Siman - Shabbos Daf 85
Bnei Seir are experts in horticulture
It was said in the name of Rebbe Yochanan, that the passuk that teaches us that the Rabonnon can be relied on to determine the fine points of horticulture is, לא תסיג גבול רעך אשר גבלו ראשונים – Do not move the boundary of your neighbor which the early ones marked out. The passuk is coming to teach that one should not encroach on the boundary that the early ones established for planting. Rashi explains that planting too close to the boundary will weaken the neighbor’s field.
It was said in the name of Rebbe Yonasan that the “early ones” are those mentioned in the passuk, אלה בני שעיר החרי ישבי הארץ – These are the sons of Seir, the Chori, inhabitants of the land.
• “Inhabitants of the land” teaches they knew which land was good for growing certain species.
• “Chori” teaches they could smell (מריחין) the land, to know which species to plant there.
• “Chivi” teaches they would taste the ground like a snake (חויא), to determine what is best to plant.
Six tefachim refers to the internal area of the garden patch.
Rav Assi said that the six by six dimensions of garden patch mentioned in the Mishna, was referring to the internal area of the patch, excluding its borders, which were used for walkways.
If the borders, which were typically a tefach wide, were included in the dimensions, that would only leave an area of four by four tefachim wide, and therefore there would only be two tefachim between the center seed and the seeds along the sides. There needs to be at least a distance of three tefachim between seeds, to not violate the prohibition of kilayim.
Where the garden patch was planted
There is a machlokes Amoraim regarding where the Mishnah’s vegetable patch was planted:
• Rav said that it was planted in a barren area, where there was nothing around it.
- Rashi explains that since the Mishnah said that four rows were planted along the sides, that would only leave a distance of two tefachim between the seeds and those of an adjacent patch, given the two tefachim of walkways between them.
• Shmuel says that it was planted amongst other patches, in which all of the patches were planted in a staggered fashion, to ensure a distance of three tefachim between the adjacent seeds.
