For the source text click/tap here: Bava Batra 107
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The Mishna had stated: The seller accepts the place (outside of the field being sold) for the fence, a wide ditch and a narrow ditch. The Gemora cites a braisa: The wider ditch is placed on the outside (further away from the fence) and the narrow one is placed on the inside (outside the fence, but close to it), and both of them are made behind the fence in order that an animal should not jump over the fence.
The Gemora asks: Why don’t we just make the wide ditch, and there would be no need for the narrow one? The Gemora answers: Since it is wide, an animal might stand in it and jump.
We explore the fields and ditches of antiquity from Sumer to Egypt, from Palestine to the Ohio Valley.
