Pesach), in that - according to them, it is not a matter of Minhag at all, but rather a Machlokes between Yehudah and the Galil as to whether it is permitted or not.

(c)Beis Shamai include the night before in the prohibition of working on Erev Pesach - because they compare it to a Yom-Tov (which begins the night before).

(d)Beis Hillel - permit it.

(e)They compare it - to a Ta'anis, which only begins in the morning (See Hagahos Rashash).

12)

(a)Rebbi Meir permits performing any Melachah that one began already before the fourteenth, but forbids beginning one that one did not.

(b)He permits the former - only if it is needed for Yom-Tov.

(c)His ruling pertains to - the Minhag not to do Melachah during the day.

(d)Those who permit it - permit it even if it is not for the needs of Yom-Tov.

13)

(a)The Chachamim rule - that tailors, barbers and laundry-men may perform Melachah on Erev Pesach even regarding tasks that they have not already begun.

(b)The basis for this leniency is - the fact that it has a Heter on Chol ha'Mo'ed, which is more strict than Erev Pesach.

(c)The Tzad Heter that we find on Chol ha'Mo'ed with regard to ...

1. ... tailoring is - that a person who is not a tailor is permitted to stitch in the way that he normally does.

2. ... cutting hair and washing clothes is - that someone who just arrived from overseas or who has just been set free from jail is allowed to have a hair-cut and to wash his clothes.

14)

(a)The fourth professional that Rebbi Yehudah adds to the above list is - a shoe-manufacturer ...

(b)... who has a Heter on Chol ha'Mo'ed to repair the shoes of the Olei Regel who are traveling to the Beis-ha'Mikdash.

(c)The Chachamim disagree with him - because one cannot learn a Heter of manufacturing new shoes from the fact that is permitted to repair old ones.

(d)The Halachah is - like the Chachamim.

15)

(a)The Mishnah permits setting-up 'Shochvin' - (dove-cotes for the birds to rear their young) on Erev Pesach (See Tos. Yom-Tov).

(b)When the Tana speaks about a chicken that fled, he is referring to - a chicken that abandoned the egg that she was in the process of hatching ...

(c)... and which he now permits to re-instate on the egg.

(d)He must be referring to ...

1. ... Chol ha'Mo'ed - because if, as we just learned, one is allowed to set-up a nest Lechatchilah on Erev Pesach, it goes without saying, that one is permitted to return a chicken to its nest.

2. ... a case where three days have already passed since the egg was laid - because, before that, the egg would still be edible, in which case the mother having fled would not incur a total loss (and it would not be permitted).

(e)If the event that the chicken (did not run away, but) died - the Mishnah even permits replacing it with a new chicken (to prevent the loss of the egg).

16)

(a)With regard to clearing the dirt in a stable on ...

1. ... on Erev Pesach, the Tana permits - removing it from the stable completely, but on ...

2. ... Chol ha'Mo'ed, he only allows - moving it to the side of the stable.

(b)He also - permits taking Keilim to be repaired to a professional repairman and fetching them from him on Erev Pesach ...

(c)... even if they are not needed for Yom-Tov ...

(d)... whereas on Chol ha'Mo'ed - only what is needed for Yom-Tov is permitted (See Meleches Shlomoh).

17)

(a)The Mishnah comments that, of the six things that the men of Yericho used to do - the Chachamim objected to three, but not to the other three.

(b)'Markivin Dekalim Kol ha'Yom ve'Korchin al Sh'ma ve'Kotzrin ve'Godshin lifnei ha'Omer' - comprise the category of those to which the Chachamim did not object.

(c)'Markivin Dekalim' entails - grafting the soft branch of a male palm-tree into a female one ...

(d)... on the day of Erev Pesach.

18)

(a)Some interpret 'Korchin al Sh'ma' to mean that they omitted the Pasuk 'Baruch Sheim'. According to others, it means - that they did not pause between "Echad" and "Ve'ahavta" (See Tos. Yom-Tov).

(b)'Kotzrin ve'Godshin lifnei ha'Omer' means that they reaped the new crops and made it into haystacks before the Omer was brought (on the sixteenth of Nisan). They ought not to have done that - in case one would come to eat from it before the Omer is brought (See Tiferes Yisrael).

19)

(a)The Chachamim did object however, to the other three things: 'Matirin Gamziyos shel Hekdesh, ve'Ochlin mi'Tachas ha'Nesharim be'Shabbos, ve'Nosnim Pe'ah le'Yerek'. 'Matirin Gamziyos shel Hekdesh' means - that they permitted fruit that grows on a Hekdesh tree after the owner has declared it Hekdesh ...

(b)... because it is only the actual fruit that the owner declared Hekdesh that is forbidden, but not what grows afterwards.

(c)Some commentaries have the text 'Matzirin ... ' - in which case what they permitted was to cut of the branches and to use them for one's personal use.

20)

(a)'ve'Ochlin mi'Tachas ha'Nesharim be'Shabbos': The Chachamim forbade eating fruit that one finds underneath a tree on Shabbos and Yom-Tov - in case they fell on Shabbos, and one will subsequently come to pick it directly from the tree.

(b)'ve'Nosnim Pe'ah le'Yerek'. Vegetables are Patur from Pe'ah - because whatever cannot be (naturally) preserved is not subject to Pe'ah.

(c)The reason for the prohibition is - based on the fact that Pe'ah is Patur from Ma'asros. Consequently, the poor, thinking that what they have collected is Pe'ah, will not separate Ma'asros.

(d)The fact that the owner has declared it Hefker will not help them - seeing as Hefker is subject to Ma'asros.

21)

(a)The Mishnah divides the six things that Chizkiyahu ha'Melech did into two similar categories. The Chachamim - agreed with him dragging the bones of his father (King Achaz) on a stretcher made of ropes around town, cutting-up the copper snake that Moshe made and hiding the book of cures.

(b)He ...

1. ... dragged his father's bones around town in this way - to atone for his father's numerous wicked deeds and to put him to shame, so that the resha'im would learn a lesson from him (See Tos. Yom-Tov).

2. ... cut-up the copper snake - because people were beginning to worship it.

3. ... hide the book of cures - because people were placing all their faith in it rather than in Hash-m.

(c)The Rambam explains that Chizkiyahu hid the book of cures - because it was based on astronomy and the likes, which borders on Avodah-Zarah (See Tos. Yom-Tov).

22)

(a)The Chachamim did not agree however, with him stripping the golden plating from the doors of the Heichal (See Tiferes Yisrael), stopping up the upper water of the fountain of Gichon and announcing a leap-year in Nisan. He took the gold that he had removed from the doors of the Heichal - and gave it to the King of Ashur to bribe him into not attacking Yerushalayim (See Tiferes Yisrael).

(b)He stopped up the upper water of the fountain of Gichon - to deprive the invading enemy of a source of drinking-water (See Tos. Yom-Yov & Tiferes Yisrael).

(c)The Torah forbids announcing a leap-year once Nisan has already entered, based on the Pasuk in Bo "ha'Chodesh ha'Zeh lachem ... " - implying that once Nisan has arrived, it cannot be changed).

(d)This cannot be understood literally, since Chizkiyahu would not have made such a mistake. What he actually did wrong was - to announce a leap-year on the thirtieth of Adar, a day which was fit to become Nisan.