Eliezer said: 'If he went two ells,'" etc. Did we not learn in a Boraitha, that R. Eliezer said: If he went one ell beyond the limit he may go back; but if he went two ells, he must not? This presents no difficulty; our Mishna refers to a case where he had overstepped one ell and remained exactly two ells beyond, while the Boraitha refers to one who had overstepped two ells and was already in the third. Did we not learn in another Boraitha, that R. Eliezer said: "Even if he had stepped out one ell, he must not reënter?" This Boraitha refers to the one who measured the legal distance (as is stated in the last Mishna of the next chapter, which will be explained then and there).
MISHNA: One who was overtaken by dusk one ell outside, of the legal limit must not reënter the town; R. Simeon, however, said: Even if one was fifteen ells beyond the limit, he may go back, as the land-surveyors who establish the limits, are not very exact in their measurements and allowance is made for those who might err.
GEMARA: We have learned in a Boraitha: "It sometimes happens that the land-surveyors forget their mark and go beyond the distance."
Footnotes
1 The following paragraphs in the original Gemara are devoted to arguments of R. Papa and R. Ashi concerning the adduction of the differences quoted by the two Rabbis in the preceding paragraphs and quote the Boraithoth further on. Hence we have omitted them, and the reader will understand this from what follows. This rule is made by us for the benefit of the Hebrew scholar and will apply to all such omissions later.
1 Wherever a question remains undecided in the Talmud, the letters Taph, Iod, Quph, Vav, are inserted, and some scholars maintain, that this means "Theiqu," i.e., "So shall it remain." Others, however, maintain that the letters stand for: "Tishbi = Elijah the prophet, Ietharetz = will answer, Qushiuth = contradictions, Veabaioth = and questions.
2 This statement of R. Mesharshia applies to the whole Talmud from the fact that, although the authorities quoted above are among the greatest of the Mishna and the Gemara, the interpretation of all Halakoth should be based upon common sense, and in connection with this we would wish to call the attention of the reader to the assertion made in our article, "What is the Talmud?" contained in our "The Pentateuch, Its Languages, Character, etc.," and in our article entitled "Two Questions concerning the Talmud and Schulchau Aruch," published in the American Israelite, 1894, that "no one has any right to establish a code based upon Halakhoth of the Talmud."
1 Rashi explains this to mean 4 ells and 8/5 or 1 3/5 of an ell additionally. It is difficult to understand just how this is meant or how the diagonal can be derived without the square.
CHAPTER V.
REGULATIONS CONCERNING THE BOUNDARIES OF A TOWN AND THE MEASUREMENTS OF THE LEGAL LIMITS.
MISHNA: How can the boundaries of a town be extended? If one house recede from the city wall and another project, or if a ruin recede or project, or if fragments of a wall ten spans high lie beyond the walls, or if there be any bridges or cemeteries, with dwelling-houses thereon, the measurement of a town is commenced on a level with them; and the whole is formed into a (quasi) square, in order to gain the angles.
GEMARA: R. Johanan said: For eighteen days I lived with Oshiya the Great and did not learn but one thing concerning this Mishna, namely: The Mishna should not read "How can the boundaries of a town be extended, but how can they be districted." 1 This is not so! Did not R. Johanan once assert, that during his stay with Oshiya the Great for eighteen days he learned to know the heart and wisdom of each one of Oshiya's twelve disciples? He says only that he learned but one thing concerning this Mishna, but aside from that, he learned many other things.
R. Johanan said again: "When we were studying the Law at Oshiya's we sate four men to one ell." Rabbi said: "When we studied at R. Elazar ben Shamua's college we sate six men to one ell."
R. Johanan said once more: As R. Meir was in his generation so was R. Oshiya the Great in his day. As with R. Meir, the colleagues of his day, could never arrive at his final decisions, so was it also with Oshiya. His colleagues could also never fathom his ultimate conclusions.
R. Johanan said again: The hearts of the first sages were as broad as the porch of the Temple and those of the later sages were as broad as the gates of the Temple, but our hearts are as narrow as the eye of a sewing-needle. Whom does he refer to as the first sages? R. Aqiba. Whom as the later sages? R. Elazar bar Shamua, and according to another version he refers to R. Elazar ben Shamua and Oshiya the Great respectively.
Said Abayi: We are as a nail driven in a hard wall as far as explanations are concerned (i.e., we understand but little of what we hear, and that with difficulty). Said Rabha: We are also like a finger pushed into a cake of wax (meaning we are so dull of comprehension where comparisons are concerned, that but as little remains with us as with the finger that has been pulled out from the wax). Said R. Ashi: "And we may say, that it is as easy for us to forget what we have learned as it is to put our finger in the hole of a well."
R. Jehudah said in the name of Rabh: The children of Judæa who paid strict attention to the words of their masters and propounded many questions retained all they learned. The Galileans, however, who did not pay strict attention to the language of their masters, and did not question them, did not retain anything. The Judæans learned from one master, hence they remembered what they learned; but the Galileans had many teachers and in consequence they did not retain anything.
Rabhina said: The Judæans taught every tract they had themselves mastered to others; hence they retained their knowledge; because teaching others improves one's own learning; the Galileans, however, did not do this and in consequence their knowledge forsook them. Of David who taught others it is said [Psalms cxix. 74]: "Those that fear thee will see me and be rejoiced," but of Saul, who did not teach others, it is said [I Samuel xiv. 471: "And whithersoever he turned himself, he caused terror."
Said R. Johanan: "Whence do I know, that the Lord forgave Saul for the sin of massacring the priests of the city of Nev?" Because Samuel's spirit said unto him: "On the morrow, thou and thy children shall be with me." What is meant by "with me"? (That means in the same place as Samuel and as Samuel was a righteous man and certainly in Paradise, so Saul must have been forgiven in order to share Samuel's abode.)
R. Jehoshua ben Hananiah said: "I was never disconcerted in my life except by a woman, a boy, and a little girl. The instance of the woman occurred in this wise: I at one time resided at the house of a widow. At table she set before me a plate of beans and I ate it up leaving nothing. On the second day she gave me the same dish which I also consumed entirely. on the third day she made the dish too salt and after tasting it I naturally stopped and left it alone. Said she to me: 'Rabbi, why dost thou not eat?' and I answered, that I had already eaten during the day; she then rejoined: 'Thou shouldst have eaten less bread,' and continued: 'Perhaps because thou didst not leave any Peah 1 on the first two days, thou dost leave it now to serve for all three; for have not our sages decreed, that no Peah need be left in the cooking pot, but some should be left in the plate on which the dish is served?'"
The instance of the little girl happened as follows: Once I was travelling on a road and seeing a beaten path leading across a meadow I took that path. Said a little girl to me: "Rabbi! is this not a
