besmeared or torn, and he officiated, his service is invalid. Rab Judah said in Samuel's name: Trailing [garments] are fit; [garments which] do not reach [the pavement] are unfit. But it was taught, If they do not reach [the ground] they are fit? — Said Rami b. Hama, There is no difficulty: The latter means where he hitches them up by the girdle; (1) the former, where from the very outset they are not long enough. (2) Rab said: Either [garments] are invalid. R. Huna visited Argiza. (3) His host's son put a difficulty to him: Did then Samuel say, Trailing [garments] are fit, while those which do not reach [the ground] are unfit? but it was taught, If they do not reach [the ground] they are fit? — Said he to him, Disregard that, for Rami b. Hama has answered it. But the difficulty is according to Rab. And should you answer, What is meant by ‘trailing’? Those which are hitched up by the girdle, for the girdle cuts off [the length]. (4) but then there is a difficulty about garments which do not reach? — Said R. Zera, Rab learns [both clauses as one]: Trailing [garments] which are hitched up by a girdle are fit. R. Jeremiah of Difti said: As to trailing [garments] which he did not lift up, there is a controversy of Tannaim. For it was taught: [Thou shalt make thee twisted cords] upon the four corners of thy covering:5 ‘four’ [intimates,] but not three. (6) Yet perhaps that is not so, but rather, ‘four’ [intimates,] but not five? (7) When it says, Wherewith thou coverest thyself (8) a fivecornered [garment] is alluded to. (9) Hence, how can I interpret ‘four’? as intimating four but not three. Now, why do you include a fivecornered garment and exclude a three cornered one? I include a five-cornered one, because five includes four, and I exclude a three-cornered one, because three does not include four. Now, another [Baraitha] taught: ‘Upon the four corners of thy covering’: four but not three, four but not five. Surely, they disagree in this: one Master holds: The additional [corner] is counted as existent; (10) while the other Master holds: It is as nonexistent? (11) — No: all agree that it is as existent, but here it is different, because Scripture includes [a five-cornered garment in the phrase,] ‘Wherewith thou coverest thyself’. And the other? how does he utilize this phrase. ‘Wherewith thou coverest thyself’? — He requires it for what was taught: ‘That ye may look upon it’: (12) this excludes night attire. (13) Yet perhaps that is not so, but rather it excludes a blind man's garment? When it says, ‘wherewith thou coverest thyself’, lo, a blind man's garment is alluded to. Hence, how can I interpret, ‘that ye may look upon it’? As excluding night attire. Now, why do you include a blind man's garment and exclude a night garment? I include a blind man's garment because it can be seen by others, while I exclude night attire, because it is not seen by others. And the other?14 — He deduces it from ‘wherewith’. (15) And the other?-He does not interpret ‘wherewith’ [as having a separate significance]. Our Rabbis taught: [And the priest shall put on his garment of] bad: (16) this teaches that they [his garments] must be of linen; ‘bad’ implies that they must be new; ‘bad’ implies that they must be of twisted thread; ‘bad’ implies that the thread must be six-fold; ‘bad’ implies that secular garments must not be worn with them. Abaye said to R. Joseph: As for saying. ‘"bad" implies that they must be of linen,’ it is well, for he informs us this: only of linen, but not of anything else. But when he says, "bad" implies that they must be new,’ [does it mean] only new but not threadbare? Surely it was taught : Threadbare [garments] are fit! — Said he to him: And according to your reasoning, [when he says] "bad" implies that the thread must be six-fold,’ [yet surely] ‘bad’ implies each [thread] separately? (17) Rather, this is what he means: the garments which it is stated are to be ‘bad’, must be of linen, new, of twisted thread, and of six-fold thread: Some of these [provisions] are recommendations [only], while others are indispensable. How do you know that ‘bad’ means flax [linen]? — Said R. Joseph son of R. Hanina: [It connotes] that which comes up from the ground in separate stalks. (18) Say that it means wool?19 — Wool splits.20 But flax too splits? (21) — It splits through beating. (22) Rabina said, [It is deduced] from the following: They shall have linen tires upon their heads, and shall have linen breeches upon their loins; they shall not gird themselves with [anything that causes] sweat [bayaza’]. (23) Said R. Ashi to Rabina: Then how did we know this before Ezekiel came? — Then according to your reasoning, when R. Hisda said: We did not learn this (24) from the Torah of Moses our Teacher, but we learnt it from Ezekiel the son of Buzi: No alien, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh [shall enter into My sanctuary]: (25) whence did we know it until Ezekiel came? But indeed it was a tradition, and Ezekiel came and gave it a support in Scripture; so this too was a tradition, etc. What does ‘they shall not gird themselves with [anything that causes] sweat’ mean? (26) — Said Abaye: They shall not gird themselves in the place where they sweat. (27) As it was taught: When they gird themselves, they must do so neither below their loins nor above their elbows, (28) but

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(1). ↑ But they are long enough to reach the ground.
(2). ↑ Lit., ‘they are not present at all’.
(3). ↑ Obermeyer op. cit. p. 144 conjectures that this was a place in the district of Be Ketil by the ‘Jewish Canal’ which branched out of the left bank of the Tigris and ran parallel to it. He suggests however in note (1) a.l. that ארגיזא is an error here for דארגיז חרתא Hira in the south of Babylon, which fell within R. Huna's jurisdiction, whereas Argiza was in the distant north, and he had no connection with same.
(4). ↑ Only then does the Tanna of the Baraitha rule that they are fit, but not if they are actually trailing on the ground.
(5). ↑ Deut. XXII, 12.
(6). ↑ A garment of three corners only, the fourth being rounded, so that it is not a corner, is exempt.
(7). ↑ E.g., if one corner is cut away, leaving two in its stead.
(8). ↑ Ibid.
(9). ↑ For this is really superfluous and therefore interpreted as an extension, to include garments with more than four corners.
(10). ↑ Hence it is not four-cornered, and therefore exempt.
(11). ↑ And the same principle would apply to priestly garments that trail: one holds that the superfluous length is as non-existent, and so they are fit; while the other maintains that they are as existent, and therefore unfit.
(12). ↑ Num. XV, 39. This refers to a fringed garment.
(13). ↑ Which is not looked upon.
(14). ↑ Who utilizes ‘wherewith thou coverest thyself’ to include a five-cornered garment: whence does he learn the present law?
(15). ↑ Which he regards as an extension.
(16). ↑ E.V. ‘linen. Lev. VI,3 et passim.
(17). ↑ Bad is derived from badad, to be alone, separate.
(18). ↑ Where two stalks do not come out of one root.
(19). ↑ For each thread grows separately on the sheep's back.
(20). ↑ On the animal the threads split up.
(21). ↑ Before it is woven into linen.
(22). ↑ But not naturally of its own accord.
(23). ↑ Ezek. XLIV. 18.
(24). ↑ That an uncircumcised priest disqualifies the service, infra 22b.
(25). ↑ Ibid.9
(26). ↑ The Heb. bayaza is connected with ze'ah, (sweat), but its exact meaning in this verse is not clear.
(27). ↑ Where flesh folds over flesh and causes perspiration.
(28). ↑ As these hung naturally down.