We now come to Chapter 3, Mishnah 2 of Maseches Orlah, which continues the discussion of using orlah to dye garments.
The text of the Mishnah:
"She'tzava melo hasit b'klipei orlah, va'arago babeged, v'ein yodea eizehu" - a person who dyed a thread the length of a "melo hasit" with the shells of orlah, and then wove that thread into a garment, and it is not known which thread it is, since it is mixed in among all the other threads.
What is the measure of a "melo hasit"? It is the distance between the index finger and the middle finger when they are spread apart from one another.
The dispute between Rabbi Meir and the Chachamim:
"Rabbi Meir omer: yidalek habeged" - the entire garment must be burned, and we do not say that the thread is nullified. In Rabbi Meir's view, a thread of this length is considered a significant item, and therefore it is not nullified.
"VaChachamim omrim: ya'aleh b'echad umasayim" - the thread is nullified in a mixture of one part in two hundred and one, like all other orlah, which is nullified in one part in two hundred and one. In the view of the Chachamim, the thread is not considered a significant item of importance.
In summary: in this Mishnah we learned the law of a thread the length of a melo hasit that was dyed with the shells of orlah and woven into a garment with no way to identify it: according to Rabbi Meir the thread is significant and is not nullified, and therefore the garment must be burned; according to the Chachamim it is not significant, and it is nullified in one part in two hundred and one.