Torah Community Connections

Week 15 - Shabbat - 11 March 2000

ERUVIN: CHAPTER 7 : MISHNA 2

If a wall between two courtyards is ten high and four thick – they make two eruvs and they may not make one eruv. If there was produce at its top – and these may go up from here and eat and these may go up from here and eat, provided that they do not bring down. If the wall is broken through up to ten amot, they make two eruvs, and if they wish, they make one eruv, because it is a doorway; more than this, they make one eruv, and they do not make two eruvs.

Kahati

If a wall between two courtyards is ten – tefahs - high and four - tefahs thick – The Gemara explains that the mishnah says "and four thick" only because of the second part of the mishnah ("If there was produce at its top"), as will be explained below. Regarding, however, the division between two courtyards, any partition ten tefahs high, regardless of width, divides the courtyards into two domains; therefore, they make two eruvs – each courtyard makes its own eruv hatzerot, and they – the two courtyards, may not make one eruv – for the two of them. If there was produce - lying - at its – the wall's - top – between the two courtyards, these – the inhabitants of one courtyard, may go up – to the top of the wall, from here and eat – the produce there, and these – the inhabitants of one courtyard, may go up – to the top of the wall, from here and eat, provided that they do not bring down – to their houses (Gemara). Similarly, they may not take up objects from their houses, for since the wall is four tefahs thick, it has the legal status of a roof, and roofs and houses are different domains. This, as mentioned above, is the reason why the mishnah stated "and four thick," for if it were not four thick, it would be a makom patur, and people of both courtyards would be permitted to bring down from there. Even when it is four thick, a person may bring down from and take up from the courtyard, for roofs and courtyards are the same domain (see 9:1 below); even in a courtyard for which no eruv has been made, one person may carry within all of its vessels that were in the courtyard at the beginning of the Shabbat. However, one may not carry from the hoouses to the courtyard or vice versa without an eruv.

If the wall – between the two courtyards, is broken through up to – and the breach is not more that - ten amot – wide, they make two eruvs – for each courtyard is still an independent domain, and therefore each courtyard makes an eruv for itself; and if they wish, they make one eruv – for the two courtyards, and they may carry from one to the other, as the inhabitants of one courtyard, because it – the breach, which is not ten amot wide, is a doorway – and if there is a doorway between two courtyards, they make two eruvs, and if they want, they make one eruv; but if the breach is - more than this – wider that ten amot, they – the inhabitants of the two courtyards, must make one eruv, and they do not make two eruvs one for each courtyard, because due to the breach, the two courtyards are considered to be as one courtyard, and if each one had made an eruv for itself, then they are as the inhabitants of a courtyard who divided their eruv and they restrict each other on carrying from the houses to the courtyard and vice versa.

ERUVIN: CHAPTER 7 : MISHNA 3

If a trench between two courtyards is ten deep and four wide – they make two eruvs and they may not make one eruv, even if it is full of stubble or straw; full of earth or gravel – they make one eruv, and they do not make two eruvs.

Kahati

If a trench between two courtyards – which separatesthem along their entire width, is ten – tefahs - deep and four – or more tefahs - wide – they make two eruvs, and they may not make one eruv – for the two, because they are two separate courtyards, even if it – the trench, is full of stubble or straw – and it is possible to cross over from one courtyard to another, they may not make one eruv, for stubble or straw are not usually abandoned and left there, not even only for the duration of the Shabbat, rather people take from it to feed the cattle; the trench is therefore a separation between the courtyards; but if the trench is - full of earth or gravel – which are usually left there and abandoned and the trench remains stopped up, they make one eruv - for the two courtyards, and they do not make two eruvs – for the two courtyards are as one.

The wording "and four wide" in this mishnah is to be taken literally (unlike the case of the wall in the preceding mishnah), for a trench that is narrower than four tefahs constitutes no division between the two courtyards, because it is easily crossed, and the two courtyards are considered as one. The Gemara explains that a trench which is stopped up with something that may not be handled on Shabbat, though the householder intends to remove it from there, turns the two courtyards on the Shabbat into one courtyard, since it is forbidden to remove it on the Shabbat. However, if the trench is partially stopped up in the middle, but open on either side, and the stopped-up part is not more than ten amot long, it is as a doorway, and they make two eruvs, and if they wish, they make on eruv.

Return to Mishna Yomit Index

Visit the Mishna Yomit Archives