Responsa for Bava Metzia 216:15

הני ד' בני מצרני דקדים חד מינייהו וזבין זביניה זביני ואי כולהו אתו בהדי הדדי פלגו לה בקרנזיל:

If the land belongs to one and the buildings [upon it] to another, the former can restrain the latter,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' From selling them to a stranger, if he wishes to buy himself. ');">¹⁴</span> but the latter cannot restrain the former.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' The landowner is regarded as permanent on the land, hence he can restrain the house-owner; not so the latter, who is held to have no permanent stake in the land. ');">¹⁵</span> If the land belongs to one and the palm-trees [upon it] to another, the former can restrain the latter, but the latter cannot restrain the former. [If a stranger wishes to purchase] the land for building houses, and [the abutting neighbour wants] the land for sowing, habitation is more important; and there is no law of pre-emption. If a rocky ridge or a plantation of young palm trees lay between [the fields], we consider: If he [the abutting neighbour] can enter therein even with a single furrow,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' I.e., the separation is not continuous. ');">¹⁶</span> it is subject to the law of pre-emption, but not otherwise.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Because the main reason of the right of pre-emption is that it is cheaper to cultivate two adjoining fields than two separate ones, as a long continuous furrow can be ploughed and sown in a single operation. ');">¹⁷</span> If one of four neighbours [on the four sides of a field] forestalled the others, the sale is valid; but if they all come together, it [the field] is divided diagonally.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' v. figure. ');">¹⁸</span>

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