Commentary for Bava Kamma 165:12

<br><br><big><strong>הדרן עלך מרובה</strong></big><br><br>

does not rest upon Israel if they are less than two thousand plus two tens of thousands.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' I.e., twenty-two thousand, comprising the minimum of the plural tens of thousands which is twenty thousand and the minimum of the thousands which is two thousand, cf. also Yeb. 64a. ');">¹¹</span> Were therefore the Israelites [to be twenty-two thousand] less one, and there was there among them a pregnant woman thus capable of completing the number, but a dog barked at her and she miscarried, the [dog] would in this case cause the <i>Shechinah</i> to depart from Israel. A certain woman<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Cf. Shab. 63a; and supra p. 271. ');">¹²</span> entered a neighbour's house to bake [there bread], and a dog suddenly barked at her, but the owner of the house said to her: Do not be afraid of the dog as its teeth are gone. She, however, said to him: Take thy kindness and throw it on the thorns, for the embryo has already been moved [from its place]. IT IS NOT RIGHT TO PLACE NETS FOR DOVES UNLESS AT A DISTANCE OF THIRTY <i>RIS</i> FROM INHABITED SETTLEMENTS. But do they proceed so far? Did we not learn that a dove-cote must be kept at a distance from the town of fifty cubits?<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' So that the doves should not consume the produce of the town. (B.B. 11, 5.] ');">¹³</span> — Abaye said: They certainly fly much further than that, but they eat their fill within fifty cubits.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' On account of which a dove-cote need not be kept away from the town for more than fifty cubits. ');">¹⁴</span> But do they fly only thirty <i>ris</i> and no more? Was it not taught: 'Where there is an inhabited settlement no net must be spread even for a distance of a hundred <i>mil'</i>? — R. Joseph said: The latter statement refers to a settlement of vineyards;<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Where the doves could thus take rest and fly on to great distances. ');">¹⁵</span> Rabbah said that it refers to a settlement of dove-cotes.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Where the doves could thus take rest and fly on to great distances. ');">¹⁵</span> But why not lay down the prohibition to spread nets on account of the dovecotes themselves?<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Why then base the prohibition upon the proximity of a settlement? ');">¹⁶</span> — If you like I can say that they belong to Cutheans,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Who did not recognise the necessity of being scrupulous to such an extent and should therefore not be treated better than they treated others: cf. supra p. 211, n. 6. [For a full discussion of the regulations laid down in our Mishnah and developed in the Gemara, as well as their application in the practical life of the Jewish communities in Talmudic times, v. Krauss, REJ, LIII, 14-55.] ');">¹⁷</span> or if you like I can say that they are ownerless, or if you again like I can say that they are his own.

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