Aligned sentence by sentence
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Mishnah [1]
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The meaning of "with gravity" is solemnity and reverent attentiveness, in accordance with the verse "Serve the Lord with awe" (Ps 2:11). And the explanation of *shohin* — "they would wait" — means that they would wait an hour before prayer, during which they would break off conversation and stray thoughts, and only then would they take up prayer.
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This which he mentioned, that the one praying, while standing in prayer, does not return a greeting even if a king greets him — this is the case if the king is one of the kings of Israel; but as for the kings of the nations of the world, he interrupts his prayer for him, because of danger to life.
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And the explanation of *karukh* is "coiled." This applies only to a snake by itself, since most of the time it does not strike. But as for something whose nature is to strike continually, such as the scorpion and the viper, he interrupts when he sees one of them moving toward him, because of danger to life. And the explanation of *yafsik* is "he interrupts."
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Mishnah [2]
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"Resurrection of the dead" — this is "You are mighty." And "the might of the rains" is your saying "He causes the rain to descend"; he expressed it with the word "might" (*gevurah*) on account of its great benefit. And "the blessing of the years" is "Bless us, O Lord our God," and so forth.
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And the "request" is the petition for rain, namely your saying within "the blessing of the years," "Bless upon us," and so forth. And the "thanksgiving" is the eighteenth blessing, namely "We give thanks to You," and so forth. And the law is neither according to Rabbi Akiva nor according to Rabbi Eliezer.
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Mishnah [3]
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The meaning of his saying "Your mercies extend to a bird's nest" is that he says: just as You had compassion upon the mother bird and said "Do not take the mother together with the young" (Deut 22:6), so have compassion upon us. The one who says this utterance is silenced, because he is treating this commandment as motivated by God's compassion upon birds — and it is not so. For if it were a matter of compassion, He would not have permitted the slaughter of animals at all. Rather, it is a received commandment that is not to be assigned a rationale.
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Likewise, when one says "Upon the good Your name is remembered," it follows from this that "upon the evil it is not remembered" — and this is contrary to the Law, for God is to be blessed upon the good and upon the evil. And the explanation of *sarvan* is "obstinate" — that is, he should not refuse with excessive refusal. And "the one who passes before the ark" is the prayer-leader (*sheliach tzibbur*).
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Mishnah [4]
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The procedure for the priestly blessing is that they stand at the Sanctuary in the synagogues, turning their faces toward the people and their backs to the Sanctuary, while the prayer-leader faces the priests, face to face, and prompts them with the three blessings word by word, thus: the priests say "May He bless you," addressing the congregation;
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then the prayer-leader says to them "the Lord," and the priests respond "the Lord"; then the prayer-leader says "and keep you," and the priests respond "and keep you"; then all the people respond after that "Amen." So it is with all three blessings, according to this procedure.
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When the people respond "Amen," the prayer-leader does not respond "Amen," out of our fear that confusion might cause him to forget which blessing it is that has just been completed; rather, he keeps silent and keeps his thought fixed upon the blessing he is prompting them. And the explanation of *teruf* is forgetting, in the manner we have described. And the explanation of *hivtacho* is "his custom."
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Mishnah [5]
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*Metoraf* here means "damaged," and it is from the idiom of the *teruf* mentioned earlier, for forgetting is precisely the loss of a thing from the retentive faculty.