About this episode
Today's daf is sponsored for the refuah shleima of Asher ben Riva. Under what circumstances can outsiders come into a town and sell their wares? Special dispensations are made for those who learn. On account of that, the rabbis questioned Rav Dimi when he came to town to sell to determine whether or not he was a Torah scholar, and when he didn't know the answer, they assumed he wasn't all the dried figs he was trying to sell rotted. When he went to complain to Rav Yosef, Rav Yosef cursed those who did this and the rabbi, Rav Ada bar Abba, who had questioned Rav Dimi died. Upon Rav Ada's death, various rabbis assumed responsibility for his death (some connected to this particular incident and others to other incidents). The Mishna rules that one who has a wall next to another's wall and wants to build a wall, must leave a distance of four cubits. If the neighbor's wall has a window, one needs to distance one's wall from the window by four cubits (higher, lower, or opposite). It is unclear what the first ruling means, and the Gemara brings two explanations, the first one is rejected. The second explanation, Rava's, is that the first wall was also four cubits away and then fell. The Mishna rules that one needs to distance the new one four cubits away so that space is left for people to tread on the ground alongside the wall which will strengthen the neighbor's wall. Various difficulties are raised against this explanation of Rava - from the second part of the Mishna and the next Mishna. One needs to distance one's ladder from another's dovecote to not allow a creature to climb up and eat the birds. One needs to distance one's wall from another's roof gutter to give the neighbor enough space to set up a ladder to get to the gutter.