daf bit: Bava Kama 81

[cellio]

The rabbis taught that Joshua made ten stipulations upon entering the land of Israel. One of them is that a dead body, which we must bury upon finding it, automatically has the right to be buried where found. The g'mara clarifies: if the body is found in the road, it may be removed to either side to be buried. If on one side there is an uncultivated field and on the other a fallow one, he should be buried in the uncultivated field. If on one side there is a fallow field and on the other a planted field, he should be buried in the fallow one. But if both fields are in the same state the finder may remove the body to any place he likes for burial. (81b)

(It is not clear to me whether "any place" really means that, or if it just means either of these two options. Joshua's edict would seem to mean by the side of the road, not halfway across the county.)

Comments

[530nm330hz.livejournal.com]

The clarification appears to be an "urminhu" -- they challenged the plain teaching by bringing in another mishna or a baraita. (Soncino cites Eruvin 17b here.)

The text at the end is lamakom sheyirtzeh; I would have expected l'sadeh sheyitzeh if he was limited to one or the other field. The introduction of "makom" here implies to me that, yes, it means any place. And in the next sentence of the gemara, Rav Bibi addresses this exact point: once the met mitzvah's right to burial on the spot where he was found has been overridden by the requirement to keep the roads passable by kohanim, we have the right to bury him wherever it is convenient for us, not necessarily in the closest available spot.