Eruvin

MISHNAH. WITH THE DOOR1 IN A REAR COURT, OR THE STOP-GAPS2 IN A BREACH OR REED-MATS ONE MAY NOT CLOSE3 [AN OPENING]4 UNLESS THEY ARE RAISED5 FROM THE GROUND.6 GEMARA. Does not the following, however, present a contradiction:7 With a door, a reed-mat or a keg,8 that drag along the ground,it is permitted. whenever they are fastened and suspended, to close an opening on the Sabbath and much more so9 on a festival day?10 — Abaye replied: The latter refers to such as have a hinge.11 Raba replied: It refers to a case where they had a hinge.12 An objection was raised: With a door, a reed-mat or a keg,8 that drag along the ground, whenever they are fastened, suspended and raised13 from the ground even if only by a hair's breadth. It is permitted to close an opening; otherwise this is forbidden?14 Abaye explains15 in accordance with his view, and Raba explains15 in accordance with his view. ‘Abaye explains in accordance with his view’: They must either have a hinge or be raised from the ground. ‘Raba explains in accordance with his view’: They must either have had a hinge or must be raised from the ground. Our Rabbis taught: If boughs of thorn-bushes, or bundles of wood16 were prepared to serve as a stop-gap for a breach in a courtyard, whenever they are fastened and suspended, it is permitted to close with them on the Sabbath and much more so on9 a festival day. R. Hiyya learned: With a widowed17 door that is dragged upon the ground it is not permitted to close tan opening]. What are we to understand by a ‘widowed door’? — Some say: One made of a single board.18 Others Say: One that has no frame.19 Rab Judah ruled: A pile20 may be laid out from the top downwards.21 but it is forbidden to build it up from the bottom upwards,22 and the same applies to an egg,23 a pot,24 a bed25 and a cask.26 A certain Sadducee once said to R. Joshua b. Hananiah. ‘You are a brier, since of you it is written in Scripture: the best of them is as a brier’.27 ‘Foolish man’, the other replied, ‘look up the conclusion28 of the text where it is written:27 The upright man is a better [protection] than a tabernacle’.29 ‘What then was meant by The best of them is as a brier?’ ‘As briers protect a gap so do the best men among us protect us’. Another interpretation: The best of them is as a hedek30 because they crush31 the wicked men in Gehenna; as it is said in Scripture: Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion, for I will make thy horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass; and thou shalt beat in pieces32 many peoples etc.33 MISHNAH. A MAN MAY NOT STAND IN A PRIVATE DOMAIN AND OPEN34 A DO ON IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN,35 OR IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN AND36 OPEN A DOOR IN A PRIVATE DOMAIN,37 UNLESS38 HE HAS MADE39 A PARTITION TEN HANDBREADTHS HIGH.40 so n. MEIR. THEY41 SAID To HIM: IT ONCE HAPPENED AT THE BUTCHERS’42 MARKET IN JERUSALEM THAT43 THEY LOCKED THEIR SHOPS44 AND LEFT THE KEY IN A WINDOW ABOVE A SHOP DOOR. R. JOSE SAID: IT WAS THE WOOL-DEALERS’ MARKET. GEMARA. As to the Rabbis,41 how is it that when R. Meir spoke of a PUBLIC DOMAIN45 they retorted by citing a karmelith,46 since Rabbah b. Bar Hana47 stated in the name of R. Johanan: As for Jerusalem, were it not that its gates were closed at night, one would have incurred the guilt of carrying in it as a public domain?48 R. Papa49 replied: The latter statement50 refers to the time before breaches were made in its wall whereas the former51 refers to the time after the breaches had been made. Raba replied: The final clause52 deals with53 the gates of a garden.54 and it is this that was implied: is A MAN MAY NOT STAND IN A PRIVATE DOMAIN AND55 OPEN A DOOR IN A KARMELITH,56 OR IN A KARMELITH AND57 OPEN A DOOR58 IN A PRIVATE DOMAIN.59 it. THEY must be RAISED FROM THE GROUND? Suspension alone is, therefore, sufficient. (cf. prev. ii.) the ground, to be reconciled with the previous Baraitha and with our Mishnah? Sabbath. of building which is forbidden on a festival day as on the Sabbath. possibility of transferring the key from the public into the private domain. handbreadths from the ground. key from the private into the public domain below ten handbreadths from the ground. of a karmelith. Now since the preventive measure against the possibility of transferring the key from one domain into another was made by R. Meir only in the case of a public and a private domain (where a Pentateuchal law might be transgressed), what objection does the Jerusalem incident (which relates to a private domain and a karmelith where only a rabbinical law might possibly be transgressed) provide against R. Meir? of a karmelith. the private domain.