Bava Batra 3 - June 28, 22 Sivan

Seder Nezikin Kit - Order Form Bava Batra bookmark After concluding that mechitza means a wall, the Gemara now brings an alternate version of the previous sugya in which the opposite conclusion is reached - that mechitza is a partition, concluding that one is responsible for preventing heizek re'iya, one neighbor looking into the other's courtyard. Two difficulties are raised against this explanation but are resolved. To resolve the second difficulty, Rabbi Asi brings Rabbi Yochanan's understanding of the Mishna that the case is a courtyard that is less than 4x4 cubits and too small to require dividing. Several difficulties are brought on that understanding and are resolved. The Gemara clarifies the differences between the bricks and stones mentioned in the Mishna. The Gemara infers from the Mishna's line that a wall four cubits high is built from gazit which is five handbreadths wide, then if it is eight cubits in height, the wall needs to be ten handbreadths wide to be sturdy. If so, in the first Temple, how did the wall of the ama taraksin (separating the kodesh from the kodesh kodashim), made of gazit, stand if it was thirty cubits in height and six handbreadths wide? Why did they use a parochet, not a wall, in the second Temple? Rav Chisda rules that one cannot knock down a shul unless one already has a new shul in its place. This leads to a story about Herod and the rebuilding of the Temple and his rise to power.