Bava Batra 196

תאנא ומיישן והולך עד החג:

A Tanna taught: [If wine was sold as 'very old'], it must be capable of standing until the Feast of Tabernacles.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' From the Tabernacles (the vintage season) of the second year prior to the sale, until the Tabernacles of the year of the sale, making a total period of three complete years. If it did not keep, the seller must bear the loss. ');">¹</span>

<big><strong>מתני׳</strong></big> המוכר מקום לחבירו וכן המקבל מקום מחבירו לעשות לו בית חתנות לבנו ובית אלמנות לבתו בונה ארבע אמות על שש דברי ר' עקיבא רבי ישמעאל אומר רפת בקר היא זו

<b><i>MISHNAH</i></b>. IF ONE SELLS A PLACE TO ANOTHER OR ACCEPTS ONE FROM ANOTHER FOR THE PURPOSE OF BUILDING ON IT A WEDDING HOUSE FOR HIS SON,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' In which to live after the wedding. ');">²</span>

הרוצה לעשות רפת בקר בונה ד' אמות על שש

OR A WIDOW HOUSE FOR HIS DAUGHTER,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Whose husband dies, and who returns to her father's house. ');">³</span>

בית קטן שש על ח' גדול ח' על עשר טרקלין י' על י' רומו כחצי ארכו וכחצי רחבו ראיה לדבר רבן שמעון בן גמליאל אומר כבנין ההיכל:

IT IS TO BE BUILT [IN THE DIMENSIONS OF NO LESS THAN] FOUR CUBITS BY SIX;<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' These are to be the dimensions (if none were specified) which one party can enforce upon the other. ');">⁴</span>

<big><strong>גמ׳</strong></big> למה לי למיתנא בית חתנות לבנו ובית אלמנות לבתו ליתני בית חתנות לבנו ולבתו ובית אלמנות לבנו ולבתו מלתא אגב אורחיה קמ"ל דלא דרכא דחתנא למידר בי חמוה

THESE ARE THE WORDS OF R. AKIBA. R. ISHMAEL SAID: THIS IS AN OX STALL!<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Not a human dwelling which requires longer dimensions. ');">⁵</span>

כדכתיב בספר בן סירא הכל שקלתי בכף מאזנים ולא מצאתי קל מסובין וקל מסובין חתן הדר בבית חמיו וקל מחתן אורח מכניס אורח וקל מאורח משיב דבר בטרם ישמע שנאמר (משלי יח, יג) משיב דבר בטרם ישמע אולת היא לו וכלמה:

HE WHO DESIRES TO ERECT AN OX STALL,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' The Gemara explains, infra, who is the author of this statement. ');">⁶</span>

ר' ישמעאל אומר רפת בקר היא זו הרוצה לעשות כו': רפת בקר מאן קתני לה איכא דאמר ר' ישמעאל קתני לה ואיכא דאמר ר"ע קתני לה

IS TO BUILD [IT IN THE DIMENSIONS OF NO LESS THAN] FOUR CUBITS BY SIX; A SMALL HOUSE, SIX BY EIGHT; A BIG [ONE]. EIGHT BY TEN; A HALL, TEN BY TEN. THE HEIGHT [OF ANY OF THESE, MUST BE] HALF ITS LENGTH AND HALF ITS WIDTH.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' If, e.g., the dimensions are four cubits by six, the height must be, (4 + 6) / 2, five cubits; if ten by ten: the height must be, (10 + 10) / 2, ten cubits. ');">⁷</span>

איכא דאמר ר"ע קתני לה וה"ק אע"פ שרפת בקר היא פעמים שאדם עושה דירתו כרפת בקר ואיכא דאמר ר' ישמעאל קתני לה וה"ק שהרוצה לעשות רפת בקר עושה ארבע אמות על שש:

PROOF OF THIS? — RABBAN SIMEON B. GAMALIEL SAID: LIKE THE TEMPLE STRUCTURE.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Which was forty cubits long, twenty cubits wide and thirty cubits high, i.e., its height equalled half its length and breadth. ');">⁸</span>

טרקלין י' על י': מאי טרקלין קובתא בי וורדי

<b><i>GEMARA.</i></b> Why has it been stated, A WEDDING HOUSE FOR HIS SON OR A WIDOW HOUSE FOR HIS DAUGHTER, and not 'a wedding house for his son or daughter, or a widow house for his son or daughter'? — [By this the Mishnah] has taught us incidentally that it is not the [proper] way for a son-in-law to live at the house of his father-in-law; as it is written in Bensira, 'I have weighed all things in the scale of the balance and found nothing lighter than bran; lighter than bran is a son-in-law who lives in the house of his father-in-law; lighter than [such] a son-in-law is a guest [who] brings in [with him another] guest; and lighter than such a guest [is he who] replies before he hears [the question],<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' [Cf. Sirach, Ecclus. XI, 8.] ');">⁹</span>

תאני וקנתיר שתים עשרה על י"ב מאי קנתיר תרבץ אפדני:

for it is written, He that giveth answer before he heareth, it is folly and confusion unto him.'<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Prov. XVIII, 13. ');">¹⁰</span>

רומו כחצי ארכו וכחצי רחבו ראיה לדבר רשב"ג אומר כבנין ההיכל: ראיה לדבר מאן קתני לה איכא דאמר רשב"ג קתני לה והכי קאמר ראיה לדבר מנין אמר רשב"ג הכל כבנין היכל

R. ISHMAEL SAID: THIS IS AN OX STALL. HE WHO DESIRES TO ERECT etc. Who is the author of [the statement on] the OX STALL? — Some say the author is R. Ishmael, and some say R. Akiba is the author. Those who say R. Akiba is the author explain it thus, 'Although [the size] is [that of] an ox stall, one sometimes makes his dwelling [as small] as an ox stall'. And those who say R. Ishmael is the author, explain it thus, 'Because he who desires to erect an ox stall makes [it] four cubits by six.'

ואיכא דאמר ת"ק קתני לה ורשב"ג אתמוהי קא מתמה והכי קאמר ליה [לת"ק] ראיה מנין מבנין היכל אטו כולי עלמא כבנין היכל עבדי

A HALL, TEN BY TEN. What is the meaning of traklin?<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' The Hebrew. equivalent of 'hall' in our Mishnah. Cf. [G] triclinium, 'a dining room with three couches'. ');">¹¹</span>

תניא אחרים אומרים רומו כקורותיו ולימא רומו כרחבו איבעית אימא ביתא מעילאי רווח ואיבעית אימא משום דאיכא בי כווי

— An arched hall adorned with roses. It was taught: A kinter [contains] twelve [cubits] by twelve. What is a kinter? — The fore-court<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Or front garden. ');">¹²</span>

רבי חנינא נפק לקרייתא רמו ליה קראי אהדדי כתיב (מלכים א ו, ב) והבית אשר בנה המלך שלמה לה' ששים אמה ארכו ועשרים רחבו ושלשים אמה קומתו וכתיב (מלכים א ו, כ) ולפני הדביר עשרים אמה אורך ועשרים אמה רחב ועשרים אמה קומתו אמר להו כי קא חשיב משפת כרובים ולמעלה

of mansions.

מאי קמ"ל

THE HEIGHT … HALF ITS LENGTH AND HALF ITS WIDTH. PROOF OF THIS? — RABBAN SIMEON B. GAMALIEL SAID: LIKE THE TEMPLE STRUCTURE. Who taught, 'PROOF OF THIS…'? — Some say. R. Simeon b. Gamaliel taught it; and this is the purport of what has been said: Whence the PROOF OF THIS? — R. SIMEON B. GAMALIEL SAID: All [dimensions must be in proportion] LIKE [those of] THE TEMPLE STRUCTURE. And some say, the first Tanna has taught this, and R. Simeon b. Gamaliel is astonished [at it] and says to him [to the first Tanna] thus: Whence the proof? [Is it] from the Temple structure? Does everybody make [houses] LIKE THE TEMPLE STRUCTURE?<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Other houses do not require heights in similar proportion. ');">¹³</span> It was taught: Others say [that] its height [must be] equal to [the length of] its beams.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Laid across the width of the house. ');">¹⁴</span> Let it [then] be said [simply]. 'The height [must be] equal to its width'!<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' V. previous note. ');">¹⁵</span> — If you wish, it can be said [that] a house is wider at the top;<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Since it was usual to make stone walls thinner on top than below, so as to give them a broader basis. The beams which span the house at the top would consequently be longer than the width of the house below. ');">¹⁶</span> and, if preferred, it can be said [the expression 'equal to the length of its beams' is necessary] because there are apertures [in the wall in which the beams are fixed].<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' The ends of the beams, resting in the apertures, are included in the length of the beams. A beam, therefore, represents a greater length than the space between the inner side of the walls. ');">¹⁷</span> R. Hanina [once] went out to the country, [and] a contradiction between [the following] verses was pointed out to him. It is written, <i>And the house which King Solomon built for the Lord, the length thereof was threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof twenty cubits, and the height thereof thirty cubits</i>,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' I Kings VI, 2. ');">¹⁸</span> but it is [also] written, <i>And before the Sanctuary which was twenty cubits in length, and twenty cubits in breadth, and twenty cubits in the height<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' This shows that the height was not thirty cubits, as stated in v. 2, but twenty. ');">¹⁹</span></i> thereof!<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Ibid. v. 20. ');">²⁰</span> He replied unto them: [The last mentioned verse] reckons from the edge of the Cherubim<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Whose height was ten cubits. ');">²¹</span> upwards. What does [this kind of measurement]<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Why is the height measured from the Cherubim and not, as might be expected, from the ground? ');">²²</span> teach us?