“They came to the Eshkol ravine, and cut from there a vine with one cluster of grapes, and bore it upon a pole with two, and from the pomegranates, and from the figs” (Numbers 13:23). “They came to the Eshkol ravine” – they did not wish to take from the fruits of the Land of Israel. Had it not been for Caleb, who drew the sword, ran before them, and said to them: ‘If you do not take, either you will kill me or I will kill you’hey would not have taken.
Therefore, “[Moses took an oath on that day, saying:] The land on which your foot trod will be [an inheritance] for you” (Joshua 14:9). “And bore it upon a pole with two” – there were no fewer than two poles, as it does not say “two on a pole,” but rather, “with two.” Some say three; “upon a pole” is one, “with two,” that is three. How much was the weight of each and every one of them?
It is stated regarding the stones that they took from the Jordan: “Joshua erected those twelve stones that they took from the Jordan in Gilgal” (Joshua 4:20). What was the measure of each and every one? It was the weight of forty se’a. From here, you calculate regarding that cluster; if a person can carry a burden of one se’a by himself, if another lifts it for him, he carries two se’a. If he can lift two se’a, with another, he carries three.
Go and calculate from here.12See Sota 34a, where the gemara states that a person who carries something by himself can carry one third of the weight that he can carry with somebody else. Based on that, the Etz Yosef says that if a person lifts up a burden onto his own shoulder he can lift one half of what he can lift if somebody else lifts up the burden and places it on his shoulder, and one third of what he can lift if he and somebody else lift up the burden together. Thus, the cluster weighed 120 se'a.