EXPLANATORY REMARKS.

       Table of Contents

      In our translation we adopted these principles:

      1. Tenan of the original--We have learned in a Mishna; Tania--We have learned in a Boraitha; Itemar--It was taught.

      2. Questions are indicated by the interrogation point, and are immediately followed by the answers, without being so marked.

      3. When in the original there occur two statements separated by the phrase, Lisna achrena or Waïbayith Aema or Ikha d'amri (literally, "otherwise interpreted"), we translate only the second.

      4. As the pages of the original are indicated in our new Hebrew edition, it is not deemed necessary to mark them in the English edition, this being only a translation from the latter.

      5. Words or passages enclosed in round parentheses ( ) denote the explanation rendered by Rashi to the foregoing sentence or word. Square parentheses [ ] contain commentaries by authorities of the