Shabbos 24:4 - 24:5

מחתכין את הדלועין – that are detached before the cattle and even though they usually are not the food for animals, they exist only for humans.

ואת הנבלה – that had become ritually forbidden by unskillful slaughtering that day, and even though it was at twilight, it stood for humans and not for animals.

רבי יהודה אומר אם לא היתה נבילה מע"ש אסורה – for anything that is appropriate for humans, it is not set aside for animals, and even if it is sick from the Eve of the Sabbath, we hold that it would heal, but the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yehuda.

מפירין – a husband to his wife and/or a a father to his daughter.

ונשאלין – to a Sage.

שהן לצורך השבת – such as that he vowed that he would not eat today and if made enquiry it specifically speaks of, for if it were a husband or a father annulling [a vow], whether they are for vows for the needs of the Sabbath, or whether they are for vows that are not for the needs of the Sabbath, for since he cannot to annual other than during the day of it being heard alone, and vows which are for the needs of the Sabbath, even if he had the free time to enquire about them before the [onset of] Shabbat, he enquires about them on Shabbat.

ופוקקי את המאור – [he plugs/stops up] the window that from which the light enters he closes it up with a board or with the rest of anything that it is customary to stop it up with.

ומודדין את המטלית – it if was ritually impure and came into contact with something ritually pure, we measure it [to see] if it has three fingers by three fingers to know if it the ritually pure things were defiled or not for a strip/patch that is less than three by three does not defile nor becomes defiled.

ואת המקוה – to know if it has a cubit by a cubit at a depth of thee cubits, for it they are measurements of a Mitzvah, therefore, it is permissible to measure them on Shabbat.

שפקקו את המאור – the window and it is called – "מאור" – for through it the light enters.

בטפיח – an earthenware pitcher.

מקדה – an earthenware utensil.

בגמי – for this reason, it (i.e., the Mishnah) took גמי/bulrush or reed-grass which is appropriate for the food of cattle and is not eliminated from being a permanent knot.

לידע אם יש בגיגית פותח טפח – a sort of small passageway that was between two houses so was not natural but rather that the barrel was placed on top of it, and their windows were open from the houses to the passageway, and they were worried lest someone die in one house and that the ritual impurity would come from the window to the passageway and from the passageway to the other house via the open window, therefore, they stopped up the open window to the house where the ritual defilement was inside with an earthenware pitcher and its back was to the side of the passageway for the earthenware utensil does not become defiled from its back and leaves a space between the two partitions, but they were concerned lest there wasn’t in the slit of the barrel an opening of a handbreadth, and it would be found that the barrel overshadows on the passageway and the ritual defilement comes through the passageway from one house to the other house. After that, it is was necessary to open the window and ot take that stopped up pitcher in the window and they came to know if there was in that slit of the barrel an opening of a handbreadth, and if there wasn’t a tent in that passageway to bring in the ritual defilement. For the ritual defilement goes out from the passageway via the slit in the barrel towards above, or if the slit in the barrel is not open one handbreadth, and it was found that the passageway itself was like a tent and brought the ritual defilement from one house to the other. And they measured the earthenware fire pot/potsherd for carrying fire and tied it with bulrushes and stretched it towards above to see if there was in the slit of the barrel opened a handbreadth or not.

ומדבריהם למדנו שפוקקין וקושרין ומודדין בשבת – as long as it was not a permanent knot, for the measurement would be for a Mitzvah or to practice on what is a decision/instruction.