סוטה ט׳:י׳ - ט׳:י״א

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.