This first perek (chapter) will deal with a law called an oath of declaration. As we'll learn in this Mishnah, there are four different types of swears. If a person made this type of swear, he becomes obligated to keep his word. If he violates it, he has to bring a korban (offering) called a korban oleh veyored, which means that the type of korban that he brings depends on how much he could afford. A poor person would bring a cheaper korban, while a rich person would bring a more expensive korban. We'll talk about how it applies to a person talking about something in the future and also to something in the past.
The Mishnah says there are two types of swears that are really four. We're talking about a Shevuat Bitui, an oath of declaration. Two are mentioned in the Torah, and two more are not mentioned, but we can learn them from the Pesukim (verses). For the two that are mentioned in the Torah, the pasuk (verse) says, "When a person swears by declaring with his lips"; here, it really means to do harm or to do good. But the Chachamim (sages) learned from here that it's not harm or good in the right-or-wrong moral sense; harm or good means negative or positive. If a person has a negative oath, he's saying, "I will not eat something," for example. A positive oath is, "I will eat something." That's called a good oath, or a good swear. A person is obligating himself to do a certain action in the future.
The other two, which are not meforash (explicitly stated) in the Pesukim, are about the avar, about the past. "I swear I did not do something," or, "I swear I did do something." Those types of swears are not mentioned in the Pesukim, but we learn them from there. These are called Shevuat Bitui, a swear of declaration. We mentioned here two types of swears that are actually four. The Mishnah is then going to mention three other types of laws that are phrased in the same way: two categories that actually become four.
First, we'll talk about the prohibition against a person who is tameh (ritually impure) walking into the Beit HaMikdash (Temple) or eating food that has holiness to it and comes from a korban. A tameh person who does something like that by mistake, unintentionally, would bring a korban chatat (sin offering) to serve as a kapara for his sin, to atone for his sin. We call this yediot ha-tum'ah, awareness of tum'ah. So the Mishnah tells us, yediot ha-tum'ah shetayim shehen arba. There are two types of awareness of tum'ah that really become four. Two are mentioned in the Torah, and two more ways are not mentioned in the Torah. The first mentioned in the Torah is that the person forgot he was tameh and then ate from a korban. The second is that he entered the Beit HaMikdash. Those are the two that are mentioned in the Torah. The two that are not mentioned in the Torah are when the person remembered he was tameh but forgot that the food he was eating was from a korban, or forgot that he was entering the Beit HaMikdash. He forgot that the space, that area he was walking into, was the Beit HaMikdash.
We'll also mention now, yediot ha-Shabbat shetayim shehen arba. There are two types of transferring an object on Shabbat that are really four. You're not allowed to carry on Shabbat. There's a prohibition mentioned in the Torah. The two types of carrying, of transferring an object, that are mentioned in the Torah are the following. First, if somebody is standing in the public area, the street, and reaches into a house, for example, a private area, takes something from inside that house, and brings it out to the public area. Second, if somebody is standing in the private area and takes an object from his spot and puts it into the public area. Those are the two that are mentioned in the Torah. The two that are not mentioned straight up in the Torah but are still from the Torah involve bringing something in from the public area to the private area. That would be somebody who was standing in a private area: if he reached into the public area, took an object from there, and brought it into the private area. Likewise, if somebody was standing in the public area and took an object from there and placed it in the private area. These two are not mentioned in the Torah.
Now, there are two types of tzara'at (ritual skin affliction) that are really four: two shades of white that are considered to be tzara'at in the Torah, and two more that we learn indirectly from the Pesukim. The two mentioned in the Torah are, first, white as a very clean piece of wool, and, second, white as snow—two different shades of white. Those are in the Torah. The two that are not mentioned in the Torah but that we learn from there are white as an eggshell and also white as plaster.