Shabbat

less than four cubits, he is not culpable. What does this inform us? — This is what he informs us, that [similar] domains combine,  and we do not say, An object caught up [in the air] is as at rest. R. Samuel b. Judah said in R. Abba's name in R. Huna's name in the name of Rab: If one carries [an article] four cubits in covered public ground, he is liable, because it is not like the banners of the wilderness.  But that is not so? for the waggons surely were covered,  and yet Rab said in R. Hiyya's name: As for the waggons, beneath them, between them, and at their sides it was public ground? — Rab referred to the interspaces  — Consider: what was the length of the waggons? Five cubits. What was the breadth of the board? A cubit and a half. Then how many [rows] could be placed: three: thus leaving half a cubit, and when you divide it among them [the spaces] they are as joined! — Do you think that the boards lay on their width? they were laid on their thickness. Yet even so, what was the thickness of the board? One cubit. How many [rows] were [then] laid? Four, thus leaving a cubit, and when you divide it among them [the spaces] they are as joined!  Now, on the view that the boards were one cubit thick at the bottom, but tapered to a fingerbreadth, it is well:  but on the view that just as they were a cubit thick at the bottom, so at the top too, what can be said? — Said R. Kahana: (They were arranged] in clasped formation.  Now, where were they placed: on the top of the waggon. But the waggon itself was covered?