(5) If [the beam] is [made of] stubble or reeds, we view it, etc.: You should know that the ratio of the diameter of a circle to its circumference is not known and it is always impossible to speak about it in truth. And this lack of comprehension is not from us like the thought of the group called Gahlia, but (rather) it is in the nature of this thing that it is not known. And it is not [part of] its reality that it should be comprehended but it is known by approximation and the scholars of Mathematics have already written essays about this to know the approximate ratio of the diameter to the circumference. And the approximation that is the guideline that is relied upon by the scholars of applied wisdoms is that the ratio is one to three and one seventh (3.1428571429), such that any circle that has a diameter of one ell would have in its circumference approximately three and one seventh ells. And since this will never be comprehended except via approximation, [the Jewish sages] took a larger (coarser) calculation and said, "Anything that has three handbreadths in its circumference has one handbreadth in its width (diameter)." And they relied upon this [ratio] for that which they required [such a] measurement in the Torah.