Translation:Mishnah/Seder Moed/Tractate Pesachim/Chapter 1

Mishnah 1

On the evening of the fourteenth [of Nissan] we check for leavened bread by candlelight.

Any place which we do not bring leavened bread into does not require checking.

And why did [the sages] say [that we must check up to] two rows in the wine cellar?

[It is] a place which we bring leavened bread into.

The House of Shammai say: Two rows upon the entire wine-cellar.

The House of Hillel say: The two outer rows, which are the uppermost.

Mishnah 2

We do not worry

[that] perhaps a weasel dragged [leavened bread] from house to house,

or from place to place.

If so, from courtyard to courtyard, and from city to city —

there is no end to the matter.

Mishnah 3

Rabbi Yehudah says:

We check on the evening of the fourteenth, and on the fourteenth in the morning, and at the time of the destruction [of leavened foods].

And the sages say:

If he did not check on the evening of the fourteenth, he shall check on the fourteenth.

If he did not check on the fourteenth, he shall check during the holiday.

If he did not check during the holiday, he shall check after the holiday.

And what he leaves over, he shall put in a private place, in order that checking after it shall not be necessary.

Mishnah 4

Rabbi Meir says:

We may eat [leavened foods] through the fifth [hour], and we must burn [it] at the beginning of the sixth [hour].

Rabbi Yehudah says:

We may eat [leavened foods] through the fourth [hour], we keep [it] in suspense through the fifth [hour], and we must burn it at the beginning of the sixth [hour].

Mishnah 5

Rabbi Yehudah further said:

Two loaves of bread of a thank-offering [that had become] unfit were placed on the roof of the [Temple] stoa.

As long as they [both] lay [there], all the people would eat [leavened foods].

[When] one of them was removed, they would suspend and neither eat nor burn [their leavened foods].

[When] the second one of them was removed, all the people would begin burning [their leavened foods].

Rabban Gamliel says:

Unconsecrated [leavened foods] may be eaten through the fourth [hour];

[leavened food that was a] priestly donation [may be eaten] through the fifth [hour];

and we must burn [all leavened foods] at the beginning of the sixth [hour].

Mishnah 6

Rabbi Chanina, the chief of staff of the priests, says:

During [all] the days of [the] priests,

they never refrained from burning [sacrificial] meat that had become unclean by a secondary uncleanness

[along] with [sacrificial] meat that had become unclean by a primary uncleanness,

even though they were adding uncleanness to its uncleanness.

Rabbi Akiva added and said:

During [all] the days of [the] priests,

they never refrained from lighting oil that had become unfit by [contact with] one who had ritually immersed that day

in a lamp that had become unclean by one who had become unclean by a corpse,

even though they were adding uncleanness to its uncleanness.

Mishnah 7

Rabbi Meir said:

From their words we learn that we may burn clean priestly donations [that are leavened] together with the unclean [priestly donations] on Passover.

Rabbi Yose said to him:

This is not analogous.

And [furthermore] Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua agree

that we burn one by itself and the other by itself.

Concerning what do they differ?

Concerning [burning] [priestly donations whose status of cleanness was] suspended and unclean [priestly donations],

for Rabbi Eliezer says:

one should be burned by itself and the other by itself.

And Rabbi Yehoshua says:

Both of them [may be burned] together.