Commentary for Shabbat 52:6

ולרבא דאמר שלשה על שלשה בשאר בגדים איכא בינייהו לרשב"א אית ליה לתנא דבי רבי ישמעאל לית ליה שלשה על שלשה בשאר בגדים

— Scripture saith, a woollen garment, or a linen garment:<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Lev. XIII, 48; these are also specified in v. 47. ');">¹⁵</span> only a woollen or a linen garment, but not anything else. Yet say, when it is excluded it is from [the defilement of] three [fingerbreadths] square, but three [handbreadths] square can become unclean? — Two limitations are written: 'a woollen garment or a linen garment',<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' V. P. 115, n. 13. ');">¹⁶</span> [hence] one is to exclude [them] from [the defilement of] three [fingerbreadths] square, and the other to exclude them from [the defilement of] three [handbreadths] square. Now, according to Raba, who said, They differ in respect of three [handbreadths] by three in other cloths, R. Simeon b. Eleazar accepting [their liability to defilement], whilst the Tanna of the School of R. Ishmael rejects it, — how does he [R. Simeon b. Eleazar] know [the defilement of] three [handbreadths] square of other materials?

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