How me'abrin cities? ["me'abrin," as in "ishah me'ubereth" (a pregnant woman). This is the intent: How are cities extended? "If one house were recessed and another projected etc." When he came to designate the city tchum and to measure two thousand cubits outside it, if the wall were not straight, but the houses were close together…] If one house were recessed [within the city more than its neighbor, so as to give a "defective" appearance] and another projected [more than its neighbor], or if one turret were recessed and another projected, or if there were tall ruins [sections of the wall of ruined houses within seventy cubits and a fraction of the city], or structures over tombs (provided that they contain living quarters) — the measure is taken opposite them [i.e., If the projections were in the northeast corner, it is perceived as if there were other projections opposite it in the southeast corner, and a line stretched from one to the other; and the measurement is taken from the line outwards so that the tchum be equal in the two corners and not longer in one and shorter in the other.] And it [the tchum] is made like a square tablet, [two thousand cubits on the sides as in the middle] so that the corners be gained, [and (it is not made) round, two thousand cubits in the middle and losing at the sides, as a circle does.]
Bartenura on Mishnah Eruvin
כיצד מעברין (how do they extend the city limits -for defining the Sabbath limit) – the language of a pregnant woman whose belly protrudes. And this is what he said, how does she have the extension of the city limits? If one house enters, and another house leaves, etc. And when he comes to put up a marker as a sign of the boundary of the city and he comes to measure two-thousand [cubits] outside it. But if hits wall was not part of it but rather the near-by houses and they were connected, and there is a house that enters into the city more than its neighbor, and its entrance appears defective, and there is house that protrudes and goes out side more than its neighbor.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Eruvin
Introduction
The Hebrew word for “extensions” here is the same word used to extend the month (from 28 to 29 days) and to extend the year (from 12 to 13 months). The “extensions” to the city are critical when figuring out how far the Shabbat limit goes. Before we reckon the 2000 cubits around the city, we must first delineate exactly what is included in the city.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Eruvin
או פגום נכנס פגום יוצא – there are towers protrude in the wall, sometimes they protrude inwards and sometimes outwards.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Eruvin
How do they make extensions for cities [for the purpose of defining the Shabbat limit]? If one house recedes and another projects, If at the end of the city there is a row of houses, but the row is not set up evenly, the Shabbat limit is measured from the house that projects the most and not from the house that recedes.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Eruvin
או שהיו שם – at one of the corners of the city.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Eruvin
Or if one turret [of the wall] recedes and another projects, If there is part of the wall (such as a turret, a tower used to guard the city) which projects further than other parts, the Shabbat limit is measured from the further projection.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Eruvin
גדודיות גבוהות (ruins/debris – ten handbreadths high) – broken parts of the wall of the destroyed homes, and there are within seventy cubits and remnants of the city.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Eruvin
If there were ruins ten handbreadths high, or bridges, or sepulchral monuments that contained dwelling places, they extend the boundary of the town is to include them. If there were ruins outside the parts of the city, or bridges or structures made over graves, then all of these are also included in the city.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Eruvin
או נפשות (structure next to or over a tomb) – a building that they make on the grave, and it has within them a dwelling house.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Eruvin
And they make it [the Shabbat limit] like a square tablet in order that the use of the corners might be gained. When they come to set the Shabbat limit, the first thing they do is make the city into a rectangle, with the furthest structure on each side being the city’s limits. Even if the city is circular, they draw a rectangle around it, so that people get some extra place to travel at the corners. The 2000 cubits are now measured in a square around this square, so that people again get the benefit of the corners (see also above 4:8).
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Bartenura on Mishnah Eruvin
מוציאין את המדה כנגדן – if these protrusions are near the northeastern corner, we see as if there is another protrusion corresponding to it on the southwestern corner, and a chord is stretched from one to the other and measures from the chord and outward, in order that the [Sabbath] limit is equivalent to the two corners, and it won’t be long here and short there.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Eruvin
ועושין אותן – the [Sabbath] limits square, so that there should be two-thousand [cubits] to the sides like there is in the middle. But not round, so that there will be two-thousand [cubits] in the middle, and on the sides, they are reduced in the manner of something round.
