Translation:Mishnah/Seder Nezikin/Tractate Avodah Zarah/Chapter 1
For a period of three days before Pagan festivals, it is forbidden to engage in business transactions with them, to ask them for something or to be asked for something by them, to lend or to borrow from them, and to absolve (them from debt) or be absolved by them (from debt). Rabbi Yehuda says: (it is permitted) to be absolved (from debt) from them, since it causes them distress. (The Sages) said to him: even though they might be in distress at the outset, they will eventually be happy.
Rabbi Yishmael says: (the above) is forbidden for three days before the festivals and three days after the festivals. The Sages say: (while) it is forbidden before the festivals, it is permitted after the festivals.
And these, according to Rabbi Meir, are the (major) pagan festivals: Kalendis, Saturnalia, Kratesis, kings' days of accession, kings' birthdays, and king' day of death. And the Sages say: every funeral in which a conflagration is present is considered to have idol worship present. If there is no conflagration, then there is no idol worship thought to be present. The day a (pagan) man cuts his beard or his hair, the day that a man comes up from the sea, and the day that a man is released from fetters, there is prohibition only on this day and only this man.
It is permitted (to do business) outside of a city that has idol worship inside it. If there is idol worship outside the city, it is permitted (to do business) inside. What about he who should travel to this place --- in the time that the road converges to this place alone, it is forbidden (to do business); but if one can walk on this road from another location, it is permitted (to do business). A city which has in it idol worship and has both decorated and undecorated shop fronts -- this was the case in Beit Shean --- the Sages say: the decorated shops are forbidden (as places in which business can be done) and those shops without decorations are permitted.
The following items are those that are forbidden to be sold to gentiles: iztrobalin, white figs along with their stalks, frankincense, and white chickens. Rabbi Yehuda says: he sells a white chicken to him amongst a group of chickens; in the time that he is by himself, he must clip its toe and sell it, since they do not sacrifice blemished animals to idols. As for all the remaining items, (if their purpose) is not known, it is permitted (to sell), but (if their purpose) is known, it is forbidden (to sell). Rabbi Meir says: even if the items are fine palm dates, sweet dates or the Nikolaos date, it is still forbidden to sell them to gentiles.
A place in which one is accustomed to selling small cattle to gentiles, one can sell. A place that one is not accustomed to selling, one cannot sell. And in every place it is forbidden to sell large (literal translation: coarse,rough) cattle, calves, and foals, complete, or lame. (Literal translation: broken, fractured) Rabbi Yehuda permits in the case of a lame one. Ben Beterah permits in the case of a horse.
One can not sell to them (to gentiles) bears, lions, or anything that can do harm to the public. One cannot build with them a basilica, a scaffold, a stadium, or a stage. But one can build with them public bathhouses or private ones. When they reach the place where they stand an object of idol worship, it is forbidden to help.
One may not make jewelry for purposes of idol worship. Necklaces, nose rings, or rings. Rabbi Eliezer says, 'It is permissible to do so in return for a salary. One may not sell them (gentiles) produce that is unplucked. However one can sell it once it is harvested. Rabbi Yehuda says, 'One can sell (unplucked produce) with an agreement that it will be harvested.' 'One may not rent them houses in Eretz Yisrael. And it is not needed to say fields. (Fields automatically cannot be rented to gentiles due to the prohibition on selling them houses.) And in Syria, you can rent them houses, but not fields. And outside of the Land one can sell them houses and rent them fields'; the words of Rabbi Meir. Rabbi Yose says, 'In Eretz Yisrael it is permitted to rent them houses but not fields. In Syria it is permited to sell them houses and rent them fields. And outside of the Land, one can sell both one and the other.
Even in the case that they said that gentiles can rent, it is not as a permanent residence they have ruled, in case the gentile might bring inside an idol. As it is said (Devarim 7), 'You shall not bring an abomination into your house.' But one is forbidden in any place, to rent him a private bathhouse, be cause it will be called by his name.