עירובין 87:1 — Soncino English Talmud

one cuts a hole of four handbreadths by four and may draw water through it. Said Abaye to him: Is it not possible that your observation is incorrect? R. Judah may have maintained his view there only because he holds the principle that a partition is deemed to extend downwards but not here where it must be deemed to be both bent and extended; and R. Hananya b. Akabya may have maintained his view there only, in the case of the sea of Tiberias, because it has embankments, towns and karpafs around it but not in that of other waters. Abaye observed: According to the view of R. Hananya b. Akabya if the balcony was within three handbreadths from the wall it is necessary for its length to be four cubits and for its width to be eleven cubits and a fraction. If it was upright it is necessary that its height shall be ten handbreadths and its width six handbreadths and two fractions. R. Huna son of R. Joshua observed: If it was situated in a corner it is necessary for its height to be ten handbreadths and for its width to be two handbreadths and two fractions. With reference, however, to what was taught: R. Hananya b. Akabya ruled: ‘In a balcony that has an area of four cubits by four he cuts a hole of four handbreadths by four and may draw water through it’, in what circumstances could this be possible? — Where it is constructed in the shape of a mortar. MISHNAH. FROM A WATER CHANNEL THAT PASSES THROUGH A COURTYARD NO WATER MAY BE DRAWN ON THE SABBATH UNLESS IT WAS FURNISHED WITH A PARTITION TEN HANDBREADTHS HIGH AT ITS ENTRANCE AND EXIT. R. JUDAH RULED: THE WALL ABOVE IT MAY BE REGARDED AS A PARTITION. R. JUDAH OBSERVED: IT ACTUALLY HAPPENED WITH THE WATER-CHANNEL OF ABEL THAT WATER WAS DRAWN FROM IT ON THE SABBATH ON THE AUTHORITY OF THE ELDERS. THEY REPLIED: BECAUSE IT WAS NOT OF THE PRESCRIBED SIZE. GEMARA. Our Rabbis taught: if it was furnished with a partition at its entrance but not at its exit, or if one was furnished at its exit and none at its entrance, no water may be drawn from it on the Sabbath unless it was furnished with a partition ten handbreadths high both at its entrance and at its exit — R. Judah ruled: The wall above it may be regarded as a partition. R. Judah observed: It actually happened with the water-channel which flowed from Abel to Sepphoris that water was drawn from it on the Sabbath on the authority of the Elders. They replied: Is this proof? [The water was used] because the channel was either less than tell handbreadths deep or less than four handbreadths wide. Elsewhere It was taught: If a water-channel passed between windows, it is permissible to lower a bucket to draw water from it if it was less than three handbreadths wide, but if it was three handbreadths wide no bucket may be lowered to draw water from it. R. Simeon b. Gamaliel ruled: If it was less than four handbreadths wide a bucket may be lowered into it and water may be drawn from it, but if it was four handbreadths wide no bucket may be lowered to draw water from it. Now what are we dealing with? If it be suggested: With the water-channel itself, consider the following which R. Dimi when he came, cited in the name of R. Johanan: No domain can be regarded as a karmelith if it is less than four handbreadths. Did he then make his statement in agreement only with one of the Tannaitic opinions? — No, we are rather dealing with its embankments in respect of exchange. But did not R. Dimi when he came state in the name of R. Johanan: On a place whose area is less than four handbreadths by four both the people in the public domain and those in the private domain may rearrange their loads, provided they do not exchange them? — There it is a case of Pentateuchal domains54^ᵃ^ᵇ^ᶜ^ᵈ^ᵉ^ᶠ^ᵍ^ʰ^ⁱ^ʲ^ᵏ^ˡ^ᵐ^ⁿ^ᵒ^ᵖ^ᵠ^ʳ^ˢ^ᵗ^ᵘ^ᵛ^ʷ^ˣ^ʸ^ᶻ^ᵃᵃ^ᵃᵇ^ᵃᶜ^ᵃᵈ^ᵃᵉ^ᵃᶠ^ᵃᵍ^ᵃʰ^ᵃⁱ^ᵃʲ^ᵃᵏ^ᵃˡ^ᵃᵐ^ᵃⁿ^ᵃᵒ^ᵃᵖ^ᵃᵠ^ᵃʳ^ᵃˢ^ᵃᵗ^ᵃᵘ^ᵃᵛ^ᵃʷ^ᵃˣ^ᵃʸ^ᵃᶻ^ᵇᵃ^ᵇᵇ

^ᵃnote:Thus leaving a margin of 24 — 4/2 = 10 handbreadths around it.
^ᵇnote:Even though no partition had been put up round the hole. The margin round the hole is deemed to be bent downwards so as to be forming a suspended partition of the required height of ten handbreadths and extending downwards into the water, and thus constituting a private domain through which it is permitted to take up the water from the sea into the balcony.
^ᶜnote:Rabbah.
^ᵈnote:Lit., ‘not it’.
^ᵉnote:Lit., ‘until here R. Judah only said there’, in the case of the wall above the cistern.
^ᶠnote:As is explained infra 87b.
^ᵍnote:And is thus distinguished from all ordinary karmelith.
^ʰnote:Supra 86b ad fin.
^ⁱnote:Lit., ‘it was near the wall by less than three handbreadths’.
^ʲnote:All air space of less than three handbreadths is disregarded (according to the law of labud) and the balcony may, therefore, be deemed to be close to the wall.’ By cutting a length of four handbreadths to a depth of one handbreadth and a fraction from the width of the balcony on the side adjacent to the wall so as to leave on either side of its length margins of ten handbreadths, the area of the hole would be four handbreadths by (three minus a fraction and one and a fraction is) four handbreadths, and it would be furrounded on three sides by a border of (eleven handbreadths and a fraction minus one handbreadth and a fraction on the side opposite the wall, and (24 — 4)/2 handbreadths on the two sides of the length of the balcony =) ten handbreadths and on the fourth side by the wall of the house. The border is regarded as bent and extended downwards and morning with the wall a private domain between the water and the balcony.
^ᵏnote:Standing on its width on a projection from the wall at a distance of four handbreadths with its length rising vertically upwards.
^ˡnote:I.e., the length of the balcony (cf. prev..n.).
^ᵐnote:The prescribed minimum height of a partition.
^ⁿnote:So that by imagining one handbreadth and a fraction of the width on either side toxbe bent towards the wall there would still remain a width of four handbreadths facing that wall, while the air space of four handbreadths between the wall and the balcony would be reduced to (4 — 1 and a fraction =) less than three handbreadths which (by the law of labud) is disregarded, and the hole, four handbreadths by four, is now surrounded by the wall of the house on one side, a partition of four handbreadths wide on the opposite side, and two walls virtually four handbreadths wide on the other two sides. The three sides of the balcony, which are deemed to stretch downwards to the water, together with the wall of the house thus constitute a private domain through which the water from the sea may be carried up.
^ᵒnote:A balcony.
^ᵖnote:So that two of its sides are formed by the walls of the house.
^ᵠnote:The prescribed minimum height of a partition.
^ʳnote:Placing the balcony, as in the previous case, in an upright position at a distance of four handbreadths from one of the walls with its side at a distance of less than three handbreadths from the adjacent wall it may he imagined to be bent from top to bottom in the middle towards the wall it was facing and thus closing up all air space of one handbreadth and a fraction and reducing the distance between it and the wall to less than three handbreadths. The space between either wall and the balcony now being less than three handbreadths is (by the law of labud) deemed to be non-existent and a hole of four handbreadths by four now remains surrounded on two adjacent sides by the house walls and on the opposite two sides by the imaginary corner piece which, by the law of labud, constitutes two valid partitions that stretch downwards to the water, all the four sides enclosing a private domain between the balcony and the water.
^ˢnote:That the balcony should be required to have an area of no less than twenty-four handbreadths by twenty-four.
^ᵗnote:In view of the devices just described, whereby a private domain may be formed even where the balcony was smaller than the prescribed minimum (of ten handbreadths by four) for each of its four sides and (four handbreadths by four) for the hole.
^ᵘnote:Sc. when it is self-contained being in the shape of a platform raised on poles above the water and having no wall near it. In such a case no private domain through which the water may be taken up to the platform can be formed unless the balcony is of the size prescribed by R. Hananya b. Akabya which allows for a hole of four handbreadths by four in the center and for four sides of ten handbreadths by four on its four sides.
^ᵛnote:Not less then ten handbreadths deep and four handbreadths wide.
^ʷnote:Because it has the status of a karmelith.
^ˣnote:Within its banks.
^ʸnote:To the courtyard.
^ᶻnote:From it. The walls of the courtyard under which the channel runs, since they were not originally made for the cannot serve as partitions for it.
^ᵃᵃnote:The channel, sc. the walls at either end.
^ᵃᵇnote:A channel that passed through the courtyards of the town. Abel is in the neighbourhood of Sepphoris.
^ᵃᶜnote:Which shows that courtyard walls may serve as partitions for a channel passing under them.
^ᵃᵈnote:The Rabbis who differed from his view.
^ᵃᵉnote:It was less than ten handbreadths deep or less than four handbreadths wide. Such a channel is regarded as part of the private domain through which it passes and requires no partitions at all. Where partitions, however, are required the courtyard walls cannot serve the purpose
^ᵃᶠnote:A water-channel passing through a courtyard.
^ᵃᵍnote:Within its banks.
^ᵃʰnote:V. supra n. 2.
^ᵃⁱnote:Because it has the status of a karmelith.
^ᵃʲnote:Lit., ‘from there’.
^ᵃᵏnote:Lit., ‘it was not’.
^ᵃˡnote:Lit., ‘another’.
^ᵃᵐnote:Of houses on either side.
^ᵃⁿnote:Lit., ‘and fills’.
^ᵃᵒnote:This will be discussed presently.
^ᵃᵖnote:In the statements fixing the dimensions as three and four handbreadths respectively.
^ᵃᵠnote:Sc. that if its width was three handbreadths it was according to the first Tanna the status of a karmelith from which the water may not be carried into the private domain of the courtyard.
^ᵃʳnote:Lit., ‘and (what,) however, (about) that’.
^ᵃˢnote:From Palestine to Babylon.
^ᵃᵗnote:R. Johanan.
^ᵃᵘnote:Lit., ‘must we say: According to (one of the) Tannas he made his statement since according to the Rabbis a domain of three handbreadths may also be regarded as a karmelith. Is it likely, however, that R. Johanan would differ from the Rabbis, ‘who are in the majority, and adopt the view of an individual authority?
^ᵃᵛnote:In prescribing the dimensions. Lit., ‘but’.
^ᵃʷnote:The water-channel's.
^ᵃˣnote:Not the channel itself.
^ᵃʸnote:Sc. if all embankment is sufficiently high and less than three handbreadths wide it constitutes, according to the Rabbis, a free domain into which an empty bucket may be taken from the private domain and one full of water from the karmelith and transferred respectively from it into the karmelith and into the private domain. If the embankment is three handbreadths wide it uses the status of a free domain and can no longer serve as a mere adjunct to the domains between which it is situated. This ruling is consequently quite independent of that of R. Johanan's.
^ᵃᶻnote:And thus unlawfully carry an object from the public into the private domain or vice versa. Now, since objects may be placed on it both front the public and from the private domain it must obviously have the status of a free domain, and yet it was forbidden to exchange these objects. How then can it be maintained that a bucket of water may be transferred from the private domain into the karmelith and vice versa by way of the embankments?
^ᵇᵃnote:R. Dimi's ruling.
^ᵇᵇnote:A private domain and a public one the movement of objects between which is Pentateuchally forbidden. Hence R. Dimi's restriction.