Study Bava Batra folio 100B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
דרך הרבים – שש עשרה אמות. דרך ערי מקלט – שלשים ושתים אמות. אמר רב הונא: מאי קראה? דכתיב: ״תכין לך הדרך״ – ״דרך– הדרך״.
The standard width of a public thoroughfare is 16 cubits. A road leading to one of the cities of refuge must be at least 32 cubits wide. Rav Huna said: What is the verse from which this is derived? As it is written with regard to the cities of refuge: “You should prepare for yourself the way, and divide the borders of your land that YHWH, your God, caused you to inherit, into 3 parts, so that every manslayer may flee there” (Deuteronomy 19:3). Instead of simply stating: A way, the verse states: “The way,” to indicate that the road must be twice as wide as a standard public thoroughfare.
דרך המלך אין לה שיעור. שהמלך פורץ גדר לעשות לו דרך, ואין ממחין בידו.
The Mishnah teaches: A king’s thoroughfare has no maximum measure. The Talmud explains: This is because the halakha is that a king may breach the fence of an individual in order to create a thoroughfare for himself, and none may protest his actions.
דרך הקבר אין לה שיעור. משום יקרא דשכבא.
The Mishnah teaches: The path for those accompanying a deceased person to a grave has no maximum measure. The Talmud explains: This is due to the honor of the deceased.
המעמד – דייני ציפורי אמרו: בת ארבע קבין כו׳. תנו רבנן: המוכר קברו, דרך קברו, מקום מעמדו ובית הספדו – באין בני משפחה וקוברין אותו על כרחו, משום פגם משפחה.
§ The Mishnah teaches: With regard to the practice of standing and comforting the mourners following a funeral, the judges of Tzippori said that the standard requisite size is the area required for sowing 4 kav of seed. A baraita states: With regard to a family burial plot, even if one of the family sells the land designated for his own grave to another, or sells the path that will be used by the burial procession to his grave, or sells the place that will be used for standing and comforting his mourners, or sells the site that will be used for his eulogy, his family members may come and bury him in his grave even against the will of the buyer, due to the need to avoid a family flaw, i.e., harm to the family name that would arise if one of the family members was not buried with the rest of his family.