ABSTRACT
Classical culture recognized three different levels of settlement: (1) the independent polis; (2) the “town” or agricultural village; (3) the “villa” or rural farmstead. Talmudic literature also dealt with the classification of the different types of settlement. The sages often refer to the tripartite distinction between town (kerakh), ‘yr, and village (kfr) (Krauss 1929, pp. 150). The kerakh was a large, fortified (walled) settlement, populated by non-Jews. Thus, one who would enter such a settlement was required to recite a special prayer in view of the dangers of a large city. In terms of settlement status, the kerakh was similar to the non-Jewish polis in Palestine, although the two need not always have been the same.
