Bava Batra 101b — the Talmud in English

But did Rabbi Yohanan not say:

burying a dead person in a standing position,

this is the burial of donkeys,

and it is a disgrace to the dead!

And we answer:

According to Rabbi Yohanan,

it must be explained

that he makes them,

that he makes the niches

at the corner

opposite the entrance: one niche at the corner of the long wall on the right, at its end, where it meets the middle wall opposite it, for there is half a cubit free in each wall, and he makes half a niche in this wall and half a niche in the other wall. And the second niche is opposite it, at the corner of the long wall on the left.

And we object:

But the niches touch one another.

For the niche at the corner touches the niches to its right and to its left, since the distance between the two niches in the walls themselves is only half a cubit plus the diagonal. And it follows that the three niches are one inside the other!? [See the illustration in Rashbam’s commentary]

And we answer:

Rav Ashi said: By making it deeper.

He digs the niche at the corner lower than the two niches beside it, so that the niches do not touch one another.

For if you do not say so,

but if you say that all the niches were at the same height, then

the four caves,

according to Rabbi Shimon, how does he make them?

How is it possible to make four caves adjacent to one another

? For the niches touch one another!

For the first niches in the eastern cave on the right meet the first niches in the southern cave on the left. And likewise in all the caves: the niche at the end of the cave, which is four cubits long, enters into the width of the niche adjacent to it in the second cave.

Rather,

you are compelled to say that it is speaking

of making it deeper,

that those niches are not in one row with the rest of the niches, but rather one is below the other.

Here too,

with regard to the niche at the corner, it is speaking

of making it deeper,

that he makes it below the niches at its sides. [See the illustration in Rashbam’s commentary]

Rav Huna, son of Rav Yehoshua, says:

There is no necessity to say that the niches were not at the same height. Rather,

the four caves according to Rabbi Shimon

can be such that the niches do not meet one another, even though they are at the same height, for example,

that he makes them like the branches of a palm tree

[like palm branches], that the niches were dug diagonally: in this cave toward the right, and in the cave beside it toward the left, and they did not enter one inside the other. See the illustration in Rashbam’s commentary]

But the Gemara says:

And this statement of Rav Huna, son of Rav Yehoshua, is nonsense.

It is an incorrect statement!

For

since

we have this rule in our possession, that

every cubit

in a square,

in a square of one cubit by one cubit, there is

a cubit and two fifths on the diagonal.

A cubit and two fifths of a cubit on its diagonal, that is, an addition in length of forty percent.

And if so,

how much do they amount to,

what is the length of the diagonal of a square of eight by eight cubits [which is the square formed by the two sides of the two caves adjacent to one another]? Eight cubits plus sixteen fifths of a cubit. That is,

eleven and a fifth,

eleven cubits and a fifth. [See the illustration in Rashbam’s commentary]

How many niches are there,

how many niches are there in the two walls

? Eight,

eight niches!

Eight in eleven and a fifth—

how can you find it!?

How can eight niches fit into that diagonal of eleven cubits and a fifth? For each niche is one cubit wide, plus seven cubits for the space between the niches, making fifteen cubits altogether

? Rather,

you are compelled to say that

this statement of Rav Huna, son of Rav Yehoshua, is nonsense.

And it is impossible to establish the words of Rabbi Shimon regarding four caves except by making them deeper. And the two niches at the corner, too, are speaking of making them deeper.

And if you wish, say:

There is no need to establish either the four caves or the two niches as being made deeper; rather,

as Rav Shisha, son of Rav Idi, says

below,

with fallen infants,

in a small grave for fallen infants.

Here too, with fallen infants.

Those two niches at the corner are intended for fallen infants, for this is the practice of the builders of graves: to make use of the corners of the cave for the graves of fallen infants, and they are narrower than usual, and that space at the corner is sufficient for them. And likewise the four caves according to Rabbi Shimon: the niches at the beginning of the cave are intended for fallen infants, and their length is only half a cubit, except that they do not enter into the niches of the adjacent cave. And in fact all the niches were at the same height.

We learned there

in tractate Oholot [9:3]:

One who finds a dead person

alone in a grave, in a place where it was not known that there was a grave there, and the dead person was

lying

there

in his usual manner,

which is a sign that an Israelite is buried there, and he wished to perform purifications.

This is what he may do:

1.

He moves him.

He is permitted to move the dead person from there and bury him elsewhere, even though ordinarily there is a prohibition against moving a dead person from his grave. Since it is a solitary grave, we assume that he was buried here only temporarily, because there was not enough time to bring him to a cemetery, with the intention of moving him afterward to a cemetery.

2.

And

he also takes with him

its surrounding earth.

If he indeed wishes to perform purifications there, he must also take some of the earth beneath the dead person. And again he need not be concerned about impurity, neither in that place nor in its surroundings.

And likewise, if he found

two

dead persons, this is what he does:

he moves them and their surrounding earth.