תלמוד על כלאים 2:2

MISHNAH: If one sinks three vines and their stems are visible, Rebbi Eleazar bar Rebbi Zadoq says if there are between them from four to eight cubits, they go together; otherwise, they do not go together¹⁸If one has three vines in a row and sinks a shoot from each one to get another row of three vines, if the distance between the rows and between the vines in one row is between four and eight cubits then one has a legal vineyard since five of the six vines would be enough (Halakhah 4:6). If the distances are too small, one has six single vines.. A dried-up vine is forbidden but does not sanctify¹⁹If one sows within six hand-breadths from a dead vine it does not sanctify.. Rebbi Meïr says, cotton also is forbidden but does not sanctify. Rebbi Eleazar bar Rebbi Zadoq says in his name²⁰In R. Meïr’s name. This attribution is missing in the Genizah ms., probably correctly; cf. Note 23., even on top of the vine it is forbidden²¹The meaning of this sentence will be clarified in the Halakhah. but does not sanctify.
The following are forbidden but do not sanctify: The excess of a dried-up vineyard²⁷By Mishnah 4:1, if a vineyard dried up in the middle, a space of 16 cubits square cannot be sown. But only four cubits on each side are needed for working the vineyard. If the dried-up space contains a square of sides 16-ε, the inner (8-ε)-by-(8-ε) space cannot be worked on as a rabbinic, rather than a biblical prohibition. Working that inner space is forbidden but a transgression does not sanctify either growth or vineyard., the excess of the circumference of a vineyard²⁸By Mishnah 4:2, 12 cubits have to be left empty between a vineyard whose outer rows have died and the fence. Again, if there are 12-ε cubits, of these only four are biblical, the remaining 8-ε have rabbinic status only., the excess of an interrupted trellis²⁹Since the constituent parts of an interrupted trellis do not form vineyards by themselves, of the eight cubits between the inner vines only one cubit on each side (six hand-breadths) will sanctify, the remaining six cubits represent rabbinic prohibition., and the excess of a papyrus³⁰If vines that do not form a vineyard are drawn over papyrus, only the space under any part of any vine is biblically forbidden; the rest is a rabbinic prohibition (Halakhah 6:3).. But under a vine, the working space of a vine, and the four cubits of a vineyard do sanctify.

Rebbi Eliezer objected to the rabbis: Are you not lenient for one row and restrictive for rectangles¹⁶⁸To require a bet rova’ for rectangles when you require only three or six hand-breadths for rows, as above in Halakhah 7?? It is so, we find that the rabbis are lenient for one row and restrictive for rectangles, as it was stated: He who wants to make one row of vegetables in a grain field makes a row 10½ cubits long and six hand-breadths wide¹⁶⁹He sows in the middle and has half a cubit distance from the field in both directions. The value 10.5 is a practical upper estimate of the edge length of a square containing a bet rova‘ (Note 153). R. Simson wants to take the 10 cubits as standard cubits of 6 hand-breadths each and .5 cubits as half a small cubit of 5 hand-breadths only, in order to get a better approximation. But such an exactness is illusory in agriculture; it is better to err a little on the upside.. Rebbi Joḥanan said, therein he sows only one kind. Rebbi Zeïra said, Rebbi Joḥanan agrees that if it is seven wide he sows one hand-breadth on one side, one on the other side, and the remaining five count for both sides¹⁷⁰So that each row of vegetables has six hand-breadths for itself., just as Rebbi Zeïra had explained Rebbi Joḥanan’s opinion there¹⁷¹Halakhah 7, in which R. Zeïra asserted that R. Joḥanan permits the sowing of two rectangles in 1.5 bet rova‘..