Kilayim 9:1 - 9:2

אין אסור משום כלאים אלא צמר ופשתים – as it is written (Deuteronomy 22:11): “You shall not wear cloth combining wool and linen.” [The word] שעטנז is a generalization; צמר ופשתים /wool and linen is a specification/detail; a generalization and a specification/detail, the generalization refers only to that which was specified in the details. Wool and Linen, yes, [are forbidden together]; something else is not [forbidden together]. But צמר/wool is the wool of sheep or rams alone, as it is written (2 Kings 3:4): “Now King Mesha of Moab was a sheep breeder; and he used to pay as tribute to the king of Israel the wool of one hundred thousand lambs and of one hundred thousand rams.” You do not have it called mere wool, but rather the wool of rams, but he rest of wool, one needs to give an epithet, the wool of camels, the wool of hares, the wool of goats.

ואינו מטמא בנגעים אלא צמר ופשתים – as it is written (Leviticus 13:47): “When an eruptive affection occurs in a cloth of wool or linen fabric.”

אין הכהנים לובשים לשמש במקדש אלא צמר ופשתים – for regarding the clothing of the priests, it is written (Exodus 39:27-29): “They made the tunics of fine linen of woven work, [for Aaron and his sons];…and the linen breaches of fine twisted linen,” which is a flax that grows in linen stalks, that is to say, a singular red from each seed, but no two reeds grow from one seed. And regarding the sashes/אבנט (verse 29), it is written (Exodus 39:29): “blue and purple and crimson yarns, [done in embroidery -as the LORD had commanded Moses].” “And blue/תכלת” -the wool that is colored with the blood of the purple-shell used for dying tekhelet, “and purple/ארגמן”- that is colored by the color ed whose name is ארגמן/purple, which is LAKA in the foreign tongue; and “crimson yarns/תולעת שני” which is colored in the color red that they call CARMAZI.

שטרפן – that mixed them.

מותר – to mix flax with them because the wool of lambs/sheep is nullified through the majority of [wool of] camels.

וכן פשתן וקנבוס – that became combined – and the majority is from the hemp, it is permitted to bring wool and to mix with them.

השיריים והכלך (silk and cissaros-blossoms/a woolly substance growing on stones on the Dead Sea that looks like gold, and being very soft – resembles sheep-wool) – they are species of silk, and the כלך/cissaros-blossoms/ a wooly substance) grows in the sea-towns/mercantile ports and its shape/form is like the shape of gold and it is exceptionally soft and similar to wool.

אבל אסורים – for they come o be exchanged/switched with wool and linen. But because they are were not found among them , people would not recognize them and they would come to switch/exchange them, therefore, they are prohibited for appearance’s sake. But nowadays, that the silk is found amongst us and all know and recognize it, there is no prohibition of any species of silk with wool or linen. And similarly, hemp is permitted whether with wool or with linen, for everyone recognize it.

הכרים והכסתות אין בהם משום כלאים – because they are made for ling on and the Torah stated (Leviticus 19:19): “you shall not put on cloth [from a mixture of two kinds of material],” but you are permitted to insert them underneath you. But these words [are applicable] when they are hard and thin and placed on top of a couch, then they are permitted when one’s skin doe not [touch] them, but if they are soof or filled or even empty and placed on top of a bed, even ten mattresses one on top of the other with mixed seeds underneath them, it is prohibited to sleep upon them because they are bent underneath him and they are wrapped on his skin.

אין עראי לכלאים – for temporary dressing [of mixed seeds] is dressing.

אפילו על גבי עשרה – and even though he does not benefit from the mixed seeds [from these ten garments].

את המכס – I saw that for some of my teachers that explained, for example, that in a place where the Jews pay customs to the custom-collector who stands from near him , and he wears mixed seats in order that he should not be recognized that he is a Jew (see Tractate Bava Kamma 113a). But it appears to me to steal the customs, because a person a person does not give customs from the clothing that he wears. But [the teacher of] this anonymous Mishnah [holds] that a thing that he doesn’t intend upon is prohibited, and he disputes upon the other anonymous teacher who teaches (see Mishnah 5 of this chapter) that clothes dealers sell [garments of diverse kinds] in their usual manner.