Bechoros 4:6 - 4:7

הנוטל שכר לדון דיניו בטלים – as it is written (Deuteronomy 4:5): “See, I have imparted to you laws and rules as the LORD my God has commanded me, [for you to abide by in the land that you are about to enter and occupy.],” just as I [do it] gratuitously, so you [do them] gratuitously. But among the Rabbis of Ashkenaz, I saw scandalous behavior in this matter , that an ordained Rabbi, the head of a Yeshiva, is not embarrassed to take ten gold coins in order to be [present] for half-an hour for the writing and delivery of one Get/Jewish bill of divorce, and the witnesses that affix their names on the Get [receive] two gold coins or one gold coin for each of them at the very least, and this is not a Rabbi in my eyes, but rather a thief and a violent man who attained it by force, because he knows that we don’t give a Get in his city without his permission, and he who gives the Get against his will needs to give him all that he desires. |But I am worried regarding [this] Get/Jewish bill of divorce that it is invalid, for it is taught in our Mishnah, that a person who takes a reward to judge, his judgments are invalid; to testify, his testimony is invalid.

לקדש – to mix the dust of the sin-offering in fresh water in a vessel.

אפר מקלה – the ashes of a portable stove on feet is called calcined ashes/hearth ash (i.e., a symbol of mourning, supplication), that is to say, mere ashes that have no sanctity.

אבל אם היה – this person who sees/examines the firstlings, or this one who is a judge, or the witness, or the one sanctifies is a Kohen, and the person who goes with him pardons him in the place of defilement and defiled him from consuming his heave offering, and makes him lose out that he needs to acquire non-sacred produce and to eat, and the value of non-consecrated are more expensive than the value of the heave offering, for non-sanctified produce is appropriate for all, but heave offering is not appropriate other than for pure Kohanim.

מאכילו – this one who brings him gives him to drink and anoints him.

ונותן לו שכרו כפועל – if he was customarily [engaged] in heavy and difficult labor, and he earns a great deal, we estimate how much a person like this wishes to take that is less than one he would earn with heavy labor and to be engaged in this work which is easier, and such we give him,. For it is permitted fo each judge to take a salary for his idleness, for the idleness is known and recognized/familiar, and he takes from the two litigants equally, but more than this is forbidden.

החשוד על הבכורות – a Kohen who is suspected of placing/attaching a blemish on a firstling.

בשר צבאים – for it (i.e., deer/gazelle meat) is red and he switches it with the meat of a calf, and sometimes, when he sells the firstling of a pure calf and he said that it is the meat of a deer/gazelle, where we aren’t troubled by a firstling.

ולא עורות שאינן עבודים – but of tanned [hides] we buy from him, for if it is a firstling, he would not trouble himself with it, for he holds that the house of the Rabbis will hear of it and will cause him to lose [money] from it.

לוקחים ממנו עורות של נקבה - - for they certainly will know it But the first Tanna/teacher who prohibits it, holds that perhaps that they sever its male genitals and treat it like the females, and when they asked him what is this incision in the place of the female genitals, he would state that the mice consumed it. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Eliezer.

מלובן וצואי – they explained in the Gemara (Talmud Bekhorot 29b) that it states: wool that is cleansed of its dirt, that is to say, that he washes from its filthy matter . But we don’t say that if it if is a firstling, he does not lose his troubles/efforts and it doesn’t glisten for he holds that the Rabbis heard and causes him to lose from it, for since he troubles a small amount but is not exacting with it.

אבל לוחקין ממנו טווי ובגדים – for if it is firstling, he would not go to the trouble all that much with them, for he stringent with his trouble for perhaps he will suffer loss from it.

טווי ובגדים – he is not saying actual clothing. For now that is merely spun, they will purchase from him, but he needed woven clothing, but rather, clothing, that is linen made from wool which is not woven.