Bava Basra 7:3 - 7:4

מדה בחבל וכו' – A person who says to his fellow these two languages that contradict each other, the measure of the rope, which implies be defining exactly/squeezed in/confined whether less or more [as measured by the rope] that implies that he was not strict about a small amount less or more, the latter language which is a small amount less or more nullifies the first language which is that which is measured by the rope, and even if he lessened it a quarter of a Se’ah or made it larger by a quarter of a Se’ah, he has taken possession of it.

דברי בן ננס – for he holds that one should take hold of the latter language. And the Rabbis disagree with him, whether the first [language] or the latter [language] for they doubt if he took possession of the first language or the latter language. And the purchaser takes the lesser of the measurements, and the Halakha is according to the Sages.

בסימניו ובמצריו – He (i.e., the seller) said to him (i.e., the purchaser): “I am selling to you an area requiring a Khor of seed of soil within these markers and these boundaries.

[הכי גרסינן] פחות משתות הגיעו [עד] שתות ינכה – This is the interpretation: if he lessened it by one-sixth of the area of a Khor of seed, and all the more so, less than one-sixth, he takes possession of it, but more than one-sixth and below up until one-sixth, but not one-sixth included, he deducts from it.

משמנין ביניהן – they see the place of the fatter/better part of the field, and the seller takes that part, for the hand of the purchaser is at a disadvantage, and corresponding to it, he (i.e., the seller) gives to the boundarTalmud Bava Batra 107b). For when he (i.e., the seller) said to him (i.e., the purchaser): “I am selling you one-half of the field,” according to the worth of the half of the field, he said to him. And if it was one-hundred cubits [in total] for one hundred denars, but within it are thirty cubits which is the fatter/better part worth fifty denars, the seller takes that, and gives to the purchaser the seventy cubits which are the from the worst part for fifty denars. And the practical difference is that a person wants a Kab of the best took hold of the first language or the latter language, and the purchaser takes the less of the

חציה שבדרום אני מוכר לך – we do not compromise to average all of the field as it is in the first part [of the Mishnah], but rather, we estimate what half of the field in the South is worth, whether good or bad, and corresponding to what one-half of the field is in the South, the seller gives to the purchaser in any direction what he desires from the worst that he has, for the hand of the purchaser is at a disadvantage, and perhaps, this is what he said to him: “What is worth half that is in the South, I sell you from my land in any place that I desire.”

ומקבל עליו – the purchaser with his one-half field that he purchased to make a fence, and/or a large ditch or a small ditch. Both of them are behind the fence from the outside, in order that no wildlife not jump in and enter the field, for if he made a large ditch, he does not make a small ditch, for since the ditch is wide, it enters into it and jumps above its second rim, but if he made a small ditch and did not make a large ditch, since it is small, there exists garbage and it jumps. And how much is the distance between one small ditch and another small ditch? A handbreadth.