Aligned sentence by sentence
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The Rabbanites and the community permit circumcision on the Sabbath, while Anan goes against this and prohibits circumcision on the Sabbath. And a group of our companions agrees with him on this, while others disagree. And after Anan prohibited circumcision on the Sabbath, he said things that contradict his own views, such as he obligated circumcision if the eight day is the Sabbath to circumcise the child at the time of sunset on Saturday “between the evenings.” And he believes that this time the Sabbath has not ended, and thus he removes the obligation in its time, since he does not believe in doing it on the Sabbath, yet does it anyways on the Sabbath! And a group of our companions, when they obligate this, confuse and say “we circumcise ‘between the evenings’ not because circumcision is forbidden on the Sabbath, but rather because the treatment of the circumcised child is forbidden on the Sabbath. Thus, we circumcise ‘between the evenings’ so that the treatment will occur after the completion of the Sabbath.” And I do not have the energy to show the absurdity and failure of this teaching, since it is clear to everyone and there is no purpose to engage with it.
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And he who permits and obligates circumcision on the Sabbath relies on the verse from Scripture (Leviticus 12:3) “And on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.” For according to their view, every commandment that is designated for a specific day cannot be moved from that day even if it occurs on the Sabbath or another day. And those who prohibit circumcision on the Sabbath rely on Scripture when it forbids “skilled labor” and “actions” on the Sabbath whose obligation applies to everything except what the text explicitly excludes such as the verse (Numbers 28:10) “This is the burnt-offering of every sabbath, beside the continual burnt-offering, and the drink-offering thereof” and similarly the holiday sacrifices and what is similar to that.
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And my view is that the teaching on circumcision on the Sabbath is very doubtful and both sides have some merit, and I will explain some of it which demonstrates the correctness of what I said. And this is that there is to say to one who obligates circumcision on the Sabbath “from where do you say that?” And their answer is “because it is connected specifically to the eighth day.” Say to them, “and similarly the Sabbath is specifically the seventh day, and thus why do you obligate fulfilling the commandment of circumcision since it is specified on the eighth day and do not obligate the commandment forbidding ‘actions’ on the Sabbath which is specified for the seventh day?” And they split into two answers with regards to this obligation. For one of them argues “I believe Scripture’s teaching on the seventh day (Exodus 20:9) ‘but the seventh day is a sabbath unto the LORD thy God, in it thou shalt not do any manner of work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates’ permits ‘actions’ such as the verse (Exodus 16:25) ‘And Moses said: 'Eat that today; for today is a sabbath unto the LORD; to-day ye shall not find it in the field.’ and the verse (Numbers 28:10) ‘This is the burnt-offering of every sabbath, beside the continual burnt-offering, and the drink-offering thereof.’ And I do not believe at all that what is obligated to be done on a specific day like the seventh or eighth or another day can be pushed off its day to the next day, and given that this is the case it is not permitted to me to move circumcision to the day after the eighth day, since I do not believe that what is obligated on a specific day can be pushed to the next day. And thus I circumcised on the Sabbath because it is permitted to me, and even more so it is obligated upon me to perform this action on the Sabbath.” And among the other group are some who answer with the argument “we are obligated in circumcision on the Sabbath since it is said (Leviticus 12:3) ‘And in the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised’ and circumcision is not forbidden on the Sabbath, even if it is said (Exodus 20:9) ‘but the seventh day is a sabbath unto the LORD thy God, in it thou shalt not do any manner of work…’ since the commandment of circumcision preceded the commandment of the Sabbath.” They say “and since the commandment of circumcision on the eighth day precedes, and after that it is said ‘do not work on the Sabbath,'’ circumcision is not included in ‘the forbidden work’ since the commandment to circumcise on the eighth day precedes, and this is a general teaching and not specific and circumcision is outside of the prohibition.”
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Regarding the first group, they are challenged by the shaving the head of a nazir or leper and washing clothes, since it says (Numbers 31:24) “And ye shall wash your clothes on the seventh day, and ye shall be clean, and afterward ye may come into the camp” and similarly the offering of the zav and zavah and the parturient and the offerings which are eaten on a specific known day. And one of them accepts this and permits all the above mentioned, and one of them looks down upon this and does not permit it and makes a distinction based on consensus, [which nothing comes from.] And regarding the verse (Numbers 31:24) “And ye shall wash your clothes on the seventh day, and ye shall be clean, and afterward ye may come into the camp,” they say that this is said a specific group, meaning the people of the war with Midian, and it was said to them since the seventh day was not the Sabbath. However, one for whom the seventh day is the Sabbath is not obligated by it and it is not permitted to wash clothes on the seventh day, since Scripture did not obligate this. And it must be that he who holds this view did not learn anything all all about the “people of the Midian war,” since He resumes afterwards with all that obligated them and this is like (Numbers 31:23) “every thing that may abide the fire, ye shall make to go through the fire, and it shall be clean; nevertheless it shall be purified with the water of sprinkling; and all that abideth not the fire ye shall make to go through the water” and the rest of the story. And this astonishes reality, since this story is foundational in which we learn from it many of the obligations pertaining to corpse impurity.
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Moreover, challenge them regarding their permitting what we just mentioned from shaving the head and otherwise. And they are obligated with what we first highlighted, which is that if what is designated on a fixed day it is not permitted to leave or move it, thus is not the prohibition of “actions” on the Sabbath obligatory? And they must agree. Say “thus, why do you argue that shaving the head of the nazir is permitted on the Sabbath even while it is a ‘melakha,’ since you see that some actions are permitted on the Sabbath, and does this not contradict what you argued? Since if you argued if that which is fixed for a specific day is not permitted to be moved or delayed from its day, and furthermore argued that the prohibition of ‘actions’ determined on the seventh day has some exceptions, thus your view is contradictory.” And if they return to the foundation of what we quoted in their name, which is their statement “we saw that it is permitted for us on the Sabbath ‘actions,’” we say that “this is a contradiction that cannot be disavowed, since if you said that what is contingent on a specific day it is not permitted to be moved to another day and subsequently you said that the prohibition of ‘action’ on the seventh day of creation, but permits some actions on this day, thus you contradicted your view.” And it is possible for their opponent to say “if it says ‘on the seventh day do not do work’ and then permits some specific actions, thus the verse (Exodus 20:9) ‘but the seventh day is a sabbath unto the LORD thy God, in it thou shalt not do any manner of work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates’ is specific, and does not contradict therefore the verse (Leviticus 12:3) ‘And in the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised’ which is also specific for a certain reason. And similarly each of what you said including shaving and what else and there is no difference.”
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And when some of them are forced to permit shaving the head of a leper on the Sabbath when it is falls on the eighth day say “this is impossible to occur on the eighth day, because in order for this to be the eighth day the priest must rule over it and purify him and ‘ruling’ is not permitted on the Sabbath.” And if the ruling cannot occur on the Sabbath, the Sabbath cannot be the eighth day. And this forces him even more stringently from what they run away from, which is the verse of Scripture (Leviticus 14:2) “This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing: he shall be brought unto the priest” and it is obligated to bring him to the Priest on the day of his purification from leprosy and its removal. And if it is forbidden to bring him on that day to the Priest, even while Scripture connects it with that day, thus everything that they connect with the notion of a specific day is contradictory and our view is confirmed.
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Moreover, say to those who argue that circumcision is obligated on the Sabbath since its commandment precedes the commandment of the Sabbath, “if circumcision was permitted since it precedes the Sabbath, say that what does not precede the Sabbath but is commanded on a specific day cannot be done on the Sabbath.” And this goes against what Scripture commands in terms of offering holiday offerings on the Sabbath since it says (Numbers 28:24) “After this manner ye shall offer daily, for seven days, the food of the offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD; it shall be offered beside the continual burnt-offering, and the drink-offering thereof” including the Sabbath necessarily, and similarly the offerings of Sukkot. And if it was obligated to offer on the Sabbath that which did not precede the Sabbath, what do you deny by prohibiting what precedes the Sabbath, while what we said obligates also the additional Sabbath offering which is offered on the Sabbath and which does not precede it. And one of them says regarding this “to what he believes that the Sabbath and holiday offerings precede the Sabbath, even if the Torah does not explicitly mention offerings, since we see evidence of offerings from the time of Noah, peace upon him.” Say to him “and what you deny additionally that the Sabbath precedes circumcision, since we first see it taught at the beginning of creation (Genesis 2:3) ‘And God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it; because that in it He rested from all His work which God in creating had made’ as it says (Exodus 20:7) ‘Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy’ and there is no difference,” just as his view that the Sabbath offering precedes the Sabbath is impossible, since if there is no Sabbath how can there be a Sabbath offering?
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And everything we said agrees with what we said that the two views are equal. And if both schools are equal, the most correct according to me is to follow the practice of the masses of the nation. And we already said in our introduction regarding the clash between commandments that the more stringent one overrides what is less stringent than it, and that this is learned from rational necessity or from the punishments. And we do not find in these two commandments something that proves one is more stringent than the other, neither from the view of rational necessity nor from the punishments since both require the death-penalty for transgressors, and both are symbolic of the covenant, and both are contingent on a specific day. And thus neither adversary has anything to rely upon, but the other is like him (Joshua 10:12) “...till He come and cause righteousness to rain upon you.”
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And regarding what we said regarding shaving the head of a leper and nazir and the offering of the zav and zavah and the parturient and washing clothes and what is similar, all of these are known by rational necessity that the Sabbath is more stringent than them and that the Sabbath displaces all of them. Similarly is the case if a High Priest raped a virgin woman and damages her, he is not obligated to marry her since the obligation (Leviticus 21:7) “They shall not take a woman that is a harlot, or profaned; neither shall they take a woman put away from her husband; for he is holy unto his God” is known by necessity to be more stringent than the commandment (Deuteronomy 22:29) “then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel's father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he hath humbled her; he may not put her away all his days.” And similarly, the fast of Kippur is known by necessity to be more stringent than the obligation for a priest to eat the sin offering, and similarly if a person is found to be impure from the impurity of a sherets, at the time he wants to eat the Passover offering, the prohibition of eating sanctified offerings in a state of impurity displaces the obligation to eat the Passover. And this is additionally something known by rational necessity, and it is said regarding Priests (Leviticus 21:5) “They shall not make baldness upon their head, neither shall they shave off the corners of their beard, nor make any cuttings in their flesh” and if a Priest showed signs of leprosy, it would be that the commandment of (Leviticus 14:9) “And it shall be on the seventh day, that he shall shave all his hair off his head and his beard and his eyebrows, even all his hair he shall shave off; and he shall wash his clothes, and he shall bathe his flesh in water, and he shall be clean” supersedes the commandment of (Leviticus 21:5) “...neither shall they shave” and this too is known by rational necessity.
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We move on now to a different topic, the kind of which we discussed that is disputed, which is whether or not Sabbath desecration is permitted to save lives or not, and within this we include our discussion of many other commandments.