Commento su Numeri 35:4

אלף אמה סביב A THOUSAND CUBITS ROUND ABOUT — But afterwards, (v. 5) it says, “two thousand cubits”!? How can that be? They assign two thousand for them (for the Levites) round about their cities, and of these, the innermost thousand serves as the “open space” and the outermost is for fields and vineyards (Sotah 27b).

ומגרשי הערים וגו', “and the open spaces of the cities, etc.” Nachmanides, explaining the plain meaning of the text, states that the text first commands that there should be an open space of 1000 cubits around the city. This is to be arrived at by measuring 500 cubits extending outwards from all four directions, and describing a square using the line forming the outer perimeter of these four sides. When the Torah speaks later (verse 5) of measuring 2000 cubits in each direction outwards, so that the city core will be in the center of the new perimeters, we wind up with a total of 4.000 000 cubits square in all. When measured from the respective corners to the outer rim of the city core, this area, of course, was far longer than 2000 or 500 cubits from the edge of the city core. [Nachmanides’ calculation of the size of the city including all its outer areas is by far smaller than the area arrived at by either Rashi or Maimonides. Ed.] The entire length of each side is called פאה, “corner,” by the Torah. The first 1000 cubits of “suburbia” were not meant to be used for planting gardens, etc., but were a “green-belt.”

V. 4. מקיר העיר וחוצה אלף אמה, die tausend Ellen begannen nicht gleich an der Mauer, sondern erst וחוצה, nach dem unmittelbar zur Stadt zu rechnenden Außenraum, תן חוצה ואחר כך מדוד (Eruwin 57a). Es sind dies die "siebzig Ellen und darüber", שבעים אמה ושיריים, die überall noch zur Stadt gerechnet werden, עיבורו של עיר, so dass auch die zweitausend Ellen des תחום am Schabbat erst nach diesen siebzig Ellen beginnen (daselbst). Diese "siebzig Ellen und darüber" sind der Durchmesser eines Quadrats von fünftausend Quadratellen, welches dem Flächeninhalt des hundert Ellen langen und fünfzig Ellen breiten Umraumes (חצר) des משכן entspricht.