Babylonian Talmud

Rodkinson 1918 — source 3, scan section 72

at all, why should it be allowed to use that part (where the earth was heaped up or the posts erected to the extent of less than four spans) ? Said Rabhina: In this case the Mishna does not mean to say, that the wall was diminished by heaping up earth or erecting posts but simply that a part of the wall was removed at the top. If the breach made in this manner exceeded four spans it is considered as a door, and the entire wall may be used, and if it was not quite four spans the entire wall must not be used, but that part of the wall containing the breach may, because its height is lessened. R. Yechiel said: " If a basin was set down (bottom side up) at the bottom of the wall, the wall is diminished thereby." How can a basin serve to diminish the wall ? A basin may be handled on the Sabbath, and is it not a fact that any vessel which may be handled on Sabbath cannot serve to diminish a wall because it can be removed ? R. Yechiel means to say, if the basin was fastened to the fjround. And if it is fastened to the * Rashi explains the term " on a level with the ground " to signify, that it was less than ten spans higher than the ground, in which case it is considered as level with the ground TRACT ERUBIN. 183 ground may it not be removed nevertheless ? By the statement " it was fastened to the ground," is meant if it was fastened so that a hoe or a pick-axe was required to remove it. An Egyptian ladder does not diminish a wall but a ladder of Tyre does. What is meant by an Egyptian ladder ? One that has not four rungs. So said the school of R. Janai. Said R. A'ha the son of Rabha to R. Ashi: " Dost thou know why an Egyptian ladder does not diminish a wall?" and R. Ashi answered: " Didst thou not hear the statement of R. A'ha bar Ada in the name of R. Hamnuna, quoting Rabh, to the effect that it was an article which may be handled on the Sabbath and any article which may be handled on the Sabbath cannot serve to diminish a wall?" If such be the case, why can a ladder of Tyre serve to diminish a wall, may it not also be handled on Sabbath ? A ladder of Tyre can serve because it is so heavy that it would require the efforts of several men to remove it. Abayi said: If a wall ten spans high was between two courts and a ladder four spans wide was placed at each side of the wall: if the ladders were placed so that they are three spans apart, i.e., the ladder placed on the other side was three spans further up or down alongside of the wall than the other ladder, the wall is not diminished ; but if they are not three spans apart the wall is diminished. If the wall, however, was four spans deep so that a man can walk on it, it makes no difference how far apart the ladders are. R. Bibhi bar Abayi said: " If one erected two benches one above the other at the foot of a wall, and the lower one was four spans wide while the upper was less, the wall is thereby dimin- ished. If the lower bench however was less than four spans wide and the upper four, or more, the wall is also diminished thereby, providing the two benches were less than three spans apart." R. Na'hman said in the name of Rabba bar Abahu, that the same rule applies to a ladder where there is empty space between the rungs {i.e., where one side of the ladder is not closed with boards). R. Na'hman said again in the name of Rabba bar Abahu : If a cornice four spans square protrude from a wall and a ladder, no matter how narrow, has been placed against the cor- nice, the size of the wall is thereby diminished, provided the ladder was placed directly against the cornice, but if placed underneath the cornice against the uall, the cornice was merely i34 THE BABYLONIAN TALMUD. enlarged but the wall was not diminished. R. Na'hman says again in the name of the same authority: a wall which is nine- teen spans high must have an additional cornice (a ladder which should be placed in the centre of the wall so that the space should not attain ten spans at the top or at the bottom). If the walls, however, measure twenty spans two cornices are needed to make them valid. (One cornice a trifle less than ten spans from the ground and another above that also a trifle less than ten spans from the lower.) Said R. Hisda: " Providing the cornices are not exactly opposite each other (to prevent a ladder being placed on the bottom cornice)." R. Huna said: " If a peg be placed on a pil- lar in public ground ten spans high and four spans wide (which is legally private ground) the pillar is diminished." Said R. Adha bar Ahaba: " Providing the peg is three spans high." Abayi and Rabba both said: " Even if it is not as high as three spans." Why so? Because the peg makes the pillar useless. R. Ashi, however, said: " Even if the peg be three spans high it does not diminish the pillar and does not make it private ground because a peg of that kind can be used as a hanger." R. A'ha the son of Rabha asked R. Ashi, " What is the law if several pegs be placed on the pillar in question?" and he answered: " Did you not hear what R. Johanan said concerning a well, that its enclosures of earth are counted in with the ten spans (makes it a legal private ground), why then should they be counted, are they not useless ? " We must assume that, because one can place an object upon the enclosures and thus use them. The same is the case with the peg, one might also place some- thing upon it also. R. Jehudah said in the name of Samuel: " If a wall be ten spans high it requires, in order to become a valid wall, a ladder fourteen spans in height, because the ladder must be placed against the wall at an angle and the distance from the foot of the ladder to the wall being four spans, the ladder loses that much before it reaches the top of the wall." R. Joseph said: " Even if the ladder be a trifle over thirteen spans high it may be used (because should it lack one span of reaching the top of the wall the deficiency is not taken into consideration)." Abayi, however, said : It matters not if the ladder be even a trifle over eleven spans high (because should it lack three spans of reaching the top of the wall, it is considered as being at the top; for the law of " lavud " is applied in all cases where there is a TRACT ERUBIN. 185 deficiency of three spans or less). R. Huna the son of R. Jehoshua, however, said : The ladder may be only a trifle over seven spans in height (because it is not compulsory to place the ladder at an angle, and if placed straight at the wall, together v/ith the three spans allowed by the law of " lavud," it reaches the top. Should the ladder even be placed at an angle it may be considered as straight at the wall and the same rule applies).