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§ 1. The law concerning tire due observance of the Passover, will be transgressed by using the following articles: namely, Babylonian ‏כותח‎, 1 Median beer [made of wheat or barley], Edomite vinegar, 2 Egyptian zeithum, 3 the dough of bran used by dyers, the dough used

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by cooks, 4 and the paste used by writers; 5 R. Eleazar says, also the paste used by women to adorn themselves with. 6 This is the general rule: whatever is composed of any kind of grain, can cause a transgression of the paschal laws; and they that are guilty of this, incur the penalty attached to the transgression of an admonitory precept, 7 but not that of being "utterly cut off" [‏כרת‎].

§ 2. If there be any dough in the holes or crevices of a kneading-trough: 8 if there is as much as the size of an olive in any one place, it must be forthwith removed, but if less than that quantity is together in one place, it may be considered as non-existing, being so inconsiderable; and thus it is in respect to pollutions. 9 But when the dough is cared for [when the owner wishes to use it], it forms a separation, 10 [and the trough is unpolluted], but when it is desired to leave the dough in the trough, it must be considered as forming an integral part of the trough; 11 a dull dough 12 may not be used, if one of the same quality and size can become leavened in the same time.

§ 3. How can the cake of the dough [‏חלה‎] be separated on the Passover when it has become unclean? 13 R. Eleazar says, "It is only to be named after it has been baked;" R. Jehudah, son of Beterah says, "This is not the leaven concerning which it is said, 'It shall not be seen nor found in thy house;'" it must, therefore, be separated, and left till the evening, without caring whether it becomes leaven or not.

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§ 4. Rabbon Gamaliel says, "Three women may knead dough on the Passover at one time, and bake it in the same oven, one after the other;" but the sages say, "Three women may occupy themselves with their dough, but in the following manner: one shall knead and another fashion the dough, whilst the third bakes;" R. Akivah says, "It is not the same with all women, wood, or ovens." 14 This is the rule: as soon as dough becomes inflated, let the woman plunge her hand in cold water. 15

§ 5. Dough which begins to become leavened must be burned; but the person who eats it has not incurred the penalty [of excision]. Dough which falls in holes or rents must be burned, and whoever eats it has incurred the penalty of excision. When is a dough to be considered as commencing to become leavened? When it exhibits small rents standing apart in different directions, like the antennae [horns or feelers] of locusts. A dough which falls in holes or rents is thus to be considered, when the rents cross each other: such is the dictum of R. Jehudah; but the sages say, "Whoever eats either incurs the penalty of excision." When is a dough to be considered as commencing to become leavened? When its surface has become pale, like [the face of] a person whose hair stands on end [through terror].

§ 6. When the 14th of Nissan happens on the Sabbath, all [leaven] must be removed before the Sabbath commences: such is the dictum of R. Meir; but the sages say it is to be done at the proper time; R. Eleazar ben Zadok says, "The heave-offering must be removed before the Sabbath, and non-consecrated things at the proper time.

§ 7. If a person went [on the 14th of Nissan] to slaughter his Passover-sacrifice, or to circumcise his son, or to eat the betrothing-meal at the house of his father-in-law, and remembers on the road that he has left leaven in his house: if he can return home and remove it, and then go back to execute any of the mentioned duties, he must do so, and remove it; but if not, he must mentally declare it as annulled. If his intention, on leaving home, was to aid persons to escape from armed foes, from inundation, robbers, or fire, or to save persons from under the ruins of fallen buildings, he may mentally annul the leaven; but if his intention was to obtain a sabbatical resting

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station for his private purposes, 16 he must immediately return to annul the leaven.

§ 8. Also, if a person on leaving Jerusalem, remembers having with him consecrated flesh: if he has gone beyond [the hill] Zophim, he may burn it where he is; but if not, he must return, and burn it before the sanctuary, with wood of the altar. What quantity [of flesh or leaven] makes it obligatory to return? R. Meir says, "When both are the size of an egg;" R. Jehudah says, "When of the size of an olive;" but the sages say, "Consecrated flesh when of the size of an olive, and leaven when of the size of an egg."


101:1 This is explained to be a mixture of mouldy bread with milk and salt, used to dip food in.

101:2 That is, vinegar made in the Idumean manner, by the fermentation of barley and wine.

101:3 The name of a medicine of Egyptian origin, mentioned by Pliny (book xxii. c.82), under the name of "zythum;" according to the Talmud, it was composed of equal parts of barley, salt, and wild saffron.

102:4 To cover the pots to attract the impurities of the food when boiling; the amylos of the ancients.

102:5 Or rather, by bookbinders to paste the sheets together so as to form a book.

102:6 This paste was made of flour mixed with aromatics and other ingredients, and used as a cosmetic.

102:7 That is, he shall be chastised with thirty-nine stripes, ‏מלקות‎.

102:8 To fasten its broken parts, or to stop up holes or crevices in the trough.

102:9 By being touched by any creeping thing, ‏טומאת שרץ‎.

102:10 That is, a protection from pollution.

102:11 This part applies more particularly to other times of the year, and not to the Passover exclusively.

102:12 In the original, "a deaf dough," ‏בצק החרש‎; or as others read it ‏בצק החרס‎, a dough [like] a brick, i.e. a dough which does not soon exhibit any marks of rising, or which yields a dull sound when struck by the hand [like a deaf person who does not answer when spoken to]; according to the other derivation, when it is as hard as a brick.

102:13 Since it may not he baked on the festival, nor be used thereon in any manner.

103:14 For some women work quicker than others; some kinds of wood kindle sooner than others; and some ovens are sooner heated than others differently constructed.

103:15 To hinder the dough from rising.

104:16 By staying on the extreme limits of the ‏תחום‎ when the Sabbath commences, in order to obtain liberty to move 2000 amoth, or cubits, on every side of that station on the Sabbath. (See Treatise Erubin.)

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