Se alguém se inclina do "negro da cabeça", é proibido aos carecas e cinzas, [não tendo falado dos que têm cabelos], e é permitido às mulheres e crianças, pois apenas os homens são chamados "negros" de cabeça." [Pois os homens às vezes escondem suas cabeças e às vezes os revelam e os "escurecem", pelo que se vê que eles são homens. Mas as mulheres sempre vão com a cabeça coberta e as crianças (jovens), homens e mulheres, vão com a cabeça descoberta e não podem ser (prontamente) distinguidas como homem ou mulher. Por esse motivo, apenas homens adultos são chamados de "negros da cabeça".]
Bartenura on Mishnah Nedarim
אמר בקרחים ובבעלי השיבות – since he didn’t say, “with those who have hair.”
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English Explanation of Mishnah Nedarim
Introduction
This mishnah teaches that one who vows not to benefit from “the black-haired” is forbidden to benefit from all men, but not from women and children.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Nedarim
שאין נקראים שחורי הראש אלא אנשים – because the men sometimes cover heir heads and sometimes reveal and blacken their heads that is recognized that they are men, but women always walk and their heads are covered. But the small children, whether boys or girls walk with their heads revealed and they are not recognized as to whether they are boys or girls, and because of this, they are not called, “black-haired,” but rather, the adult men.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Nedarim
He who vows [not to benefit] from the black-haired may not [benefit] from the bald or the gray-haired, but may [benefit] from women and children, because only men are called black-haired. The word “black-haired” is interpreted to be a reference to men, whether or not they have black hair, gray hair or no hair at all. Women are not called “black-haired” because they typically covered their hair. They were called “head-coverers”. Children were called “head revealers” because they went without a head covering. However, men were called “black-haired” because sometimes they covered their heads and sometimes they did not. Furthermore, nearly all men had black hair. Indeed, the only other hair color referred to in the mishnah is gray. No blondes or brunettes in Palestine in the Mishnaic period.
