"Like This" with Missing / Erroneous Diagrams
Sometimes the Talmudic page contains diagrams. As the commentators explain concepts having to do with geometry, or configurations in fields, they might write כזה, “like this”.
Here is an example from yesterday’s daf, Bava Batra 103b. Rashbam explains the potentially problematic stone configurations in a field, which a buyer might not accept since they hamper plowing, he writes כזה. And there’s an accompanying diagram. See?
OK, so the diagrams in this copy of the Venice Printing (1523) are missing. They presumably couldn’t print the diagrams with the available technology; someone could fill in the kazeh images later.
But, if you examine the Vilna printing (1880-1886), the diagrams are indeed there:
In the Artscroll digital edition, they changed the circular diagram slightly.
OK, they are present, but are they accurate? Artscroll raises this question. For the circle:
They make similar points for other diagrams. Basically, is the question about approaching the line or arc? Or is it plowing in between the arcs, for this picture:
Nothing in Rashbam’s words references this. Also, Rashbam writes an im timtze lomar, meaning that each case in turn is more difficult than the preceding case. Yet with this picture, it is more difficult than the following case. That is why they propose a different picture, basically a simple circle:
I think that they are likely right that this Vilna picture (as well as the hashed field, which they turn into a single straight line) is indeed likely erroneous. I wonder if it is indeed impossible to determine. Have all earlier Rashbam manuscripts indeed disappeared? Maybe we can check if earlier diagrams matched these, or the ones proposed by Artscroll, or something else entirely.
Also, related, here is an article in Hakira about varying diagrams in Rashi, by Eli Genauer.