Eruvin 54b–55b
Could a City Really Have No Vegetables?
Part of Ein Yaakov · 26:11
Continues the theme of acquiring Torah through simanim, the physical scale of the Levite camp, and a surprising halachic debate over whether radishes are life-giving or poisonous depending on the season.
Audio Transcript
אמר רב חסדא, Rav Chisda said, אין התורה נקנית אלא בסימנים. The only way to acquire Torah, in other words, to remember Torah, is if you make simanim. The Gemara, we find a siman to remind you. שנאמר, it says, שימה בפיהם. Simple peshat means, put it in their mouth. אל תקרי שימה אלא סימנה. Don't read it שימה, but סימנה, which is the word siman. So, it tells you that put it in their mouth. שמעה רב תחליפא במערבא, Rav Tachlifa in Eretz Yisrael heard this. אזל, he went, אמרה קמיה דרבי אבהו, he went and said this to Rabbi Abahu. אמר, Rabbi Abahu said to him, אתון מהתם מתניתו לה? You learned it out from that פסוק, שימה בפיהם. אנן מהכא מתנינן לה, we learn off from a different pasuk. There's a pasuk, it says, הציבי לך ציונים, make yourself tziyunim. What's a ציון? That means עשו ציונים לתורה, that means make simanim to the Torah. פרעגט די Gemara: מאי משמע דהאי ציון לישנא דסימנא הוא? Where do we see that the word ציון means a סימן? See, if it says in a pasuk in יחזקאל, וראה עצם אדם ובנה אצלו ציון, he saw a bone of a person, a skeleton of a body, and he built on it a ציון. What's a ציון? A siman. That's tumah over there. Right, a siman that this is a place where there's a body buried. So, we see the word ציון means a siman. Actually, in Chassidus and Kabbalah it says, why is Yerushalayim also called ציון? Because ירושלים דלתתא down here is a siman of ירושלים של מעלה. It's ציון. Huh? ציון. Same shoresh. Not ציון. I know. Same shoresh. Word ציון in in is it called Yerushalayim called ציון is from the same shoresh as ציון. ציון, right. ציון and that means a siman. It means a siman.
רבי אלעזר אמר, רבי אלעזר מהכא, from a different pasuk, it says, ומודע לבינה תקרא. עשה מודעים לתורה, make things, לבינה means for the understanding of Torah. Make things that will make you know the Torah. What things make you know the Torah? If you make simanim. We learned it earlier also בנוגע Shlomo Hamelech. What Shlomo Hamelech מעלה was that he made אזנים לתורה he called, אזנים means ears to the Torah. Because like this you have so many inyanim, but you have to hold on to it, you have to have it. That's why the Rebbe was so much for making sefer maftechot. מפתחות על ספרים he always pushed. An index? An index. Look, you know that someone tells you, \"You know there's a a Chasam Sofer says something.\" Okay, go find it. Okay, nowadays you put the button into the computer. So, you look in the mafteach and you'll see. Is there a Chafetz Chaim around here? Yeah? One, one volume. One volume? There's two copies of it in the back. There's two copies? I only saw one. I only saw one once. Somewhere. These are the sefarim you should never get for a shul or yeshiva. Never. No, I'm telling you experience. Don't get what? Don't get such sefarim to the yeshiva or to shul. Because they last for two weeks. It's geneivah? It's geneivah, that's what happens. Why is that? Because people take it and never return it. No, these are sefarim people use. All these sefarim are that, like maaseh sefarim, maaseh bichelech, don't buy, it's not worth a penny to buy, because what happens is, you buy it, you put it down, unless it's always under lock and key. Uh, not lock and key, someone borrows it, and that's it. Well, once they say one of the guy, a guy walked out from shul with a sefer, so somebody says, \"How are you allowed to take it? You're not allowed to take it.\" \"Come on, but I have a heter meah rabbanim.\" \"Heter meah rabbanim?\" \"A hundred rabbanim did it already.\" All right, so that's what it is. So, I say this mafteach was here, I told the yeshivah, they wanted to get it, they said, \"Don't get it. It costs a lot of money. It's a big sefer, and it's not worth it.\" But, anyway, it's a big inyan that the Rebbe always pushed for maftechot. So, you you did the פסוק, ומודע לבינה תקרא. Yeah. So, as long as you're talking about binah, so what is it? Keter, if keter, then chachmah, binah, and daat. But then you have more than then you have more than 10. במקום שהכתר נמנה, אין הדעת נמנה. במקום שהדעת נמנה, אין הכתר נמנה. Well, we count to 10. That's the answer. Kabbalah, yeah. I see that Lag BaOmer you learned, learned kabbalah. It's still on your mind. Okay. רבא אמר, רבא says: Remember once the Rebbe pushed to put make a mafteach on one sefer, and the Rebbe finally asked, \"Nu, what's going on with heart?\" So, the answer that they weren't It's not perfect yet. They didn't perfect it yet, so they wanted kiss. So, everyone said, \"Give it out the way it is.\" And he said He wrote like this, and happened It could be in other things also, but that he wrote on this: \"כל עכוב, any עכוב, any hold-up, פירושו שעכשיו בודאי לא.\" All I know is that it means now, for sure not. Later, I don't know. So, he pushed, and he pushed very much to begin the mafteach. Because, and I see, everyone uses it. I mean, the mafteach. Because otherwise you can't find a Take a Likkutei Sichos. You have 39 volumes. And that's a inyan that you want to look up, where are you going to find this? Unless you're baki in Likkutei Sichos and you know that in this this parashah the Rebbe talks about it. So, in other sefarim that sefarim on Gemara. Sefarim on Gemara, so you want to look up something on גמרא דף ל״ד, you open it on ל״... This is on parashah, so the other inyanim are so on, give up. Anyway, this is the way it started. Hashem himself gave us סימנים to make it easy for us, people. He put the maaseh with Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai on Shabbos on דף ל״ג. Yeah. It had to be a ל״ג. Yeah. He puts מאי חנוכה on Shabbos on כ״א. Yeah, exactly. So they'll find it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's true. There are more there are more things like that. More. Ah? No, a lot of sefarim are written on a certain thing. But even there, when you have a sefer on on on on masechta, but in middle when they're מסביר ענינים, the בעל המחבר is מסביר a different inyan someplace else, and you remember he said something, and and and you don't know where it is. So if you have a מפתח, then you look it up. If you have a מפתח ענינים, you're always able it's much easier to look up. On the parsha. What? On the parsha. No, because they gave out on the parshiyos. So they're stuck in heaven now. Yeah, there is a sefer of parshiyos. All the sichos and maamarim in one volume. They have them, yeah. You don't have it? You should get it. Yeah. It's called Likkutei Sichos al haParshiyos. It's called Likkutei Sichos al haParshiyos. Now with this Chumash and the Gutnick and the other one, the Kehot, they have all the sichos in there, you can find them. That's on the parsha! But if I want a sicha on this Gemara, what do I do? The thing is, it's not only sichos have on on Gemara, on נגלה, on on hashkafah, on story, כל התורה כולה! So how are you going to find it, you know? On a holiday. You know... How are you going to find it? It's not a holiday, so it could be anywhere. No, a holiday they have perek, they have sichos on Pesach, on Shavuos. But there's so many inyanim they talk in other places which are connected. So how are you going to know? So a מפתח, having a מפתח is a very, very important thing to make with this. They bind the books now, you put a hole through the corner and bind and put a lock and key on this. Why? You said you want to keep it with under lock and key. You can't buy these books under lock and key, that's what you said. Oh, you mean the sefarim, these sefarim, yes. Keep them locked. Huh? Yeah, so three copies it'll take six weeks. One copy takes two weeks, that takes... No, they're still working. Anyway, Rava, but
Rava says when it says the pasuk, 'כי אם לבינה תקרא', it means something else: עשה מועדים לתורה. Make time for Torah. Means make a קביעות עתים לתורה. Pashut, learn. Make time that you have to learn, and mimela you have to come, and you have to learn because this is your set time. Which probably means even more that קביעת עתים לתורה, קביעת בנפש. Pashut, you should know to learn. והיינו דאמר רב אבדימי בר חמא בר דוסא: he said, 'מאי דכתיב, what is the peshat in the pasuk 'לא בשמים היא ולא מעבר לים היא'? Torah is not in shamayim, Torah is not מעבר לים.' So some people in America, תא חזי, 'לא מעבר לים היא' (laughter) Torah is not across the ocean. Europe was the Torah, here מעבר לים. But what it means is... So he taytsh's like this: 'לא בשמים היא' means שאם בשמים היא, that means even if it would be in שמים, אתה צריך לעלות אחריה, you have to go get it. See, peshat pashut is not like that. Peshat pashut it's not in shamayim, but if it would be in shamayim, nu mimela I understand why you complain you can't get it, because it's not in shamayim. He says the opposite! It's not in shamayim, hishtadel to get it anyway. 'ולא מעבר לים היא', if it would be... That's the vort, yeah. 'ולא מעבר לים היא', and it's not across the ocean, because אם מעבר לים היא אתה צריך לעבור אחריה. If it be there, you still have to go get it. Rava, אמר Rava says 'לא בשמים היא' means something else. It's not in שמים, לא תימצא במי שמגביה דעתו עליה כשמים. You can't find Torah by somebody who his head is up to שמים, means a baal gaavah. It can't be. 'ולא מעבר לים היא', and it's not that side of the yam, meaning לא תימצא במי שמרחיב דעתו עליה כים. He's מרחיב his, the דעה, it's all the same idea of gaavah. רבי יוחנן אמר: 'לא בשמים היא' means לא תימצא בגסי הרוח. You won't find it בגסי הרוח. What's the chiluk between a גס הרוח and a בעל גאוה? Well, חסידות טייטש's, there are other peshatim, but חסידות טייטש's: ruach is ruchniyus. גס הרוח, אז עין רוחניות is grob. You have people that grobe mentshen, but their ruchniyus is eidel. But a fine mentsh, but when it comes to their ruchniyus it's a grob. They come to do a mitzvah, they do it that's in a grobe way, you know, sometimes. And some people you have eidele, pashut more ruchniyus, more טאקע זיין. So that's taytsh they are גסי הרוח. 'ולא מעבר לים היא', it's not across the ocean, לא תימצא לא בסחרנים ולא בתגרנים. מעבר לים means people have to travel. You will not find it by people who are peddlers and go from city to city, just because they spend so much time having to sell their merchandise, they Torah, Torah will not be found by them. These people cannot learn, I mean, because in order to learn Torah you have to have מנוחת הנפש, you have to be calm, you have to be set in one place. That's the meaning of the Midrash which says, לא ניתנה תורה אלא לאוכלי המן, תורה was given only to those that ate the מן, which means the Torah was given only to the people in the מדבר. What does that mean? Only to them the Torah was given? It means that you So the mefarshim say it means you could only really learn Torah and acquire it and keep it if you have no דאגות. Like the people that ate the מן, they had no worries on their head, they had everything was given to them. The Rambam is mechayev all those people. The Rambam had didn't have a quiet day in his life. Hillel was mechayev Hillel was מחייב עניים. עניים. But the Rambam is this problem and that problem and another problem and he still wrote the Yad Hachazakah. Yeah, yeah. But also when he had to When he wrote the Yad Hachazakah he locked himself up in a room to be calm and quiet so he shouldn't have any, yeah, says even for so many years he locked himself up, says 10 years, he locked himself up and he wrote till he finally came out the Sefer Yad Hachazakah. But, of course, he had a very hard life. His father died and he ran from here, ran from there, ran away from from Spain and then he came to Fez and then from Fez he came to Eretz Yisrael, he had terrible He was in hiding. Right, in hiding and then he could he ran from death to Eretz Yisrael and from Eretz Yisrael he went to Mitzrayim. But finally, his father died later and his brother took care of him and his brother got drowned in a trip on the ship on the ocean when he went for business. His brother was the one that that supported him so his brother died, he had no support. That's why he had to become a doctor. The Rambam, he had a very hard time. I'll tell you even more, the
Rambam as a child had a very bad head. First of the cup he couldn't understand. Serious? That was memory, here is that he couldn't understand. It is. And what did he do? Yes, a ma'aseh with his father. Also have to do with tefillah or something, I don't remember the פרטים. Do you know the פרטים? It's a true story. Had to do something with something. In any case, then he went to the רמג\"ש. It was later he went to the רמג\"ש. Yeah. But I I have a kind I have a chaver in Eretz Yisrael, a big תלמיד חכם and צדיק, he knows נגלה and נסתר and everything. But when he was younger, he studied psychology. So he was winning with a professor, a professorke, and she was asking him, does he know what does he know about the Rambam? And she kept on she kept hakn a tshaynik with the Rambam. So finally he'd answer her, but every then he says, \"Why are you asking me so many questions about the Rambam?\" She says, \"Because she studies handwriting analysis, and she had the handwriting analysis of different people, different geniuses, and she said she never saw in her life one handwriting that had every סימן of of a genius in one handwriting except for the Rambam's.\" Interesting, interesting word. That's what he told me. Interesting. And I would trust No, and this and and this What is it called? That means there's no chochmah of the handwriting is a valid chochmah, it's not a joke. But he said usually it's it's you it's usually Someone asked the Rabbi, asked the Rabbi, is is it true? Is it real? And the Rabbi answered, \"Yes.\" And he says, \"I know it also.\" They gave the Alter Rebbe's handwriting to analyze. He gave Shazar gave without telling him who this is, and also it's a whole report, everything. And someone gave the Rabbi's handwriting, also came out with a report that is also Anyway, we're getting we're getting off the track. שטייט ווייטער אין גמרא: ויחנו על הירדן מבית הישימת. That's the one that they said he was פארשטאפט דעם קאפ. Imagine. Sometimes when you work your your head out, mitoch hadechak, it becomes greater than than, yeah. But it's just like, when you think a lot, your head, gashmiyut, it gets the חריצים and gets the grooves that ויחנו על הירדן מבית הישימת, the Yisrael rested by the Yarden by the בית הישימת. אמר רבה בר בר חנה אמר רבי יוחנן, he said, לדידי חזי לי ההוא אתרא, I saw that area, והוי תלתא פרסי על תלתא פרסי, it was three hundred it was three פרסאות by three פרסאות. This is from where the Gemara says that we know that the מחנה ישראל, the
whole מחנה took up three פרסאות by three פרסאות. Cuz the area where they rested, and he said, \"I saw the place, it was three פרסאות by three פרסאות.\" That's when the Here the Gemara doesn't say, but the Gemara in Berachot continues with the מעשה with Og Melech Habashan that he this the מחנה ישראל was three פרסאות by three פרסאות, and he who said, \"I have a way to kill them very easily.\" So he picked up a mountain which was three פרסאות by three פרסאות, and he said, \"All I have to do is just drop it on them.\" The Eibershter made a nes that mice came and made a hole in it, and it fell over his head. Tried to take it out, the Eibershter made his tooth grow out so it got stuck. And then Moshe Rabbeinu took the ax, jumped up, the ax was 10 אמות high, Moshe Rabbeinu was 10 אמות tall, he jumped up 10 אמות and he hit him in the ankle. Yes, so we also learned כשניתנין when they had to go to the bathroom, you couldn't do it inside the מחנה, because of the it was inside the cloud, you had to go outside of the ענני הכבוד. And since the ענני הכבוד covered the whole מחנה, so it covered three פרסאות, so when they had to go, אין נפנין לא לפניהם, they couldn't go in front. So the משל, somebody was in front of the מחנה, so you would think, oh, he's right by the edge, he could go out. He couldn't go in the front. He had to go all the way to the back. ולא לצדיהן, not to the side, אלא לאחריהן, to the back. Why? Because you never knew where the ענן is going to go. They know one thing for sure, it's not going to go back. It's going to go this way or this way, so you always had to be afraid, so you could never go do anything there. So you always had to go to the back. Yehudah. Yehudah is in the front and Dan is in the back. But Yehuda had always... Yeah. Okay. אמר
רב יהודה אמר רב: ישבי צריפים והולכי מדברות, those that live in the tents, in the huts, and those that travel in the desert, like what do they call them, nomads? Yeah. חייהם אינם חיים, their life is not a life. You can imagine what kind of life this is. ונשיהם ובניהם אינם שלהם, their wives and their children are not theirs. Gemara will explain in a second. תניא נמי הכי, it says also, אלעזר איש בירם אומר, he says: ישבי צריפים כישבי קברות. Those that live in the צריפים, in these huts, in these, are like they live in the cave, in the grave. You're like you're dead. ועל בנותיהן הוא אומר, and on their daughters it says, ארור שכב עם כל בהמה. You marry one of their daughters, like you're marrying a בהמה. What is a צריף? Huts, tents. מאי טעמא? What's the reason for this? Ulla אמר, Ulla says like this: מפני שאין להם מרחצאות. Like this, they don't have, in these areas they don't have where to bathe. So what's going to happen? So they have to go far out to bathe. And when they go far out to bathe, they're all alone there. So all these thieves and all these underworld people come, and they have relations with them, so mimela you can never know their children could be all mamzerim. Rabbi Yochanan אמר, Rabbi Yochanan says: מפני שמרגישים זה לזה בטבילה. Because when they have to go to the mikveh, and it's far out, they have to take someone along. Can't go themselves. They take someone along, it already makes already a shtikel tumul. When you go by yourself no one knows, so people know you're going. If people know you're going, there could be a guy, a man, who could follow you. And then it doesn't go as far as as mamzerim, but follows you and there's a she'eilah of yichud, because you have two women with one man, it's a she'eilah of yichud, you're not allowed to. And that's why you can't trust. מאי בינייהו? What's the difference which reason? איכא בינייהו נהרא דסמיך לביתא. What happens if you have a river which is not far from the house? Now, a river you can't use for a מרחץ, a river you can't bathe, but you could use it for a mikveh. So therefore, so therefore like this: so the problem of the mikveh, if we say the problem of the mikveh because you're going to have to take someone along is not there, because if that's the problem, this is not a problem. The problem of bathing, they still have to go someplace to bathe. So the problem of the first problem will still exist. Wait, if the river is right there, then why is there a problem to bathe in there? Because you can't bathe in the river. Rashi says: ראוי לטבילה ולא למרחץ. I guess it's dirty. A mikveh you can go, if it's a dirty mikveh. Yeah, you go to it. Borat. I guess because it could be dirty water. For a mikveh, not clean. No, the mikveh is good, not good for a מרחץ. Yeah, if it's connected to a מעין, yeah. A מעין is מטהר בזוחלין.
אמר רב יהודה אמר רב, כל עיר שאין בה ירק, any city that doesn't have vegetables, אין תלמיד חכם רשאי לדור בה, a תלמיד חכם can't live there. Why? Because vegetables are healthy, and cheap. So a תלמיד חכם who doesn't have a lot of money and he can't go to work because he wants to sit and learn, so he has to be in a place where he can get cheap healthy food. So if you don't have ירק, so they can't live there. פריך הגמרא, למימרא דירק מעליא? Are you telling me that vegetables are healthy, are good? What do you say? פריך הגמרא, והתניא, doesn't it say in a braisa: שלשה מרבין את הזבל, there are three things that make a lot of waste in your stomach, וכופפין את הקומה, and make you weak and make you bend, ונוטלין אחד מחמש מאות ממאור עיניו של אדם, it takes away one fifth-five hundred from the sight of a person. ואלו הן: פת קיבר, bread made from flour that wasn't sifted properly, ושכר חדש, and new beer, וירק, and a vegetable. That is no good. Doesn't tell you what vegetable. Raw? Well, yeah. The Gemara does answer: לא קשיא, הא בתומא וכרתי, הא בשאר ירק, it depends which vegetable. Says תומא וכרתי are what kind of vegetables? Garlic and leek. The Gemara is going to say שום and what's the other one? Leek. And not cooked is no good? Yeah, but it says raw. Rashi has a... Rashi has two peshetim. Rashi has two peshetim. Rashi is like this: First he says תומא וכרתי, the garlic and the leek, לא מעלי, is not good, and the other ones are. כך שמעתי, that's what I heard. ונראה בעיניי, אומפקערט, תומא וכרתי מעלי, these are good, and he brings a re'ayah these are good. Okay. And he says כי דתניא, like it says in another braisa. The braisa says like this: שום is a ירק. Garlic, that's a ירק. Good or bad? Rashi has two peshetim. אני שמעתי לגנאי, that שום is like a ירק which is no good, ואני אומר לשבח. I think it's good. לא קשיא, if it's if it's cooked or not cooked, that's what it that's what... But the Gemara doesn't say that, the Gemara says something else. כרישין is חצי ירק. What's כרישין? Leeks. Those are those real big long onions. A half a vegetable. Okay, that's half.
נראה צנון, if you see צנון, radishes, נראה סם החיים. You see something that's healthy. Frekt di Gemara, but תניא, it says in a different ברייתא, נראה צנון, נראה סם המות. If you see radishes, you see poison. לא קשיא, כאן בעלין כאן באימהות. Well, it depends if it's the leaves, the leaves are are not good, and the אימהות means the the the the thick, what's it called, the mother, it means the the what? Stem. Yes, the plant, the roots. Yeah, the roots. And another thing, כאן בימות החמה כאן בימות הגשמים. That in the summertime it's good, because it cools off the body, in the wintertime, it's not good. Okay. אמר רב יהודה אמר רב, And it says לא פסק צנון מעל גבי שולחנם של... Rabbi Yehuda Hanasi... כאן בימות החמה כאן בימות הגשמים. Must have been the one that's סם החיים. Yeah. Must have been the good one. The radishes were growing all... Yeah. That's that's the one that's good. Wet radishes. All right, but the chiddush was that it was all year round, even when it's not in the season. Yeah, אמר רב יהודה אמר רב: כל עיר שיש בה מעלות ומורדות, any city that has a lot of hills, go up and down and up and down, אדם ובהמה שבה מתים בחצי ימיהם. The animals and the people will die in half of their age. They'll die at young age. פרעגט די גמרא, מתים סלקא דעתך? They die? They die? אלא אימא: מזקינין בחצי ימיהם. It makes you old. It makes you in half of your age or you get old. You live in a city that you always have to go up, up and down hills, you age faster. אמר רב הונא בריה דרב יהושע, said, הני מעלתא דבי בירי ודבי נרש, these hills of the place of בירי and נרש, אזקנון. That made me old. Made me become old and feel old. So, you
have a car, right? So they have cars, they all have cars. Car? On Shabbos you don't drive. Shabbos, yeah, right. A Shabbos car. Hey, wait, fine, yeah. How many places are like this? You have a... Crown Heights is good, it's flat. Mile das iz nisht kein... That's one mount. This parashah one says the the 300 פרסות of the camp. Is a פרסה a furlong? Is it? A furlong, you said? 3/4 or less. No, it's a square. No, but how long is each פרסה? 4 מיל, 3 מיל, 4 מיל a פרסה. 8,000 אמות. Altogether it's 12 מיל. 12 מיל or 12 km, is about that. Yeah, a מיל is about a km. 7 miles, about 7 miles. There's nothing wrong with furlongs. Number 4, furlongs. And for someone that had to go to the bathroom, had to walk 7 miles? You translate into furlongs, but... And there is a there is a converter, I don't know how big furlong is. What's furlong? Furlong is a distance. What kind? I'll look it up, alright? It doesn't nafka mina lahalachah. No. For sure not. They could eat mann and never go to the washroom. How long have they been in the rain? No, that's from the mann, but if they ate other things? If they bought from the תגרי אומות העולם? Of course you'd go. Again, it says in pasuk: ויתד תהיה לך על אזנך, but everyone had to carry around a little hook that if you had to go to the bathroom you should dig a hole. So, the the Gemara asks, but there was no פסולת by the mann? The Gemara answers that they used to buy food from the תגרי אומות העולם, from the people around if they wanted to. Then they, indeed. So, they didn't just eat the man. Yeah. Okay, another piece?
תניא, אמר רבן שמעון בן גמליאל, said, אין לך שיפה להם למדה יתר משלשלאות של ברזל. It's מסכת Eruvin. It talks about measuring the שיעור, so the best way to measure is metal chain. אבל מה נעשה, what shall we do, שהתורה אמרה, the Torah says, there's a פסוק in זכריה, ובידו חבל מדה, so a rope he would measure, so certainly from there, you should measure by rope. פרעגט די גמרא, וכתיב, but it says, וביד האיש קנה המדה, a person had a measuring stick, ההוא לפתחים, that's only good to measure the gate, measure the door the door area. That's a small area is good a stick, but a long area, you should do with a rope. תניא, רבי יוסי says: ג' חבלים הן, there's three types of ropes. Okay. There's one מגג, okay? And that's something that for some reason is not מקבל טומאה, reeds. And then there is של נצרים, that's reeds. And then there is של פשתן, and there is from flax. של מגג לפרה, what did they use the מגג, the first one? At the פרה אדומה, because when it says כפתוה בחבל המגג, when they wanted to take it and shecht it, they tied it up, but they had to tie it up with a rope that's not מקבל טומאה. ונתנוה על גב המערכה, and they put it on the מערכה, so they had to use that. נצרים, the one with the reeds, לסוטה. שנאמר, in the Mishnah it says ואחר כך מביא חבל המצרי וקושרו למעלה מדדיה. They would hold her clothes up by a rope right here, and the rope, the strap of the rope was made from this. Huh? From here, all the way, this. And של פשתן, from flax, למדה, that's the one used to measure. Why did they need a special one for a סוטה? No, it's just because it was called חבל המצרי to remind her. So, a furlong is five, five furlongs is a mil. A mil. A mil, yeah. אלפים אמות. Eight