Keilim 17:10 - 17:11

כל האמות היו בינונית – which a cubit that is six handbreadths in length.

חוץ ממזבח הזהב – that was a cubit by a cubit.

והקרן – of the bronze altar. For it had on its four corners four stones of a cubit in height and a cubit by a cubit in thickness. And that cubit was with the cubit that was five [handbreadths in length].

והסובב והיסוד – of the bronze altar. And in the third chapter of [Tractate] Middot, they are explained (see Tractate Middot, Chapter three, Mishnah one).

אמת בנין – such as the wall of the Temple and the altar of the burnt-offering.

אמת כלים – such as the Ark, and the table and the Golden Altar. And the Halakha is according to Rabbi Meir.

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.

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

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

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

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).