The techum distance that limits walking on Shabbat should be measured only with a rope fifty-amah (about 100 feet) long, no more and no less. Both surveyors must hold their end of the rope next to the heart. If one, for example, would measure next to the heart and the other next to the head, they would be shortchanging the eruv.
If, while measuring, they reached a valley or a stone fence which are less then fifty steps wide, they pull the rope straight over these obstacles, and continue measuring. This is called spanning the mountain. If the hill is very high, they can use poles to pass the rope over.
If the hill or mountain is large, they "pierce through it" by walking up the hill, with one of them holding the rope at his heart and the other – at his feet, in such a way that the rope is always parallel to the horizon. In no event are they allowed to leave the area of the techum while measuring, for if they do, the onlookers might think that the techum reaches to the place where they were.
Spanning and piercing the mountains are a leniency, because they allow for longer distances. By contrast, in measuring for the laws of the city of refuge, where accidental killers run, and the decapitated calf, which atones for an unsolved murder case by burning the calf and washing the hands – for these laws one measures along the walking path, which results in a shorter distance.
Art: Albert Bierstadt - Mountain Landscape
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