Commento su Kelim 17:11

במדה דקה (a smaller measure) – of the wilderness, it is called the smaller measure, because there is the Jerusalem wilderness and the Tzipori/Sepphoris [measurement] (in the Upper Galilee), but the wilderness one is smaller than all of them.

Introduction In previous mishnayot we learned all of the halakhot in which the medium measure was used. In today's mishnah we learned that sometimes smaller measures were used, and sometimes the measure used depended upon the person for whom the halakhah was relevant.

מדות הלח – a Hin (i.e., twelve LOG or 72 egg bulks) and one-half of a Hin.

Sometimes they stated a smaller measure: Liquid and dry measures were measured with the Italian standard which was the one that was used in the wilderness. The dry and liquid measures used in the Temple, for instance the measures of wine, oil and flour that accompanied sacrifices (see Menahot 9:1-2) were all measured using an Italian standard that was considered to be the same as that used in the Temple.

והיבש – the Issaron (i.e., one-tenth of an Ephah) and the half-Issaron.

Sometimes they stated a measure that varied according to the individual concerned: One who takes the handful of a minhah, One who takes both hands full of incense, One who drinks a cheek full on Yom Kippur, And the two meals for an eruv, For other halakhot, the size of the measure depends upon the individual person. The mishnah lists four such cases. The first is the priest who removes a handful from the minhah offering (Leviticus 2:2). The size of the handful depends on the person. The same is true with the two handfuls of incense on Yom Kippur (see Leviticus 16:12). If one drinks a cheek full of liquid on Yom Kippur he is liable for karet. The size of this amount obviously depends upon the size of the individual's cheek. Finally, when it comes to Shabbat border eruvim (an eruv set to allow a person to travel further outside of his city on Shabbat, see Introduction to Eruvin) the food set aside as the eruv must consist of two meals. The amount of food necessary for the meal depends on how much the person setting the eruv eats.

באיטלקי in the Italian measurement of Greece, and this is the wilderness one that existed at the time of Moses.

The remainder of this mishnah is found in Eruvin. It is clearly brought here because once we mention the amount of food necessary for an eruv meal, the mishnah deals briefly with a debate concerning the issue. According to Rabbi Meir, the eruv must consist of enough food for two weekday meals. Rabbi Judah says the food should be enough for Shabbat meals and not weekday meals. Seemingly we would think that a person eats more on Shabbat than during the week, so Rabbi Judah would be stricter than Rabbi Meir. However, the mishnah says that both intended to be lenient. In order to understand this, we need to explain that the eruv’s minimum measurement was set according to the amount of bread eaten at a typical meal. According to Rabbi Meir, on Shabbat one eats a lot of different types of food and a lot of bread to accompany the food. Therefore, on Shabbat one eats more, and the minimum amount of food for the eruv is set according to the bread eaten during the week, a lesser amount. According to Rabbi Judah, since on Shabbat there are many side dishes a person eats less bread than he would during the week when there are less side dishes. Therefore, Rabbi Judah sets the minimum amount of bread for the eruv according to what one eats on Shabbat. According to Rabbi Shimon, two meals are equivalent to two-thirds of a loaf when three loaves are made from a kav of wheat. A loaf is therefore 1/3 of a kav and 2/3 of a loaf is two meals. Rabbi Yohanan ben Baroka gives a minimum amount of bread that must be used for the eruv. This amount of bread is what is sufficient for two meals. It is the size of a loaf that can be bought for one pundion (a coin) when 4 se’ah (24 kav, a measure of volume) of wheat are sold for a sela (a coin worth 48 pundion). If we do the math, we can see that a kav of wheat is bought for two pundionim, meaning that one pundion will buy half a kav of wheat, which according to Rabbi Yohanan ben Baroka is sufficient for two meals. This is a larger amount than that set by Rabbi Shimon.

כפי מה שהוא אדם – whether small or large [as in the size of the person].

קומץ המנחה (the handful of the meal-offering) – as it is written (Leviticus 2:2): “[The priest] shall scoop out of it a handful [of its choice flour and oil, as well as all of its frankincense].”

וחפני קטורת (and he takes both hands full of incense) – of Yom Kippur, as it is written (Leviticus 16:12): “and two handfuls of finely ground aromatic incense.”

כמלוא לוגמיו ([and drinks] a mouthful ) – if he drank a mouthful on Yom Kippur, he is liable. And according to the mouthful of the person who drinks we measure/estimate.

כמזון שתי סעודות ולעירוב – the joining of borders is not with less than food for two meals.

מזונו לחול – like the food for two meals of a weekday when he eats a little bit, but not like the food for two meals on Shabbat that he eats more because of the sweetness of his cooking, it is found that for delicacies there is always room.

לשבת אבל לא לחול – for on the contrary, two meals of the Sabbath day are less than two meals of the weekday, because a person eats three meals on Shabbat and he doesn’t increase his eating at each meal.

ואלו ואלו מתכוונים להקל (these and those intend to give the more lenient ruling) – each one of them intendents to lessen the loaf of the Eruv.

משתי ידות לככר משלש לקב ([it should consist] of two-thirds of a loaf [of a size] three to the Kab)-it is enough for an Eruv with two-thirds of loaf of [a size] three loaves to the Kab. It is found that a complete loaf is one-third of a Kab, and its two-thirds of a loaf is a loaf of the Eruv.

מככר בפונדיון – a loaf that is purchased with a Pundiyon/Dupondium (a Roman coin equal to two I ssar/16 Perutot) from the baker when four Seah of what are worth one Sela. And four Seah are twenty-four Kab that each Seah is six Kabim. And the Sela is four Denarim and the Denar is worth six Ma’ah, and he Ma’ah is worth two Pundiyonim, therefore, the loaf that is sold for Pundiyon is one-half of Kab. But because the shopkeeper wishes to make a profit, and the costs of baking and grinding , the loaf will not be sold for a Pundiyon when they are sold four Seah for a Sela, but rather one-quarter of a Kab, and the other one-quarter goes to the profit of the shopkeeper and the expenses of baking and grinding. Therefore, a loaf that is purchased for a Pundiyon is one-quarter of a Kab, which is six eggs, and it is the measurement of two meals, which is the loaf of the Eruv. And this is the Halakha (according to Rabbi Yohanan ben Beroka).