Commentary for Eruvin 114:16

היה מודד והגיע לגיא או לגדר מבליעו וחוזר למדתו הגיע להר מבליעו וחוזר למדתו

AND A MAN MAY MEASURE ONLY WHILE HOLDING THE END OF THE ROPE ON A LEVEL WITH HIS HEART.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Sc. each of the two surveyors must hold his end of the measuring rope at a level with his heart, in order to ensure correctness and in the process of measuring. Correctness is impossible where one end of the rope is held at one level and the other end at a higher or lower level, since the distance measured would in this case be less than the full length of the rope.');">³⁷</span> IF IN THE COURSE OF MEASURING THE SURVEYOR REACHED A GLEN OR A FALLEN WALL<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' That collapsed in a heap and across which people pass.');">³⁸</span> HE SPANS IT<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' [I.e., he takes into consideration only the horizontal span provided it is not more than fifty cubits]. Sc. one man stands on its near side while another stands on its far side, each of them holding one end of the rope which is thus stretched across the glen or the collapsed wall. By this method of measuring one gains for the Sabbath limit the distances taken up by the slopes.');">³⁹</span> AND RESUMES<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' This refers to a glen, for instance, that was wider then fifty cubits (cf. n. 7) in a part that faced the town and narrower than fifty cubits in another part that was removed from the town sideways. The surveyor, when reaching the edge of the glen, is in such circumstances allowed to make a detour to the narrower section of the glen, to span it there with the rope, and to continue his measuring until the rope is perpendicular to the line drawn from the point furthest from the town on the far side of the glen. He then RESUMES his measuring from that point to the end of the Sabbath limit.');">⁴⁰</span> HIS MEASURING; IF HE REACHED A HILL HE SPANS IT AND RESUMES HIS MEASURING;

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