Jastrow: מְחִיצָה II

מְחִיצָה II f. (חוּץ I or חָצַץ) 1) division. B. Bath. 2ᵇ אימא מ׳ פלוגתא may I not say, m’ḥitsah (ib. I, 1) means a division of property?—Answ. רצו לחצות וכ׳ then it ought to have read, ‘they agreed to divide’. —2) partition, wall. Ib. 3ᵃ, v. גּוּדָּא; a. e.—Esp. (in Sabbath law) a partition ten handbreadths high, to mark a space off as private ground (רשות היחיד). Erub. VIII, 7 אמת … אא"כ עשו לה וכ׳ if a canal runs through a (private) court, you must not draw water out of it on the Sabbath, unless you made at its entrance and its exit a partition &c.; כותל … תדון משום מ׳ the wall over the channel may serve as a legal partition. Ib. 8. Sabb. 101ᵃ, a. fr. מ׳ תלויה an overhanging m’ḥitsah (not connected with the ground). Erub. 5ᵃ קורה משום מ׳ the beam (across an alley) serves as a legal fiction for a m. (as if its broadside were prolonged so as to form a partition), v. נְגַד; a. v. fr. —3) divided off space, compartment; (for sacred law) camp, precinct, cmp. מַחֲנֶה. Num. R. s. 4 מְחִיצַת הכהנים the camp of the priestly division. Macc. 20ᵃ, a. e. מ׳ לאכול the limit (the area of Jerusalem) for consuming (the second tithes); מ׳ לקלוט the limit for protecting it (as having once entered the sacred precinct). Lev. R. s. 26 עמי במְחִיצָתִי ‘with me’ (I Sam. XXVIII, 19) in my division (in heaven). Ib. אין לי רשות ליכנס למְחִיצָתְךָ I am not permitted to enter thy compartment. Num. R. s. 20 מְחִיצָתָן their compartment.—Gen. R. s. 98 (play on חצים, Gen. XLIX, 23) בעלי מְחִיצָתוֹ his camp-fellows (brothers); a. fr.—Pl. מְחִיצוֹת. Erub. 89ᵃ במ׳ הניכרות when the partitions (between one house and the other) are distinguishable on the roof. Num. R. s. 7 נתנו חכמים מ׳ the scholars fixed camps (for sacred law); Sifré Num. 1 מנו חכמים למ׳ (v. Kel. I, 9); a. fr.—מְחִיצִין laws concerning partitions for Sabbath purposes, v. supra. Erub. 4ᵃ; Succ. 5ᵇ