Keilim 17:10-11

Keilim 17:10

Rabbi Meir says that all the cubits in the Temple were of the standard length except for that of the golden (incense) altar, and the horns, ledge and base of the (main) altar. Rabbi Yehuda says that the cubit used for the building was of six handbreadths but the one used for the vessels was of five handbreadths.

Keilim 17:11

The Sages instituted a smaller measure in the following case: liquid and dry measures were measured with the Italian measure, which was the same as the measure that was used in the wilderness. Some measures vary according to the individual, such as the one who takes the handful of a flour offering, the one who fills his two hands with incense, one who drinks a cheekful on Yom Kippur, and the two meals for an eiruv – the measure being the food one eats on a weekday rather than on Shabbos according to Rabbi Meir and the food one eats on Shabbos rather than on a weekday according to Rabbi Yehuda. Both Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Yehuda intend to give a more lenient (i.e., smaller) measure (Rabbi Meir maintaining that one eats more on Shabbos and Rabbi Yehuda maintaining that, since one eats more meals on Shabbos, the size of a meal is smaller). Rabbi Shimon says the volume of two meals is two-thirds of a loaf when three loaves are made from a kav of flour (about a half-gallon). Rabbi Yochanan ben Broka says it is a loaf worth a pundion when the price of flour is four seah per sela. [Calculating the number of pundions per sela (48:1) and kavs per seah (6:1), and accounting for the baker’s profit, a loaf worth a pundion is the volume of a quarter-kav.]