משנה: הָרוֹצֶה לַעֲשׂוֹת שָׂדֵהוּ מֵשָׁר מֵשָׁר מִכָּל מִין בֵּית שַׁמַּאי אוֹמְרִים שְׁלֹשָׁה תְלָמִין שֶׁל פָּתִיחַ. וּבֵית הִלֵּל אוֹמְרִים מְלוֹא הָעוֹל הַשָּׁרוֹנִי. וּקְרוֹבִים דִּבְרֵי אֵלּוּ לִהְיוֹת כְּדִבְרֵי אֵלּוּ. MISHNAH: If someone wants to make his field into separate garden beds90Borrowed from Aramaic מישרא, parallel Arabic مَشَارَة “plant life”. According to Maimonides in his Code (Kilaim 3:8), משר applies only to a rectangular garden bed that is not square. A square garden bed is called ערוגה if it is isolated and קרחת if it is part of a field. The latter assertion is difficult to accept, cf. Note 150. One might accept that קרחת applies to congruent rectangular patches but משר to rectangular patches of differing sizes. This seems to be the position of R. Abraham ben David of Posquières. of different kinds, the House of Shammai say, three furrows of the ploughshare, and the House of Hillel say, the width of a Sharon yoke. Both criteria are close to one another91According to Maimonides, the criterion is that of the minimal distance between beds. According to R. Isaac Simponti, the criterion is that of the minimal size of a garden bed, with only a minimal but orderly separation. The Halakhah can be interpreted both ways; this is the position of R. Simson..
הלכה: רִבִּי זְעִירָא רִבִּי לָֽעְזָר בְּשֵׁם רִבִּי חִייָה רוֹבָא עוֹשֶׂה שְׁתֵּי אַמּוֹת עַל שְׁתֵּי אַמּוֹת וּמֵיצַר וְהוֹלֵךְ אֲפִילוּ כָּל־שֶׁהוּא. אָמַר רִבִּי יוֹנָה הָדָא דְּתֵימַר בַּעֲשׂוּיָה מֵשָׁרִין מֵשָׁרִין אֲבָל בַּעֲשׂוּיָה מֵשָׁר אֶחָד לֹא בְדָא. וָאַתְיָא כַּיי דְּאָמַר רִבִּי יַנַּאי יְכִיל אֲנָא זְרַע חַקְלִי חַמְשִׁין מִינִין עֶשְׂרִים וַחֲמִשָּׁה מִיכָּא וְעֶשְׂרִין וַחֲמִשָּׁה מִיכָּא. אַף בִּשְׁתֵּי שׁוּרוֹת כֵּן. מֵעַתָּה אֲפִילוּ בֵּינוֹ לְבֵין חֲבֵירוֹ מוּתָּר. אַף בְּחוֹרֵבָה כֵּן. אוֹ ייָבֹה כַּיי דְּאָמַר רֵישׁ לָקִישׁ בְּשֵׁם חִזְקִיָּה רֹאשׁ תּוֹר הַבָּא מֵחוֹרֵבָה מוּתָּר. רִבִּי אוֹמֵר מַתְחִיל בֵּית רוֹבַע וּמֵיצַר וְהוֹלֵךְ עַד שְׁלֹשָׁה תְלָמִין שֶׁל פָּתִיחַ. וְלֵית לֵיהּ לְרִבִּי תְּבוּאָה בִּתְבוּאָה בֵּית רוֹבַע. תַּמָּן בִּמְרוּבַּע וְכָאן בְּמֵישָׁר. וְלֵית לְרַבָּנִין מֵישָׁר. אָמַר רִבִּי יוּדָן סוֹף מֵישָׁר לְרִבִּי תְּחִילַּת מֵשָׁר לְרַבָּנִין. HALAKHAH: Rebbi Zeïra, Rebbi Eleazar, in the name of Rebbi Ḥiyya the Elder: He makes it two by two cubits, but decreases continuously to an arbitrarily small distance92The total area must be four square cubits, but the division into strips is left to the farmer. This interpretation seems required by the question of R. Eleazar in the next paragraph.
R. Simson thinks that somewhere there must be an empty space of two by two cubits, otherwise the border strips can be as narrow as one desires. Maimonides in his Commentary and Hilkhot Kilaim 4:6 explains: “He makes it two by two cubits, but the border can be minimal;” i. e., if the field is subdivided into garden beds, inside between any two beds must be 4 square cubits of fallow land. At the border of the entire field, a border strip must be left empty. That strip has no minimal size (but presumably it must be wide enough to allow the farmer to walk there on his own property.) This interpretation takes מצר as a noun, “border strip,” a word otherwise documented only in the Babli. The translation and R. Simson take the word as a verb, “to narrow,” a usage that is required later in the statement of Rebbi. In addition, the phrase והולך עד “doing something continuously,” is only used in conjunction with transitive verbs.. Rebbi Jonah said, that is, if it is subdivided into garden beds, but if all is one bed, it does not apply. This parallels what Rebbi Yannai said: I may sow my field93The standard field understood in all these Mishnaiot, a bet seah of 50 by 50 cubits. Rebbi Yannay splits the field into two strips, each of length 50 and width 25-ε cubits (ε being a small positive quantity) and reserving two cubits in length for each crop and its border. with fifty kinds, twenty-five here and twenty-five there; this is in two rows. If that is so, would it be permitted even between himself and his neighbor94This is the case of Mishnah 6.? Or in a dry spot95This was discussed in Chapter 1, Halakhah 9 (Note 203), as a matter of dispute between Rebbi Joḥanan and R. Simeon ben Laqish.? Then it parallels what Rebbi Simeon ben Laqish said in the name of Ḥizqiah: A vertex from a dry spot is permitted! Rebbi said, he starts with an area of bet rova‘ and narrows it down to three furrows of the ploughshare. Does Rebbi not accept that between grains one needs a bet rova‘96Stated in Rebbi’s own Mishnah 2:9; it is extremely rare to find Rebbi accepting into the Mishnah anonymous opinions conflicting with his own basic positions.? That is for a square field97Of a minimum size of 2500 square cubits., here for a garden bed. Do the rabbis not recognize garden beds? Rebbi Yudan said, the minimal distance for Rebbi is the maximal distance for the rabbis98For Rebbi, the width of three furrows is the lower limit of what is acceptable; for the rabbis, the width of three furrows is the upper limit of what is required. So everybody agrees that the separation by three furrows is acceptable under all circumstances..
רִבִּי לָֽעְזָר שָׁאַל הָֽיְתָה שָׂדֶה קְטַנָּה מַהוּ. נִישְׁמְעִינָהּ מִן הָדָא רִבִּי לָֽעְזָר בַּר שִׁמְעוֹן אַבָּא יוֹסֵי בֶּן יוֹחָנָן אִישׁ יָנוֹחַ אָמַר בִּגְדוֹלָה חֲמִשִּׁים אַמּוֹת. וּבִקְטַנָּה עַל פִּי רוּבָּהּ. מַה אִם אֵילּוּ שֶׁנָּֽתְנוּ שִׁיעוּר לִגְדוֹלָה לֹא נָֽתְנוּ שִׁיעוּר לִקְטַנָּה. חֲכָמִים שֶׁלֹּא נָֽתְנוּ שִׁיעוּר לִגְדוֹלָה לֹא כָּל־שֶׁכֵּן שֶׁלֹּא יִתְּנוּ שִׁיעוּר לִקְטַנָּה. Rebbi Eleazar asked: What are the rules for a small field99Since for a standard field (50 by 50 cubits), the total area of the strips between the garden beds must be four square cubits, what is the required minimum for a field that does not contain the required 2500 square cubits?? Let us hear from the following: “100Parallel statements appear in Tosephta Kilaim 2:1, 2:4, about the border strips, or furrows, that are required between two fields, either in the situation of the preceding or the present Mishnah. For fields longer than 50 cubits, they do not require that the separation of the fields, by empty strip or by planted flax, be longer than 50 cubits. (Probably, this means that in designating the border by one row of flax, one may not use a furrow longer than 50 cubits, in order to avoid commercially usable flax that would be kilaim and make the field forbidden.) The statement about a small field is not in the Tosephta concerned only with fields having at least the standard size.
Abba Yose bar Joḥanan (Hanan) from Yanoaḥ in Upper Galilee, a Tanna of the fifth generation, was a student of R. Meïr and Abba Cohen Bar Dalaiah. Rebbi Eleazar ben Simeon: Abba Yose ben Joḥanan from Yanoaḥ said for a large field 50 cubits, for a small field along most of it.” Since those who specified a measure for a large field did not do so for a small one, the Sages who did not specify a measure for a large field certainly would not specify a measure for a small field.