Chullin 1:2 - 1:3

מגל יד – It has two edges (the מגל יד is an implement combining knife and saw) – one smooth like a knife and the other which has notches; and on the side which is smooth, one should not ab initio engage in ritual slaughter [with it] as a preventative measure lest one perform a ritual slaughter with the side that is defective. And therefore, the Tanna taught [the word] "השוחט"–”he who performs a ritual slaughtering” and it implies, that de facto, one may slaughter [with this utensil] but not ab initio. And we learn from this that a defective knife, which contains enough to ritually slaughter with from the defect and beyond, it is prohibited to perform ritual slaughtering with it ab initio, other than if one wraps the defective part in a garment or in bulrushes–reed-grass so that now it would not be possible to decree that perhaps he might come to slaughter in the place of defect.

בצור ובקנה – Our Mishnah is speaking about a flint and–or a reed which are detached and later they were attached and one performed a ritual slaughter with them when they were attached, and de facto, one may use [it–them] but ab initio, one may not [use it–them], but if it was initially attached, even de facto it is prohibited. And that which is completely detached, even ab initio, is permitted [for use].

צור – A sharp rock. And it is a Biblical expression [being used here] (Exodus 4:25): “[So Zipporah] took a flint and cut off [her son’s foreskin…].”

הכל שוחטין – To include a non-observant–non-conformist Jew in one area of transgression, or even for many transgressions – in that it is permitted to eat of his ritual slaughtering. And [as long as] that individual is not an apostate for idolatry or someone who violates the Sabbath in public. And a worthy (observant) Jew checks the knife and gives it to him, since he (the potential ritual-slaughterer) is considered as one who has not bothered to check [the knife] and afterwards performs the act of ritual slaughtering just for himself, and the [observant] Jew returns and checks his knife after the ritual slaughter, and if it [the knife] is fine, his ritual slaughter is considered valid. But those Sadducees whom we call Karaites who do not believe in the Oral Torah, their ritual slaughter is [considered] invalid, unless there was a Jew who would stand and watch the slaughtering from the beginning until the end.

ולעולם שוחטין – Whether during the daytime or whether at night by the light of a torch, whether on the top of a roof, and we don’t worry lest people say that he [the ritual slaughterer] went up to the hosts of heaven to [perform] ritual slaughtering. And similarly, one can perform ritual slaughtering at the top of a ship, the matter is proven that he needs to chisel his ship and that he is not slaughtering for the Chief of the Sea.

ובכל שוחטין – Whether [one uses] glass or uses the skin-like, scaly envelope of reed, which is tall grass in the lake which cuts like a knife. But the reed itself, one should not perform ritual slaughtering with it ab initio, on account of fibers that separate from it and perforate the organs and one might have [accidentally] passed the knife under cover (which invalidates a ritual slaughtering).

מגל קציר – which is used to cut grain, as its notches bend slanting in one direction.

מגירה – a knife filled with notches and each notch has projecting points in each direction which are knives having notches–indentations (see Hullin 17b – which catch the passing nail of the examiner).

שינים – (teeth) which are inserted into the jawbone of the animal. And especially when there are two or more (teeth).

והצפורן – Which is attached [to the finger].

שהן חונקין – As they do not cut, but rather tear on account of the indentations [therein]. And these (a saw) produce anguish as if by choking (instead of cutting); this refers to the others, but not to the nail, and the reason concerning the nail is that it is attached.

מגל קציר – It heads are very bent and its [cutting] process does not tear.

בית שמאי אומרים נבילה – And it defiles by carrying, by which [the School of Shammai] decreed that walking it leads to bring it. And the School of Hillel does not make this decree, as the defilement does not increase as a result of this decree. But, they admit that it is eating it is prohibited, lest by walking with it, one will bring it (and it leads to someone consuming it).

השוחט מתוך הטבעת – In the large ring [of the trachea] which is above all of them, is [what the Mishnah] is speaking of.

ושייר בה מלא החוט של פני כולה – on the side of the head, for he did not incline the knife to exit from the ring to the side of the head until he completed [cutting] the entire ring, it is considered valid.

מלוא החוט – that is to say, a bit, but if it was before he completed the entire [ring], he slanted the knife to the side of the head and completed the ritual slaughter above from the ring which was not the place of the ritual slaughter, which is הגרמה (cutting the animal’s throat in a slanting direction – letting the knife slide beyond the space ritually designed for cutting), even though most of the windpipe was cut at the place of the ritual slaughter, the Rabbis invalidated it, since it concluded with a disqualification.

רבי יוסי בר' יהודה אומר מלוא החוט על פני רובה – If he left in it as much as the breadth of a thread of the hair from the ring [of the trachea] at the side of the head over the majority of the ring, that is to say, he cut most of the windpipe within the ring, but the minority of it was cut in a slanted direction and it left its [body] at the side of its head, and he completed the slaughter above it, it is considered valid, as he slaughtered most it in a valid manner, but the other part, he slaughters by cutting mere skin. And the legal decision is that a person who slaughters above the large ring, where the thyroid cartilage (Adam’s apple) begins to protrude and above it is considered invalid, whereas from the thyroid cartilage and below is considered valid. And that means that he left glands, that he slaughtered these two glands of the flesh that are above the large ring but below the thyroid cartilage, and he left a bit of them at the side of the head.