Eruvin

UNLESS1 HE HAS MADE A PARTITION TEN HANDBREADTHS HIGH;2 SO R. MEIR. THEY SAID TO HIM: IT ONCE HAPPENED AT THE BUTCHERS’3 MARKET IN JERUSALEM THAT THEY USED TO LOCK THEIR SHOPS AND LEFT THE KEY IN A WINDOW ABOVE A SHOP DOOR. R. JOSE SAID: IT WAS THE WOOL-DEALERS’ MARKET. Our Rabbis taught: The doors of garden4 gateways, whenever they have a gate-house5 on their inner side, may be opened and closed from within;6 if they have it on their outer side;7 they may be opened and shut from without;8 if they have one on either side they may be opened and shut from either side;8 if they have none on either side they may be neither opened nor shut from either side.9 The same law applies also to shops that open into a public domain:10 Whenever the lock is below ten handbreadths from the ground11 the key may be brought on the Sabbath eve and placed on the threshold,12 and on the following day the door may be opened and duly closed when the key may again be placed on the threshold;13 and whenever the lock is above ten handbreadths from the ground.14 the key must be brought on the Sabbath eve and inserted in the lock, and on the following day It may be opened and shut and returned to its place;15 so R. Meir. The Sages, however, ruled: Even when the lock is above ten handbreadths from the ground the key may be brought on the Sabbath eve and placed on the threshold, and on the following day the door may be opened and shut and the key may be returned to its place16 or it may be put on a window17 above the door. If the window, however, had an area of four handbreadths by four this is forbidden, since the transfer of the key would constitute a transfer from one domain into another.18 Since it was stated: ‘And the same law applies also to shops It may be concluded that we are dealing with a threshold19 that had the status of a karmelith;20 but, then, how are we to imagine the conditions of the lock? if it is one that was less than four handbreadths in width it would surely be a free domain;21 and if It was four handbreadths wide, would the Rabbis in such a case22 have ruled: ‘Even when the lock is above ten handbreadths from the ground the key may be brought on the Sabbath eve and placed on the threshold and on the following day the door may be opened and shut and the key may be returned to its place23 or it may be put on a window above the door’, seeing that thereby one is moving an object iron a karmelith into a private domain?24 — Abaye replied: The fact is that the lock was less than four handbreadths but there was sufficient space [in the door]25 in which to cut and make it up to four handbreadths; and it is this principle on which they26 differ: R. Meir holds the opinion that the door is regarded as virtually cut for the purpose of completing the prescribed width,27 while the Rabbis maintain that it is not regarded as cut for the purpose of completing the prescribed width.28 Said R. Bibi b. Abaye: From this Baraitha you may deduce three things: You may deduce that virtual cutting for the purpose of completing a prescribed width may be assumed; you may deduce that R. Meir29 withdrew from his view on the gates of a garden;30 and from the ruling of the Rabbis31 you may also deduce that R. Dimi's view is tenable.32 For when R. Dimi came33 he reported in the name of R. Johanan: In a place whose area is less than four handbreadths by four34 it is permissible for both the people of the public domain and those of the private domain to re-arrange their burdens, provided only that they do not exchange them.35 MISHNAH. IF A BOLT36 HAD A KNOB AT ONE END,37 R. ELIEZER FORBIDS IT38 [TO BE MOVED]39 BUT R. JOSE PERMITS IT.40 SAID R. ELIEZER: IN A SYNAGOGUE AT TIBERIAS THE COMMON PRACTICE, IN FACT, WAS TO TREAT IT41 AS PERMITTED, UNTIL R. GAMALIEL AND THE ELDERS CAME AND FORBADE IT TO THEM. R. JOSE RETORTED: THEY TREATED IT AS FORBIDDEN, BUT R. GAMALIEL AND THE ELDERS CAME AND PERMITTED IT TO THEM. GEMARA. Where it42 can be lifted up by the cord to which It was tied,43 no one disputes that it is permissible to move it] .44 They only differ private domain as the gate house. possibility of taking the key from the private domain (the lock) into a karmelith (the garden) add they may not be opened from without as a preventive measure against the possibility of taking the key from the private domain into the public domain. karmelith into another. the lock to it would be tantamount to a transfer from a private domain into a karmelith. handbreadths high. despite the intervening free domain of the lock through which the key had passed on Its way between the other two domains. lock. ground. handbreadths to a lock of a similar level; and did not provide against the possibility of the man's taking the key into the karmelith in which he stood. in a private domain as a preventive measure against the possibility of his taking the key into the karmelith. the threshold (a karmelith) to the lock (a free domain) and from the lock to the window (a private domain) because the transfer from one domain to another is forbidden even via a free domain. domain (cf. supra n. 7). by it. constitutes no ‘building’.