Aligned sentence by sentence
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Scripture says (Exodus 16:29) “See that the LORD hath given you the sabbath; therefore He giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.'” Thus Binyamin argues that “abide ye every man in his place” and “let no man go out of his place” means that “his place” is the size of the area where a person sits, and it is not possible to say a person cannot leave his seated area since he has to walk to the bathroom and to eat and drink. He says the proof that the verse’s “his place” means the size of a person’s seat is the verse (2 Samuel 18:9) “And Absalom chanced to meet the servants of David. And Absalom was riding upon his mule, and the mule went under the thick boughs of a great terebinth, and his head caught hold of the terebinth, and he was taken up between the heaven and the earth; and the mule that was under him went on,” (Isaiah 46:7) “He is borne upon the shoulder, he is carried, and set in his place, and he standeth, from his place he doth not remove; yea, though one cry unto him, he cannot answer, nor save him out of his trouble.” And the second proof is correct, since it means “his place” and similarly the verse (Exodus 16:29) “every man in his place” means “his place,” however (2 Samuel 18:9) “that was under him” is unrelated to his, since its meaning is “under him” and most of our companions err in this.
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He says a person is obligated to sit in his place during the Sabbath and not to leave it, except for what is required during the Sabbath such as eating and drinking and praying and reading the Torah and what is similar to this. And the majority of our companions permit visiting the sick and those on the verge of death. And he says that (Exodus 16:29) “the place” (maqom) means the place he lives meaning the village and town, according to the verse (Genesis 38:21) “Then he asked the men of her place (meqomah), saying: 'Where is the harlot, that was at Enaim by the wayside?' And they said: 'There hath been no harlot here,'” (Genesis 26:7) “ And the men of the place (maqom) asked him of his wife; and he said: 'She is my sister'; for he feared to say: 'My wife'; 'lest the men of the place should kill me for Rebekah, because she is fair to look upon,'” (Judges 19:16) “And, behold, there came an old man from his work out of the field at even; now the man was of the hill-country of Ephraim, and he sojourned in Gibeah; but the men of the place (maqom) were Benjamites,” (Genesis 20:11) “And Abraham said: 'Because I thought: Surely the fear of God is not in this place (maqom); and they will slay me for my wife's sake.”
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He says it is forbidden to leave the village or town for any reason whatsoever for any human need. However, for a need of the divine, praised and exalted, it is permitted to exit the village gate two thousand handbreaths according to the verse (Exodus 33:7) “Now Moses used to take the tent and to pitch it without the camp, afar off from the camp; and he called it the tent of meeting. And it came to pass, that every one that sought the LORD went out unto the tent of meeting, which was without the camp” and he argued that “afar off (harcheq) from the camp” is the distance of a fired arrow according to the verse (Genesis 21:16) “And she went, and sat her down over against him a good way off (harcheq), as it were a bow-shot; for she said: 'Let me not look upon the death of the child.' And she sat over against him, and lifted up her voice, and wept” and he said (Joshua 3:4) “ Yet there shall be a space (rachoq) between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure; come not near unto it, that ye may know the way by which ye must go; for ye have not passed this way heretofore'” and he said the distance has a known area and size, and we do not set up more than this. And thus are the villages of Israel according to the verse (Numbers 35:5) “And ye shall measure without the city for the east side two thousand cubits, and for the south side two thousand cubits, and for the west side two thousand cubits, and for the north side two thousand cubits, the city being in the midst. This shall be to them the open land about the cities.”
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He said, know also that the divine will does not permit surpassing these two thousand handbreaths. And more cannot be said on this topic than what he already said, and nothing can be concluded that he did not conclude, even while most of what he said on this subject was preceded by him by Anan, and the majority of our companions follow them with this. However, amongst them are those who do not permit exiting the “designated Sabbath area” on the Sabbath and this is without any evidence or proof. And a person asks regarding the distance permitted to walk within the city and how much is permitted, and if it is permitted to walk two or three Parasangs within the city, the answer to this is like the answer regarding what is permitted to carry within a house and the matter is clear.