Bava Batra 101b (קא:) — the Talmud in English

But didn’t Rabbi Yohanan say:

The burial of a corpse standing upright is

the burial of donkeys,

and it is degrading 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. There is half a cubit of empty space in each wall, and he makes half a niche in this wall and half a niche in the other wall. The second niche is opposite it, at the corner of the long wall on the left.

And we challenge this:

But the niches would touch one another.

The niche at the corner would touch the niches to its right and left, since the distance between the two niches in the walls themselves would be only half a cubit plus the diagonal. It would therefore turn out that the three niches were within one another!? [See the illustration in Rashbam’s commentary]

And we answer:

Rav Ashi said: He makes it deeper.

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

For if you do not say this,

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

the four caves

according to Rabbi Shimon—how could he make them?

How could four caves be made adjacent to one another?

The niches would touch one another!

For the first niches in the eastern cave on the right would 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, would enter into the width of the adjacent niche in the second cave.

Rather,

you must necessarily say that it is referring to

making them deeper,

so that those niches are not in one line with the other niches, but one is lower than the other.

Here too,

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

making it deeper,

so that it is made lower than 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 arranged so that the niches do not meet one another even though they are at the same height, for example,

by making them like palm branches

[like the branches of a palm tree], so that the niches were dug diagonally: in one cave toward the right, and in the adjacent cave toward the left, and they did not enter into one another. See the illustration in Rashbam’s commentary]

But the Gemara says:

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

It is incorrect!

For

granted,

we have the following principle:

every cubit

in a square

in a square of one cubit by one cubit, has

a cubit and two fifths along its diagonal.

A cubit and two-fifths of a cubit along its diagonal—that is, an increase in length of forty percent.

And if so,

how much would they have,

what would be the length of the diagonal of a square measuring eight by eight cubits [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 one-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 this be possible!?

How can eight niches fit along that diagonal of eleven cubits and one-fifth? For each niche is one cubit wide, and there are another seven cubits for the spaces between the niches, making fifteen cubits altogether.

Rather,

you must necessarily conclude that

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

And it is impossible to reconcile Rabbi Shimon’s statement about four caves except by saying that the niches were made deeper. The same applies to the two niches at the corner: they too were made deeper.

And if you wish, say:

There is no need to establish either the four caves or the two niches as having been made deeper. Rather,

as Rav Shisha, son of Rav Idi, will say

below,

with regard to stillborn infants,

in a small grave for stillborn infants.

Here too, it is with regard to stillborn infants.

Those two niches at the corner were intended for stillborn infants. For this was the practice of the builders of tombs: to use the corners of the cave for graves of stillborn infants. Such niches were narrower than usual, and the space at the corner was sufficient for them. Likewise, with regard to the four caves according to Rabbi Shimon, the niches at the beginning of the cave were intended for stillborn infants, and were only half a cubit long, except that they did not enter into the niches of the adjacent cave. In any event, all the niches were at the same height.

We learned there

in tractate Oholot [9:3]:

One who finds a corpse

lying alone in a grave, in a place where it was not known that there was a grave, and the corpse was

lying

there

in its usual manner,

which is an indication that a Jew is buried there, and he wishes to perform ritual purifications there:

The ruling is:

1.

He may move it.

He is permitted to move the corpse from there and bury it elsewhere, despite the general prohibition against moving a corpse from its grave. Since it is an isolated grave, we assume that it was buried there only temporarily, because there was not enough time to bring it to a cemetery, with the intention of subsequently moving it to a cemetery.

2.

And

he also takes with it

its surrounding earth.

If he indeed wishes to perform ritual purifications there, he must also take some of the earth beneath the corpse. He need not again be concerned about ritual impurity, either in that place or in its surroundings.

And likewise, if he finds

two

corpses, the ruling is that he

may move them and their surrounding earth.