Bava Basra 2:1 - 2:2

לא יחפור. בור – round.

שיח – long or short

מערה – it is covered with an arched ceiling.

נברכת הכובסין – a square pit. And rain waters gather in it as it is made to launder clothing.

אלא אם כן הרחיק מכותלו – it is saying from the wall of his cistern. And the thickness of the wall of his cistern is not less than three handbreadths, it is found that from the cavity/space of his cistern to the cavity/space of his fellow’s cistern is six handbreadths. But it is prohibited for a person to rely upon one of the damages to the end of his boundary equally, other than if he distanced it the appropriate measurement, even though his fellow lacks a wall there, lest his fellow decide that he will build on the side of his boundary, and it is found that this causes damage.

וסד בסיד – the walls of his pit.

הגפת – the refuse of the olives after they were gathered together in the olive press.

הסלעים – stones where the light comes out from them, for all of these are hard for the fortification and weaken the wall, and we are not referring to the wall of the cistern now.

זרעים – they are hard for the wall for they undermine the grounds (through their roots – see Talmud Bava Batra 19b) and bring up crushed, loose earth.

ואת המחרישה – even though there are no seeds, as, for example, when they plow for trees, it is hard for the wall.

מי רגלים – they make loathsome the bricks which are of dry plaster. Therefore, someone who urinates close by the wall that is made of bricks needs to distance himself three handbreadths. But with a wall of stones, he distances himself a handbreadth, and of a hard stone such as granite, he does not have to distance himself at all.

הריחים – they are hard on the wall because they shake the ground with the force of its rolling.

מן השכב – from the lower millstone.

הרכב – this is the upper one that rides on this. But it is shorter by a handbreadth of the lower one.

שלשה מן הכליא – the base upon which they build from plaster/clay and stones that they place the oven upon it, and It is wide from the bottom and narrow from the top, and upper rim of the belly of the stove is where the stove sits. It is like the measurement of the oven and one must distance the base from the wall three handbreadths from its underbelly, which are four [handbreadths] from the its upper rim, because the vapor of the oven damages the wall.

גובה דא אמות – the space from the lip of the oven until the ceiling, in order that the fire not ignite the ceiling.

עד שיהא תחתיו מעזיבה – [plaster of] clay three handbreadths, so that the lower ceiling of the attic not burn, and above it a space of four cubits.

ובכירה – they place the pot on its cavity/space and they don’t make it in a large fire as they do for an oven.

ואם הזיק – after there were there all of these measurements,

he pays for the damage that he caused, and nevertheless, they prevent him with all of these measurements lest he kindle their homes, and he doesn’t have what with to pay. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Shimon.