Bava Batra 100b (ק:) — the Talmud in English

And if he sold him

a public thoroughfare,

for example, a road between two towns that serves as a passageway for people from more distant towns, and there is concern that many wagons will meet on the road, he must provide him with a road

sixteen cubits

wide, which is the measure of a public domain for all the laws of the Torah.

The road to the cities of refuge,

the road leading to the cities of refuge must be

thirty-two cubits

wide.

wide.

Rav Huna said: What is the verse

from which this measure is derived?

For it is written concerning the cities of refuge [Deuteronomy 19:3]:

“Prepare for yourself the road.”

The verse could have written

“a road,”

but it writes

“the road,”

to teach us that an additional road must be added, until its width equals the measure of two roads. The unqualified term “road” in the Torah refers to sixteen cubits; consequently, together they measure thirty-two cubits.

We learned in the Mishna:

The king’s road has no fixed measure.

And we explain: This means

that the king breaches

the

fence

of other people in order

to make a road for himself, and no one may protest!

We learned in the Mishna:

The road for a funeral procession has no fixed measure.

And we explain: It has no fixed measure

because of the honor of the deceased,

as it is not respectful to the deceased to limit the number of participants in the funeral procession. Therefore, the road must be wide enough for all those accompanying the deceased to pass through it.

The Sages taught: One who sells

his

grave,

or the

road

leading to

his grave,

or

the place of his standing,

the place where a ma’amad would be held on the way back from the cemetery,

and the house of his eulogy,

the place where he would be eulogized,

when the sons of

the

family bury him

in his grave

against the will

of the purchaser,

because of family disgrace.

It is disgraceful for a family that one of its members should have no burial place. Therefore, the Sages instituted that the sale is void, and the purchaser is to be repaid his money.

The Sages taught: One may not conduct fewer than seven sessions of standing and sitting for the deceased,

meaning that at least seven times they would sit, stand, and sit again,

corresponding to

the seven occurrences of “vanity” stated at the beginning of Ecclesiastes:

“Vanity of vanities, said Kohelet; vanity of vanities, all is vanity”

[the plural term “vanities” occurs twice].

The reason this is done seven times is so that, through the crying that is increased there for the deceased, each person will take to heart the need to repent, because human life is vanity.

Rav Aḥa, son of Rava, said to Rav Ashi: How did they conduct it,

that is, what was the procedure for the sessions of standing and sitting for the deceased?

He said to him,

Rav Ashi:

As it was taught: Rabbi Yehuda said: In

the

Land of Judea, at first,

in the beginning,

they would not conduct fewer than seven sessions of standing and sitting for the deceased.

For example,

after they had sat for a short while near the cemetery, the official in charge

would say to them: “Stand, dear ones, stand!”

They would continue walking, and after they had walked a short distance, the official would say to them:

“Sit, dear ones, sit!”

And so they did seven times.

The Sages said to him,

to Rabbi Yehuda:

If so,

since they performed only acts of standing and sitting and did not utter any words of eulogy,

even on Shabbat,

when they completed the burial on Friday afternoon close to nightfall, it should be

permitted to do so

even on Shabbat, since this involves no desecration of Shabbat. Why, then, did they not do so?

The sister of Rami bar Pappa,

the sister of Rami bar Pappa,

was married

to

Rav Avya.

She died,

when she passed away,

he conducted

and made

for her

her husband

a session of standing and sitting.

Rav Yosef said: He erred in two respects.

Rav Avya made two errors:

a.

He erred

in that

this is done only for relatives.

Only relatives of the deceased [who are not mourners] come to the sessions of standing and sitting in honor of the deceased.

And

if

he had done it even for nonrelatives,

b.

and

he also

erred:

this is done

for a session of standing and sitting

only on the first day,

the day of burial.

But he did it

and conducted it

on the second day.

Abaye said: In this matter as well

he

erred:

this is done

for a session of standing and sitting

only at the cemetery

[that is, near the cemetery],

but he did it in the city.

Rava said: In this matter as well he erred:

this is done

for a session of standing and sitting

only in a place where it is customary.

But there,

in Rav Avya’s locale,

it was not customary

to conduct a session of standing and sitting.

Meytivi

from the beraita taught above:

They said to him: “If so, even on Shabbat it is permitted to do so.”

And if you say

that only

at the cemetery

is a session of standing and sitting conducted, as Abaye maintains,

and

only

on the first day,

the day of burial, as Rav Yosef maintains, then

what is a cemetery doing on Shabbat!?

How could it be that they would bury the deceased on Shabbat, and why would there be a difficulty with conducting a session of standing and sitting on Shabbat?

Rather, it must certainly be possible to do so on the day after the burial and in the city. Consequently, it is possible that a session of standing and sitting would be conducted on Shabbat.

And we answer: Actually, it is conducted only on the first day and at the cemetery, and nevertheless it is possible to do so on Shabbat, for example,

in a city near the cemetery, when they brought him,

they brought him for burial on Friday afternoon

between sunset and nightfall,

and by the time they returned to the city, Shabbat had already begun. They could conduct a session of standing and sitting on the way, since it is still considered the day of burial.

Mishna:

One who sells a place to his fellow to make a grave for him, and likewise one who accepts from his fellow

undertaking

to make a grave for him,

as it was their custom for all the members of a family to be buried in a family cave, each in a separate niche, inside a coffin.

He makes the interior of the cave

the contractor must make the interior of the cave

four cubits

wide

by six

cubits long. [ Likewise, one who sells land for a grave must provide the purchaser with such an area underground].

And he opens into it

he must hew into the walls of the cave

eight niches,

which open into the interior of the cave:

three

niches

on this side and three on that side,

in the two long walls of the cave, to the right and left of the entrance,

and two opposite them,

in the middle wall opposite the entrance.

Each niche was one cubit wide, with a cubit of space between each niche and the next. At the ends of the walls, half a cubit was left empty at the beginning and end of each wall.

It follows that in the two long walls, whose length was six cubits, there was room for three niches with the intervening spaces, while in the middle wall, whose length was four cubits, there were two niches; together, there were eight niches.

And

the

niches, their length is four cubits,

three cubits for the length of the deceased, and one cubit for the coffin in which he is placed.

And their height,

the height of the niches, is

seven

handbreadths, to accommodate a coffin six handbreadths high, with an additional handbreadth so that the coffin can enter the niche comfortably. It also leaves a space of one handbreadth between the coffin and the roof of the niche, so that people passing over the cave will not become impure.