Shabbos 12:4 - 12:5

בסם – “Orpimnat” in the foreign language.

בסיקרא – a kind stone that colors red.

בקומוס – a kind of dust and its color is black. Another explanation: resin of a papyrus tree.

בקנקנתום – “Zag” in Arabic and “vidriol” in the foreign language.

ובכל דבר שהוא רושם – to include water that they dissolved/soaked in it gall-nut; “gallim” in the foreign tongue which makes an incision/mark that is enduring.

על ב' כותלין זויות – one in the east and another in the north that are juxtaposed to each other at an angle.

על ב' לוחי פנקס – the book that the storekeeper writes his accounts, and even though it is not on one tablet, if they are organized and read one with the other, like that which they write on two borders of tablets that are near each other, he is liable.

הכותב על בשרו – with ink.

והמשרט על בשרו – with iron he makes the shape of letters in his skin.

רבי יהושע פוטר – and even if he emitted some blood, for this is not the way of writing. But the Halakha is according to Rabbi Yehoshua.

במשקין – which blacken like the juice of mulberries and things similar to them.

במי פירות – of all other fruits.

באבק דרכים – such as tracing with his finger the shame of letters on the sand and the dust that is on the roads.

באבק סופרים – the sandy matter of chest of a scribe.

לאחר ידו – on the back of his hand, that he held the writing pen with his fingers and turned his hand over and wrote.

ובמרפיקו – the intermediate joint of the arm.

אות אחת סמוך לכתב – near one written letter, he doubled it and completed it to make two.

כתב על גבי כתב – he passed the writing pen over the letters already written and renewed them.

וכתב שני זיינין – the roof of the letter "ח" /Chet did not appear but only the two legs, so it appeared as if they were two letters "ז"/Zayin.

על ב' כותלי הבית – which were not at an angle.

על שני דפי פנקס – that are made column by column. He wrote one letter in this column and one letter in another column and he is unable to bring them close other than if he cuts out what is interrupting between them, the Tanna/Teacher of the Mishnah in the first part mentioned the walls of the house that are distant from each other, and afterwards taught the pages of a ledger/notebook and not only this, but also that, he taught (= the cases in the Mishnah are in descending order of demonstrability).

אות אחת על שם נוטריקון – he made the symbol of a dot on it and we understand from that letter a complete word such as "ק"/Kof – קרבן/Sacrifice; "מ"/Mem – מעשר/Tithe; "ת"/Taf – תרומה/Priest’s due.

רבי יהושע בן בתירה אומר חייב – for since everyone understands from that letter a complete word, it is as if he wrote the letters of all of the word.

וחכמים פוטרין – for he did not write two letters, and the Halakha is according to the Sages.