Talmud - Bava Batra 102b בבא בתרא ק״ב ב׳

Rav Sheisha, son of Rav Idi, said: Actually, the mishna is in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Shimon, and here we are dealing with a case where the corpses found were of non-viable newborns buried in a smaller chamber only six cubits long. Adding a courtyard of six cubits and another regular-sized chamber of eight cubits yields a total length of the catacomb of twenty cubits.

The Gemara asks: But since this is dealing with a chamber that was created for burying non-viable newborns, there too, with regard to that chamber, on the other side of the courtyard, we are dealing with a chamber created for non-viable newborns as well. Therefore, the total length of the catacomb would be eighteen cubits. The Gemara answers: We say that perhaps one of the chambers is for non-viable newborns, but we do not say that two chambers might have been constructed for non-viable newborns.

§ Above, the Gemara cited a baraita that relates a dispute between Rabbi Shimon and the Rabbis with regard to three corpses buried close together. The Rabbis hold that this is not considered a graveyard, whereas Rabbi Shimon maintains that it can be. And the Gemara raises a contradiction from another ruling of the Rabbis against this ruling of the Rabbis, and it also raises a contradiction from another ruling of Rabbi Shimon against this ruling of Rabbi Shimon.

As it is taught in a mishna (Kilayim 5:2): With regard to a vineyard that is planted on an area where there is less than four cubits of open space between the vines, Rabbi Shimon says: It is not considered to be a vineyard with regard to the prohibition of diverse kinds and other halakhot, as it is overcrowded. And the Rabbis say: This is considered to be a vineyard, and the reason for this is that the middle vines are viewed as if they are not there, and the outer vines meet the requirements for a vineyard. Therefore, it is prohibited to plant other crops anywhere in that area.

The ruling of the Rabbis in this mishna is difficult, as it is contradicted by the ruling of the Rabbis in the baraita, as there the Rabbis did not say: The middle ones are viewed as if they are not there. And the ruling of Rabbi Shimon in this mishna is difficult, as it is contradicted by the ruling of Rabbi Shimon in the baraita, as there he did say: The corpses in the middle are viewed as if they are not there.

The Gemara answers: The fact that one ruling of Rabbi Shimon is contradicted by the other ruling of Rabbi Shimon is not difficult. There, with regard to vineyards, Rabbi Shimon holds that middle vines cannot be disregarded, as people do not plant vines with the intention of uprooting them. But here, with regard to burial, sometimes it happens that one has to bury a corpse at twilight just before the onset of Shabbat, and indiscriminately inters the body between other corpses with the intention of reburying it at a later date.

Similarly, the fact that one ruling of the Rabbis is contradicted by the other ruling of the Rabbis is not difficult. Here, with regard to burial, since it is a disgrace to bury bodies so close together, it is not called an area of graves. But there, with regard to vineyards, the owner of the vineyard says to himself: Whichever of the vines will flourish, will flourish and I will leave them, and whichever ones do not flourish, I will uproot them and they will be for firewood.

MISHNA: If one says to another: I am selling you a plot of earth of the size required for sowing one kor of seed [beit kor], and there on that plot there were crevices [neka’im] ten handbreadths deep or rocks ten handbreadths high, they are not measured together with the rest of the field. Rather, the buyer must be provided with land measuring a beit kor exclusive of those crevices or rocks. If the crevices or rocks measured less than ten handbreadths, they are measured together with the rest of the field. But if the seller said to the buyer: I am selling you a plot of earth that is about the size of a beit kor, then even if there on that plot there were crevices deeper than ten handbreadths or rocks higher than ten handbreadths, they are measured together with the rest of the field.

GEMARA: We learned in a mishna elsewhere (Arakhin 25a): With regard to one who consecrates his ancestral field during the time that the halakhot of the Jubilee Year are practiced, if he wishes to redeem the field he must give the Temple treasurer fifty silver shekels for every place that is fit for sowing a ḥomer of barley seed, which is the biblical equivalent of a kor, for all the years of the Jubilee cycle, as this is the sum fixed by the Torah for this purpose (see Leviticus 27:16). But if there were crevices ten handbreadths deep there, in the field, or rocks ten handbreadths high,

Traduction : The William Davidson digital edition of the Koren Noé Talmud, with commentary by Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz.

BavaBatra 102b examines burial chamber measurements for non-viable newborns and debates whether closely spaced graves or crowded vineyards count as unified units.