Commentary for Bava Batra 6:7
מִי שֶׁהָיְתָה דֶרֶךְ הָרַבִּים עוֹבֶרֶת בְּתוֹךְ שָׂדֵהוּ, נְטָלָהּ וְנָתַן לָהֶם מִן הַצַּד, מַה שֶּׁנָּתַן נָתַן, וְשֶׁלּוֹ לֹא הִגִּיעוֹ. דֶּרֶךְ הַיָּחִיד, אַרְבַּע אַמּוֹת. דֶּרֶךְ הָרַבִּים, שֵׁשׁ עֶשְׂרֵה אַמָּה. דֶּרֶךְ הַמֶּלֶךְ, אֵין לָהּ שִׁעוּר. דֶּרֶךְ הַקֶּבֶר, אֵין לָהּ שִׁעוּר. הַמַּעֲמָד, דַּיָּנֵי צִפּוֹרִי אָמְרוּ, בֵּית אַרְבַּעַת קַבִּין:
If a public path [i.e., one always used by the public] passed through one's field — If he took it and gave them one on the side, what he gave is given and (what he took) for himself does not revert to him. [And the public (now) has two paths, it being ruled: "A path held by the public may not be subverted."] A private path is four cubits. [i.e., If one sells his neighbor a path in the midst of his field, he must give him (at least) four cubits. A public path is sixteen cubits. The king's path has no limits. [For a king may "breach fences" before him to make a way for himself.] The path [on which one is carried] to the grave has no limits. [This is a rabbinic ordinance of respect for the dead. Not that those accompanying the body may "breach fences," as a king may, but they may pass over sown ground and need not detour to the side.] (If one sells his neighbor) a ma'amad (site), the judges of Sepphoris say: (He must give him at least an area of four kabin [i.e., thirty-three cubits and two handbreadths in width by fifty cubits in length. In the place of the ma'amad (lit., "standing"), they would execute seven standings and seven sittings when they returned from burying the dead, corresponding to the seven "Vanities" in the beginning of the book of Koheleth.]
Bartenura on Mishnah Bava Batra
English Explanation of Mishnah Bava Batra
A private path is four cubits. A public path is sixteen cubits. The king’s path has no prescribed measure. The path to a grave has no prescribed measure. The halting places, according to the judges of Tzippori, should be four kab’s space of ground.
Mishnah seven deals with laws concerning the building and the selling of private and public paths.
In the scenario presented in section one a person had a path that passed through the middle of his field and decided that he would take that path and use it as part of his field and he would create a different public path on the side of his field. According to the mishnah the seizure of the public path is invalid and the public may continue to use the path in the middle of the field. In addition, the path given on the side of the field becomes public property, such that the public may also use that path.
The remainder of the mishnah standardizes the sizes of paths for the purposes of selling and buying. A private path is four cubits (about 2 meters) wide and a public path is 16 cubits (8 meters) wide. Therefore if a person were to sell a private path he would be selling a four cubit path, and if he sold a public path he would have sold a 16 cubit path. The mishnah additionally informs us that a king’s procession passing through another person’s field is permitted to take as wide of a path as needed. So too, if a funeral procession passes, the procession may cut as wide of a path as needed. Finally, we learn that halting places, which were places on the path of the funeral procession, where the mourners would stop in the course of a funeral procession in order to eulogize the dead, were generally four kab big (25 meters by 17 meters). If a person sold a “halting place” to another person this is the size of the land sold.