עוקצים ב׳:ה׳ - ב׳:ו׳

המחתך לבשל – as for example, cuts gourds or onions or meat in order to cook it in a pot.

שלא מירק (did not finish it off) -that he did not complete the cutting, like he completed it after slaughtering by his hand in Tractate Yoma [31b].

אינו חיבור – even though the pieces are still partly intertwined/interwoven.

לכבוש – that he pickles in wine or in vinegar in order to preserve it.

ולשלוק (or to seethe) – seething is more than cooking, and in these it is satisfactory for it in their combining/joining, therefore whenever he didn’t finish it off, it is combining/joining. But to cook is not combining/joining, for if he knows that the cooking will separate them and divide them one from the other.

התחיל לפרק (when he has begun to strip vegetables) – and to separate completely one from them, we do not say that since he revealed his intention with one that he wants separate them, all of them also are as if they are separated one from another and it is not combining/joining, but if he eats and only strips, it is not combining/joining, and what he didn’t strip is combined/joined.

האגוזים שאמנן (nuts which one arrayed/arranged in lines) – that he grew them and combined them one with the other. It is the language of (Esther 2:7): “He was foster father to Hadassah [that is Esther, his uncle’s daughter, for she had neither father nor mother].”

שחמרן ([and the onions] which one has piled up) – It is the language of (Exodus 8:10): “And they piled them up (i.e., the dead frogs) in heaps, [till the land stank].” From the manner of those who wish to store up nuts or onions, they cut them and tie them up with rope or with cord/flax rope and combine them one with the other and suspend them in order that they will endure.

לפקל (to strip, peel) – like to peel/לקלף. And it is example we taught in [Tractate] Maaserot, Chapter 1, Mishnah 6, “the onions [are subject to tithes] when one begins to strip them (for storage)” (note that there is a mistake in the printed editions which mention chapter 2 and/or chapter 4).

האגוזים והשדקים – now we are speaking of cracking open nuts and almonds. For the shell of nuts and almonds are considered a protection, and even though he cracked them open, all the while that it is attached to the food/edible part, it is considered a protection.

עד שירסס (until he crushes them) – It is the language of (Amos 6:11): “[For the LORD will command,] And the great house shall be smashed to bits [And the little house to splinters],” meaning to say until the shell will be crushed and opened into thin pieces.

ביצה מגולגלת (a roasted egg) – roasted slightly, until it is mixed and appropriate to sip/quaff.

עד שיגוז (until it is chipped) – the shell is considered a protector and combines [to make it susceptible to ritual uncleanness] until he cuts off from it a little bit, and then it is not considered a protector any more, for the egg comes down slowly through the path of that fracture and cut.

ושלוקה – but if the egg was boiled, that it is hard and stands within the shell, and een that which is broken, the shell is always considered a protector, until it is crushed.

וכן עצם שיש בו מוח (and similarly a bone that has marrow in it) – the bone is considered a protector for the marrow, and even though the bone is broken, it [protects] until it is crushed.

הרמון שפירדו (a pomegranate which one has cut into two – leaving the seeds in their sheaves) - that he cut the pomegranate into two and still the seeds/kernel of the stone fruit are attached in the shell, this shell is a connection/attachment, until he knocks it with a reed and will shake the seeds/kernel of the stone fruit that is within it.

שלל הכובסים (washers’ materials loosely stitched together) – it is the manner of washers to stitch the clothes of a child with those of an adult in order that they don’t become lost, and eventually to separate them.

והבגד שהוא תפור בכלאים – two pieces of woolen cloth which was sewn with threads of flax, for certainly, they will be separated one from the other, because of the prohibition of the mixture of wool and linen in the same web.

חיבור לטומאה -if one is defiled, its neighbor is defiled, until he begins to loosen it/take it apart, and even though he did not finish loosening it/taking it apart, for the deed/act [of loosening/taking it apart] removes it from the act [mixing wool and linen together].