I am grateful that a little bit of my own family history is
found on this page:
Said R. Cahana b. Tahlifa in the
name of R. Cahana b. Minyomi in the name of Rab Cahana b. Malkio who had it
from R. Cahana the teacher of Rab [others say that R. Cahana b. Malkio is the
same R. Cahana who was Rab's teacher]:
Ok, not really – there are many Cahana’s quoted in the
Talmud (usually spelled Kahana or Kahane in English – but all the same in
Aramaic!) Who knows who is really related?
But I digress.
We have discussions of interestingly shaped alleyways. For
example, one shaped like a centipede – that is a major alleyway with multiple smaller
ones running perpendicular off of it, like the legs of a centipede. Except that
the opposing mini-alleys cannot be directly across from each other, or they
would be considered continuous – they must be staggered. In the instance of
that design:
Abaye said: the shape of a doorway is
made [at the entrance] of the major alley and all the others are rendered
ritually fit by means of a side-post and cross-beam
Another interesting exception is where the terminus of the
alley is something other than a wall or door.
It once occurred that one side of
an alley terminated in the sea and the other terminated in a rubbish heap, and
when the facts were submitted to Rabbi he neither permitted nor forbade [the
movement of objects on the Sabbath] in that alley. [He did not declare it]
forbidden because partitions in fact existed, [and he did not declare it]
permitted since the possibility had to be considered that the rubbish heap
might be removed or the sea might recede.
Likewise where a river make a boundary in Sura – nets were
raised since there was a possibility of the river receding.
Permanence is important, because people become used to a
certain way of doing things and might not recognize when conditions change.
I can relate to that!
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