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Today’s Daf Yomi Question:
How can a person determine his Techum by taking two thousand steps – a method that appears to be a mere approximation – for something that generally requires precision and exactness (see Mishnah 57b)?
The Chachamim allowed this for the person Bishas Hadchak, as is said, the Techum was given to be Meikel with and not to be Machmir with. Obviously, this doesn’t mean that we take it lightly and carelessly.
Also, when determining a method of measurement we must be careful, because a small mistake gets magnified as you go on and use it more. Using a string that is an inch longer that it should be becomes three feet longer after 36 strings. Counting footsteps, even if some are larger, some are smaller as well. We can safely assume that throughout the average is attained.