Nedarim - Daf 56
- Machlokes if an upper story is included in בית
The next Mishnah states: הנודר מן הבית מותר בעלייה – One who vows from a house is permitted in its upper story, according to Rebbe Meir. The Chochomim say: עלייה בכלל בית – The upper story is included in a neder of ”house.” All agree that a neder from an upper story would not include the lower floor. Rav Huna bar Chiya said in the name of Ulla: בית בביתי אני מוכר לך מראהו עלייה – If a seller says: “I am selling you ‘a house in my house,’” he may show him the upper story, meaning he can later claim that this inferior upper story is the sold property, since the burden of proof is on the buyer attempting to take possession. The Gemara observes: It seems the seller may give an upper story only because he said, “a house in my house,” which implies a minimal residence, but if he merely said “a house,” he may not. This seems to reflect the opinion of Rebbe Meir, who holds that the term “house” does not naturally include the upper story. The Gemara answers that it can indeed be the Rabbonon, and when Ulla said he shows him the עלייה, he meant מעולה שבבתים – the best of the houses. The Gemara here understands that the extra term (“house in a house”) implies he is giving him a superior house, and he therefore must show him a superior house. The Ran points out that a Gemara elsewhere does interpret the עלייה in Ulla’s statement to mean an upper story.
- Defining the bed called דרגש
The next Mishnah teaches: הנודר מן המטה מותר בדרגש – One who vows from a bed is permitted in a dargash according to Rebbe Meir. The Chochomim say a dargash is included in the term “bed.” All agree that a neder from a dargash does not include an ordinary bed. The Gemara asks what a dargash is, and Ulla said: ערסא דגדא – A bed of good fortune. In Mishnaic times, it was customary to designate an ordinary bed exclusively for the guardian angel of the house, to elicit good fortune. After two challenges from halachos of mourning are deflected, the Gemara asks from a Baraisa in which Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel says: דרגש, מתיר קרביטיו והוא נופל מאליו – Regarding a dargash, a mourner unties its loops and it falls on its own. Although ordinary beds must be overturned in a house of mourning, Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel held that a dargash may simply be released from its loops, and an ordinary bed does not have loops. The Gemara therefore revises its definition of dargash to ערסא דצלא – a bed of leather and clarifies that this was a sheet of leather suspended in a frame by threading its straps through loops hanging from the frame. Because overturning the bed would damage the leather’s upper surface by exposing it to the moist ground, the mourner may simply untie the loops and let the leather fall.
- The outer boundaries of a city or house regarding nedarim
The next Mishnah states: הנודר מן העיר מותר ליכנס לתחומה של עיר ואסור ליכנס לעיבורה – One who vows from a city is permitted in its techum of two thousand amos but forbidden in its seventy-amah extension [lit. pregnancy], because the extension is considered a part of the city. אבל הנודר מן הבית אסור מן האגף ולפנים – But one who vows from a house is forbidden from the doorframe and inward. He may stand outside the point where the door stops when closed, even if he is on the threshold of the house. Rebbe Yochanan provided the source for saying that the extension of a city is like a city: the passuk describes Yehoshua as being “in” Yericho, which cannot be taken literally, since it states later that Yericho was סוגרת ומסוגרת – completely sealed and impenetrable. Rather, it must mean that Yehoshua was in its extension, and still was described as “inside” the city. The Gemara asks that perhaps we should say that even inside the techum of a city can be considered being inside the city, to which the Gemara responds that the Torah describes a techum as מחוץ לעיר – outside the city.
