Commentary for Eruvin 98:14

בא למדוד מן הצפון מודדין לו מן הדרום בא למדוד מן הדרום מודדין לו מן הצפון

TO<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Lit., 'we have none'.');">²²</span> A POOR MAN ONLY.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' V. supra n. 11.');">²³</span> R'JUDAH SAID: IT<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Cf. prev. n.');">²¹</span> APPLIES TO BOTH RICH AND POOR, THE RABBIS ENACTMENT THAT AN ERUB IS TO BE PREPARED WITH BREAD HAVING THE ONLY PURPOSE OF MAKING IT EASIER FOR THE RICH MAN, SO THAT<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' By having the choice of sending his 'erub to the required spot through an agent.');">²⁴</span> HE SHALL NOT BE COMPELLED TO GO OUT HIMSELF AND MAKE THE ERUB WITH HIS FEET. <big><b>GEMARA: </b></big>What exactly is the meaning of 'HIS STATEMENT IS OF NO AVAIL'? - Rab explained: HIS STATEMENT IS OF NO AVAIL whatsoever, so that he may not proceed even to the space under the tree.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' He must not move from his position until the conclusion of the Sabbath, since he has acquired no place for his Sabbath rest from which he could be enabled to walk within the permitted Sabbath limit. His right to the place on which he stood when the Sabbath had set in he expressly renounced by choosing another one, while the area under the tree could not be acquired by him since he had not specified which particular four cubits of that space he chose (cf. infra) .');">²⁵</span> Samuel, however, explained: HIS STATEMENT IS OF NO AVAil as regards proceeding to his house; he may, however, proceed as far as the space under the tree.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' This will be discussed infra.');">²⁶</span> The space under the tree, however, is to be measured<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Lit., 'and is made'. knd rnj');">²⁷</span> [as if one were acting both as an] ass-driver and a camel-driver.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' , cf. note on the Mishnah supra 35a; sc. the man concerned, as is explained anon, is forbidden to move far in either direction.');">²⁸</span> If, for instance, the man desired to measure<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' The two thousand cubits distance from the tree to his house.');">²⁹</span> from the northern side of the tree<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' So that he might be enabled to reach his house which was just within that required distance from that side of the tree.');">³⁰</span> he is told to begin his measuring from its southern side,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Since, in appointing the tree as his Sabbath base, he did not specify which particular four cubits of space under that tree he desired to acquire, any four cubits space within the circumference of the tree and its branches may be assumed to be the appointed spot. In measuring the distances, therefore, a course must be adopted which under all circumstances could not possibly lead to all infringement of any of the restrictions involved. If the diameter of the circumference of the tree and its branches measured, for instance, twenty cubits, and the distance from its northern point to the man's house was exactly two thousand cubits, the measuring must not begin from that point but from the southern point of the diameter which is two thousand and twenty cubits distant from that house. And, since it is forbidden to proceed beyond two thousand cubits, the man's Sabbath limit would terminate at a point twenty cubits away from his house which, in consequence, he would not be able to enter during the Sabbath.');">³¹</span> and if he desired to measure from its southern side<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' So as to be able to walk (cf. prev. n.) a distance of twenty cubits from the position he occupied when the Sabbath began.');">³²</span> he is told to begin his measuring from the northern side.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' In consequence of which he must not move one step in the southern direction from that position.');">³³</span>

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