We’ll start off this Mishnah by talking about two dinim (laws) that have to do with ladders. The Mishnah says that a person has to keep his ladder on his own property at least four amot (cubits) away from his neighbor’s dove nest. They would have a nest, or a little birdhouse, where the doves would live. They’re not allowed to have that ladder close to your neighbor’s nest. His nest is on his side, his birdhouse is on his side, and your ladder is on your own side. But they can’t be within four amot. Why? Because you want to make sure that a little weasel-like animal won’t climb up the ladder, jump from the ladder to the dove birdhouse, and kill all of the birds. You want to make sure that doesn’t happen. You also have to make sure that if you’re putting up a wall, the wall you’re putting up is at least four amot from the gutter your neighbor has on his roof. So you give your neighbor a little bit of room to put up his ladder in order to clean out his gutter. Don’t put your wall right up against his, because you want to make sure he has the option to clean out his gutter.
Now that we’ve mentioned the birdhouse of the doves, we’ll talk about other laws about the dove in the continuation of the Mishnah. A person has to put his dovecote at least 50 amot away from the nearest city. A person is not allowed to create a birdhouse for the doves, even within his own property, unless there are 50 amot in every single direction. When a person has these doves over there, they’re always looking for food, and they’re going to fly out and eat food that they find. But generally, they’re going to eat food within 50 amot, so we want to make sure they don’t eat food from the neighbor or from other people. That would be theft. So we have to create a radius around them where they can eat within those 50 amot, and it will still be your property. That’s the only way you’re allowed to have a shovach, a birdhouse for the doves. Rabbi Yehuda says that, being more machmir (strict), you need more space. A 50-amot radius is not okay. Rather, you need 274 amot in every direction, because even though we said they usually eat within 50 amot, it’s not always the case, but they’ll always stay within 270 amot in each direction. So Rabbi Yehuda is strict, and he says you have to make sure there are never any cases of theft.
But there’s an exception to the above rule. If you already bought a piece of land and there’s a dovecote already built there, and the land is only a quarter kav (a unit of measure)—a quarter kav would be 10 amot in each direction—you could retain it; you’re still allowed to keep that birdhouse over there, even though there isn’t enough empty space for the doves to go out and eat. We make the assumption that since the dovecote is already there, since the birdhouse is already there, when the previous buyer put in that dovecote, that birdhouse, he probably had all of the neighbor’s grant permission that he could do this. So when you buy this piece of property, you’re allowed to keep it there as well.