בבא בתרא דף יב ע"א

A sealed house has four amos; if he broke out its doorposts, it does not have four amos.^[1]

בית סתום - A house that had a doorway to the courtyard, and he sealed it.

יש לו ד' אמות - In the division of the courtyard, if they come to divide it, it is treated as though it were open.

If he broke out its doorposts, it does not have four amos.

(A grave whose doorway is sealed does not make everything around it impure.^[2]

אינו מטמא סביביו - Only opposite the doorway, if a dead person is inside it.

If he broke out its doorposts and sealed it, it makes everything around it impure.)

A sealed house does not make everything around it impure.

If he broke out its doorposts, it makes everything around it impure.

פרץ את פצימיו - It is then like a grave, and the Sages declared the area around a grave impure for four amos, so that those who handle pure foods^[3] should not come close to the grave and pass over it without realizing.

Rabbah bar bar Chanah said in the name of Rabbi Yochanan: Alleys that open through to another town,^[4] and the people of the town wished to close them off - the people of that other town can stop them.

לעיר אחרת - Onto the road to another town.

ובקשו בני העיר - The people of the town in which the alleys are wished to close them off behind them.

בני אותה העיר - The other town can stop them, since they have already established a right to shorten their way through those alleys.

It is not only when there is no other road that they can stop them; even when there is another road, they can stop them too.

This is because of what Rav Yehudah said in the name of Rav: "A boundary path that the public has taken possession of may not be ruined."^[5]

(As Rav Gidel said, for Rav Gidel said: "A path the public chose for themselves - what they chose, they chose.")^[6]

Rav Anan said in the name of Shmuel: Alleys that open through to the public domain, and the residents of the alleys wished to put up doors for them - the people of the public domain can stop them.^[7]

בני רה"ר מעכבין עליהן - Because when the people of the public domain are crowded, they move off into the alleys.

They understood from this: that applies only within four amos, in line with what Rabbi Zeira said in the name of Rav Nachman.

הני מילי - Within the four amos at the head of the alley next to the public domain they can stop them from putting up doors there.

For Rabbi Zeira said in the name of Rav Nachman: "The four amos next to the public domain are like the public domain."

כרה"ר דמו - With regard to a doubt of impurity in the public domain.^[8]

But that is not so. There it is with regard to impurity; but here, sometimes the people of the public domain are crowded and go in a long way.

ולא היא - Even if they want to set the doors further in than four amos, they can stop them.

"Nor a field, unless it has nine kav for this one and nine kav for that one, etc."^[9]

They do not disagree: each master spoke according to his own place.

In Bavel, what is the measure?

Rav Yosef said: Enough for a day's ploughing.

בי רדו יומא - Ploughing land of one day for this one and the same for that one; for "you shall not plough" (Devarim 22) the Targum renders לא תרדי.

ה"ג - This is the reading:^[10] "What is a day's ploughing? If a day of sowing - it is not two days of breaking ground; and if a day of breaking ground - it is not a day of sowing. If you wish, say a day of sowing, in a place where they plough and plough again; and if you wish, say a day of breaking ground, and on hilly ground."

What is "a day's ploughing"?

If a day of sowing - it is not two days of breaking ground!^[11]

אי יומא דזרעא - At sowing time the ground is easy to plough, since it was already ploughed at the time of breaking ground.

תרי יומי כרבא לא הוי - That is: at breaking-ground time, how is he to hire oxen? It is not enough work for two days, and it is more than the work of one day.

If a day of breaking ground - it is not a day of sowing!

ואי ביומא כרבא - If you mean a day at breaking-ground time, it is not a sowing day, and how is he to hire oxen at sowing time?

If you wish, say a day of breaking ground - where one ploughs and ploughs again.^[12]

And if you wish, say a day of sowing - on hilly ground.^[13]

אי בעית אימא יומא דזרעא - And as for your difficulty that it is not two days of breaking ground - in a place where they plough and plough again at breaking-ground time, a sowing day does amount to two days of breaking ground. And if you wish, say a day of breaking ground, and as for your saying it is not a day of sowing - we are dealing with hilly ground, where the land is hard, with ascents and descents, and sowing is as much trouble as breaking ground.

לישנא אחרינא איפכא גרסינן ואי בעית אימא יומא דכרבא - Another version: we read it the other way round. "If you wish, say a day of breaking ground" - and as for your difficulty that it is not a day of sowing: in a place where they plough and plough again at sowing time, once before sowing and once after sowing to cover the seed. "And if you wish, say a day of sowing" - and as for your saying it is not two days of breaking ground: we are dealing with hilly ground, where breaking ground is great trouble, and a sowing day is two days of breaking ground. And this version is fitting.

An irrigated plot^[14] - Rav Nachman said: Enough for a day's drawing of water.

דוולא - If they have a pit from which they water a field.

בי דלו יומא - Until it has enough to water a field for a day's labour for this one and a day's labour for that one, because of a worker's wages.

An orchard - Avuha deShmuel said: Three kav.

פרדיסא - A vineyard.

ג' קבין - For each one, in proportion to two se'ah, like the courtyard of the Mishkan.^[15]

So it was taught in a beraisa as well: "One who says to his fellow, 'I am selling you a portion in my vineyard'^[16] - Sumchus says: It may not be less than three kav. Rabbi Yosi said: These are nothing but words of prophecy."

אין אלו אלא דברי נביאות - Without a reason.

In Bavel, what is the measure?

Rava bar Kisna said: Three rows of twelve vines each, so that a man can hoe them in a day.

אוציתא - Every twelve vines are called an אוציא.

דרפיק - Hoes.

Rabbi Avdimi of Haifa said: From the day the Beis HaMikdash was destroyed, prophecy was taken from the prophets and given to the Sages.

ניטלה נבואה כו' - Because above it said "these are nothing but words of prophecy," calling the words of Sages prophecy, the Gemara brings this statement.

Is a Sage, then, not a prophet?

אטו חכם לאו נביא הוא - Is a Sage not fit to be a prophet? For the master said "it was taken from the prophets and given to the Sages," implying that at first the Sages did not have prophecy.

This is what he means: although it was taken from the prophets, from the Sages it was not taken.

הכי קאמר אע"פ שניטלה מן הנביאים - Those who are not Sages; from the Sages it was not taken, and prophets have a heart of wisdom.

Amemar said: And a Sage is greater than a prophet, as it says (Tehillim 90:12): "And a prophet [has] a heart of wisdom."^[17] Who is dependent on whom? You must say: the lesser depends on the greater.

Abaye said: Know that this is so, for a great man says something, and it is then reported in the name of another great man as he said it.

Rava said: What is the difficulty? Perhaps both were born under the same mazal.^[18]

Rather, Rava said: Know that this is so, for a great man says something, and it is then reported...^[19]

תדע - That it was not taken from the Sages.

פרץ פצימיו מטמא כל סביביו - The Kuntres^[20] explains "all around it" as four amos, like a grave. But Rabbi Shimshon does not accept this: since the walls enclose it, and there is no fear that one will climb on the house and pass over it, there is no reason to say it makes four amos around it impure - as is proven in perek Mashuach Milchamah (Sotah 44a) regarding the courtyard of a grave: one standing inside it is pure; that applies to the courtyard of a grave, whose walls enclose it, but elsewhere it does apply. Therefore he explains: for example, where many projections^[21] jut out from the house on every side, each a handbreadth wide. When he did not break out the doorposts, even though he sealed it, it does not make the area under the other projections impure, since the sealed doorway marks the corpse as destined to leave through the doorway. But if he broke out its doorposts and rebuilt them like the rest of the wall, so that there is no doorway at all, it makes everything around it impure, since under every projection there is a doubt that perhaps it will leave the house beneath that projection. Rashi's explanation can be defended: with a house too the walls do not enclose it, for even though there is no fear that one will climb on the house, there is a fear that he will touch its walls, since a grave imparts impurity by contact even from the side - as proven in the Sifri in parshas Parah Adumah: "Or a grave - this is a sealed grave. Or perhaps only an open one? You may reason a fortiori: a tent, which receives impurity, does not impart impurity on all sides when it is open; a grave, which does not receive impurity, should surely not impart impurity on all sides when it is open." This implies that when it is sealed it imparts impurity even to one who touches it from the side.

מצר שהחזיקו בו רבים אסור לקלקלו - That is, when they took possession with permission. But if they come to take possession without permission, one may protest and, as it says, "take a hoe and stand" guard - as is proven in perek HaMeniach (Bava Kamma 28a).

ולא פליגי מר כי אתריה ומר כי אתריה - Rabbi Yitzchak ben Rabbi Mordechai explains: in Rabbi Yehudah's place the soil was valuable and good, and it was worth troubling over nine half-kav; but in the Tanna Kamma's place the soil was not so good that it would be worth troubling over less than nine kav, even though it was not enough for a day's ploughing it was worth the trouble. Now the Gemara asks: in Bavel, where the soil is not so good, what is the measure, since it does not merit the measure taught in our Mishnah?

ה"ג ר"ח ואי בעית אימא בכרבא וזרעא ובהדורי - This is the reading of Rabbeinu Chananel^[22]: "And if you wish, say: in ploughing and sowing, and on the return." That is: land of one day's ploughing, and it is well a day for sowing, since when he comes to sow it he ploughs, and on his way back he again draws the plough over the ground and sows - that is "on the return."

ואי בעית אימא יומא דזרעא - And as for your saying it is not two days of breaking ground: he ploughs a day and a half, then ploughs again until he completes a day.

דוולא - Rabbeinu Chananel explains: land watered with a bucket, each one getting land that is watered for one day. But the Ri finds this difficult: if so, it should have asked "in Bavel, what is the measure?" as it asks about the others. Therefore Rashi's explanation seems correct.

א"ר יוסי אין אלו אלא דברי נביאות - He did not say it in praise, but meaning that he speaks without a reason, as at the end of perek Elu Mumin (Bechoros 45a, and Tosfos there s.v. Asu) regarding an extra finger with no nail - it imparts impurity by contact and carrying but not in a tent, and it says: "they made their words like words of prophecy" - whichever way you take it: if it is a limb, it should impart impurity in a tent; and if it is not a limb, it should not impart impurity at all. So too one can explain at the end of perek Keitzad Me'abrin (Eruvin 60b, and Tosfos there s.v. Ein).

אטו חכם לאו נביא הוא - And if you ask: in perek Ben Sorer (Sanhedrin 75a) it says "from the time the Beis HaMikdash was destroyed, the pleasure of relations was taken away and given to transgressors" - let it ask there too: before it was destroyed, did transgressors not have that pleasure? It derives this from the verse "stolen waters are sweet" (Mishlei 9:17), as it asks here. One can answer that it could have answered there as it answers here: the pleasure was taken away, but from transgressors it was not taken; and it did not trouble to ask the question in every place. [See also Tosfos Gittin 72a s.v. U'mishum.]

Notes

1. 1. When a shared courtyard is divided, each house that opens onto it first receives four amos in front of its doorway, and the rest is split equally. A sealed doorway still counts, since it can be reopened; once the doorposts (פצימים) are broken out, the owner has shown he has given the doorway up.
2. 2. A corpse inside a closed structure is "destined to leave" through its doorway, so impurity spreads only in front of the doorway. If the doorposts are broken out and the opening walled up, no doorway marks the way out, and everything around it is impure. Rashi and Tosfos explain the extent of this differently.
3. 3. People who keep even ordinary food in ritual purity. The Sages declared four amos around a grave impure so that such people would not unknowingly pass over it.
4. 4. An alley open at both ends, through which people pass on their way to the other town. The people of that town have already established a right of way through it.
5. 5. A boundary strip between fields that the public has made a path. Tosfos limits this to where the public took possession with permission.
6. 6. A path the public chose and used for themselves becomes theirs, and the owner cannot take it back.
7. 7. The public domain (רה"ר). Doors at the alley's mouth would keep out the public, who crowd into the alley when the street is packed.
8. 8. A doubtful case of impurity in the public domain is ruled pure. For this rule, the four amos next to the public domain are treated as public domain.
9. 9. The Mishnah (11a) lists minimum sizes below which jointly owned property is not divided against a partner's will. A field must have nine kav of sowing area for each partner; Rabbi Yehudah says nine half-kav.
10. 10. Rashi records his own reading, in which the two answers are reversed: a sowing day "in a place where they plough and plough again," and a breaking-ground day "on hilly ground." Our printed text is the "other version" at the end of his comments, which he calls fitting.
11. 11. כרבא is the first ploughing of fallow, hard ground; זרעא is the lighter ploughing at sowing time. A plot that takes a day at sowing time takes more than one but less than two days to break, so oxen cannot be hired for whole days.
12. 12. Ploughs and then ploughs again. In Rashi's other version: at sowing time they plough once before sowing and again afterwards to cover the seed.
13. 13. Ground with ascents and descents, where the work is heavy (Rashi).
14. 14. דוולא: a plot watered by bucket from a pit. Its minimum is enough water-drawing for a day's work for each partner (Rashi). Tosfos records Rabbeinu Chananel's different explanation.
15. 15. The courtyard of the Mishkan, 100 by 50 amos, is the standard area for sowing two se'ah (בית סאתים); a kav is a sixth of a se'ah.
16. 16. He sold "a portion" without stating its size. Sumchus sets the minimum at three kav, the same as the orchard measure, which supports Avuha deShmuel.
17. 17. Tehillim 90:12, plainly "that we may attain a heart of wisdom." Amemar reads ונבא as "and a prophet": the prophet is attached to a heart of wisdom, the lesser to the greater.
18. 18. Born under the same constellation, so they naturally think alike; that is no proof of prophecy.
19. 19. The sentence continues on 12b.
20. 20. The Kuntres: Tosfos' name for Rashi's commentary.
21. 21. Projections jutting out of a wall. A projection a handbreadth wide forms a "tent" and carries corpse impurity beneath it.
22. 22. Rabbeinu Chananel of Kairouan, whose explanations and readings Tosfos often cite.