Setting Up an Eruv - Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Feiglestock shlita

00:02 Speaker 1 You’re listening to “Lema’an Yishme’u,” a podcast of Machon Halacha Chabad.

00:09 Speaker 2 Hello, everyone. Today we’ll talk about an eruv that permits carrying on Shabbos and on Yom Kippur. If there’s an eruv, you may carry. The laws of the eruv are in the Shulchan Aruch. There’s no question that if there’s a good eruv, you can carry. What the Shulchan Aruch describes isn’t called an eruv; it’s called a tzuras hapesach, the form of a doorway. The Shulchan Aruch says: What is a tzuras hapesach? A pole on one side, a pole on the other, and a pole over them. The top pole need not even touch them; there can be several amos between them. Right? We won’t go into the whole section. The side poles must be aligned with the top pole. If it’s attached to the side, that doesn’t work, and they must be strong enough to support a door, even one made of straw. Let’s put it this way: In some places, carpenters have set up posts—a pole on each side—and put a wire over the posts. That’s a tzuras hapesach. The area around it is regarded as though it had a fence with openings in it, and you may carry within that enclosure, between the houses. So that’s the enclosure of what we call an eruv, and what the Sages call a tzuras hapesach. Why did the Sages call it the form of a doorway? It’s as though they needed to build a wall or fence all around, but made openings so people could pass through, entering and leaving. Here they made forms of doorways all around. Since a courtyard may have an opening for entering and leaving, even if all four sides are filled with openings, it is a valid partition. What is a tzuras hapesach? A pole on one side and a pole on the other—even if one is farther away or higher than the other—and a pole over them. That’s the main point. All the details of these laws are in the Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch, section 362. Anyone who wants to look into it and study it more closely can see subsections 28 and 21. In theory, then, there’s a pole on the right, a pole on the left, and a pole over them. It’s very important that the top pole be over both

03:09 Speaker 2 poles, on the right and on the left. Here you can see it in practice. You see steps going up, with the wall of a house on the right and a stone wall on the left, and a fence running through the middle. Beside the steps on the left, they placed an upright metal pole. If you look closely at the picture, it’s metallic in color. On the right they also placed a metal pole, but painted it white. The paint is so-so. At the top there’s also a pole running over both of them. It’s not a wire; it’s an actual pole. Right? This picture is from the holy city of Jerusalem. I don’t know whether anyone recognizes the place. In any case, this eruv is made of actual partitions—houses or walls that were built—with passageways between them. They put a tzuras hapesach at the passageways. Here’s another such tzuras hapesach in a park. On the right is a stone wall, on the left is a metal fence, and at the two ends of the opening there are pipes with a wire above them. This is somewhere else. This picture is from Sydney, where there are also partitions on both sides and a tzuras hapesach that you can’t see in the picture. Here in the picture you can see some posts with a wire over them. You can see the posts, and at the top—if you look closely—there’s a wire extending to the left from the top of the post. It’s very, very hard to see, but it’s there. Let’s see what the Alter Rebbe says: “Likewise, if he attached the top pole to the two side poles, or to one of them, from the side, and it does not rest above them—since a person does not make a doorway with its lintel attached to the side of the doorposts—it is also invalid.” It has to be above them. Now let’s continue looking at the picture. The Mishnah Berurah says the same thing: If the rope was not placed over the two upright poles but attached to the side, it is invalid, since a person does not make a doorway that way. But if the poles do not extend above it, and he merely cut a small notch in the middle to hold the rope securely so it will not slip down, that is fine: it is considered to be over the pole. Likewise, if he drives a nail into the top of the pole and ties the rope to it from the side, that is fine, because the rope rests above the pole, aligned with it. The Mishnah Berurah also discusses relying on telegraph poles as a tzuras hapesach—that is, electricity, telephone or telegraph poles. This is the case the Mishnah Berurah is discussing: there are posts, he puts a nail in a post, and attaches the wire to the side of the nail. Is that considered above the post, or attached to its side? So let’s ask a question. Say this post needs to be ten tefachim high. What if the post is nine and a half tefachim high, and the nail adds another half a tefach? I would say that the nail counts toward the ten tefachim, and it’s valid. Right? Nothing says the post has to be made of wood, so that a wooden post is valid but a metal nail is invalid. It can be made of wood and metal. Both the wood and the nail, then, can count as the post. If the nail is also part of the post, how does attaching the wire to the side of the nail help? How is that still considered above the post? Only if we say the post is just the wood, not the nail. That’s an assumption not stated in the law. That is the Mishnah Berurah’s reasoning. But there is room not to accept it and to say that this is still called attaching the wire to the side: it is on the side of the nail, and no law says that only the wooden part counts as the post—that the post ends here, while the nail in the middle at the top is not part of it. No law addresses that. Here you can see an actual post with a nail at its top and the wire attached to the side of the nail. Here’s a close-up

05:45 Speaker 2 of just that part: the nail at the top of the post and the wire around the nail. And if, the Alter Rebbe says, he made a hole through the pole below its top and passed the wire through it, there is reason to invalidate it because of how it appears. What is the Alter Rebbe talking about? He made a hole for the wire to pass through. The question is whether passing through the hole counts as going over the pole or attaching to its side. There is a discussion about this. We won’t... It’s very hard to decide. Now, on the right there is another, shorter post underneath, and there the wire is certainly above the post—there’s no question. So the first tzuras hapesach on the right, where a shorter post is attached on each side, is valid because the wire is above the shorter posts. But the tzuras hapesach on the left, without those posts, has a wire passing through a hole in the post. That isn’t considered above it, so it would be invalid. On the left we do have a shorter post, but there’s a small gap between it and the main post. If that gap is less than three tefachim, the principle of lavud applies, and it is valid. If it’s more than three tefachim, it would be invalid, because there is a gap between the posts. Here’s what that looks like in practice. This is the earlier picture from the park, with the stone wall, the two posts and the wire over them. At the top of the po... the post was a nail, with the wire coming to the side of the nail. They added the blue sheet metal to make a wide post with the wire above it. So even if we don’t accept that attaching the wire to the side of the nail counts as being above the post, there’s this sheet metal: it forms a shorter post that is ten tefachim high, with the wire above it. That makes it valid even according to those who disagree with the Mishnah Berurah. Generally, those in Israel who are meticulous in building eruvin add these metal sheets to the posts so the wire will be above a post rather than attached to its side. Here are more places in Jerusalem or elsewhere in Israel where they attached these metal sheets at a height of ten tefachim so that it would be

08:16 Speaker 2 Just that part: the nail at the top of the post, with the wire wrapped around the nail. And if he also made a hole in the post below the top, the Alter Rebbe says there is room to say that the post is invalid because of how it appears. What is the Alter Rebbe talking about? He made a hole for the wire to pass through. The question is whether passing through the hole counts as being above the post or attached to its side. There is a discussion about that. We’re not... it’s very hard to decide. Now, on the right, there is another, shorter post underneath, and there the wire is certainly above the post; there’s no question. So the first doorway frame on the right, with a shorter post attached on each side, is kosher, because the wire is above the shorter posts. But the doorway frame on the left, where there are no such posts and the wire passes through a hole in the post, is not considered to be above it, so it is invalid. On the left side, we have a shorter post, but there is a small gap between it and the main post. If that gap is less than three tefachim, it is lavud and is kosher. If it is more than three tefachim, it is invalid, because there is a separation between the two posts. And here it is in practice. This is the picture we saw earlier, from the park: there was a stone wall, two posts, and a wire above them. At the top of the wi—at the top of the post was a nail, and the wire came to the nail from the side. So they put up that blue sheet of metal to serve as a wide post with the wire above it. As you can see, even if we do not accept that a wire on the nail counts as being on the side, this sheet of metal provides a shorter post that is ten tefachim high. The wire is above it, making it kosher even according to those who do not agree with the Mishnah Berurah’s opinion. Generally, those in Israel who are meticulous about making an eruv add these metal sheets to the posts so the wire will be above the post rather than attached to its side. Here are more places in Jerusalem and elsewhere in Israel where they attached these metal sheets at a height of ten tefachim so that it will

10:55 Speaker 2 The wire is above, and between that metal plate and the post there are less than three tefachim. Here’s another picture, where the wire comes from both sides onto the nail at the top. This is an eruv they made in Sydney using electrical wires. The electrical wires are attached to the side of the pole, and they put a white plastic post against it that goes all the way down to the ground, beneath the wire. When the wire runs straight, they put just one post there. When it turns a corner and goes in two directions, they put a separate post for each direction. So there’s a hole: a way to fasten the wire above the post without any questions. In other words, the wire goes over the post, enters the hole, comes out the other side, passes over the post, and then continues to the second post and enters its hole. Because the problem is, if I don’t use nails, how do I fasten the wire to the post? And if I use a nail, the wire will be on the side, resting on the nail. Here’s a solution: you can make holes in the posts and fasten the wires so that they run over the posts, not just through the holes, while the holes hold them in place. Now let’s turn to another question: What distance must there be between two posts? The first opinion in Shulchan Aruch: Even for a gap wider than ten amos, even if there are only four posts, one on each side, and he made a tzuras hapesach, it is permitted. But in an open field, a tzuras hapesach on all sides does not work. According to the Rambam, a tzuras hapesach does not work for a gap wider than ten amos; within that limit, it works even in an open field, on all sides. The Mishnah Berurah says: “It is proper to take the Rambam’s view into account, as this is also the opinion of the Semag and the Semak.” The Alter Rebbe says that even a gap wider than ten amos is permitted. “And some say”—this is the Rambam’s opinion—“that a tzuras hapesach does not work for a gap wider than ten amos.” And it is proper to take the stringent opinion into account. In other words, both the Mishnah Berurah and the Alter Rebbe say

13:42 Speaker 2 to take the Rambam’s view into account. So here, where a tzuras hapesach surrounds an inhabited area on all four sides, according to the Rambam each opening must be less than ten amos wide. Now let’s move to another subject. What is the law for a reshus harabim, a city street? Can I make this kind of eruv—a tzuras hapesach—on a city street, for example? The Shulchan Aruch of the Beis Yosef says: “A reshus harabim can be enclosed only with doors, provided they are locked at night. And some say they need not actually be locked, but must be capable of being locked.” That is, for a street, making a tzuras hapesach is not enough. What we discussed concerned this: in a reshus harabim, you also need a door. There are two opinions. One says the door must be closed at night, even though it is open throughout Shabbos. How long must it be closed at night? Closing it for one minute, even ten seconds, is enough. The length of time doesn’t matter. It may be open most of the night, but it must at least be locked for a moment at night. And some say it need not actually be locked; it just has to be possible to lock it. So, say they lock it for one minute once a year—that would be good enough. The Mishnah Berurah says: Since the first view is presented without qualification and the second as “some say,” [unclear] regarding doors. In our towns, where the custom is to put up a tzuras hapesach, people rely on the opinion that without 600,000 people there is no reshus harabim—and that number is uncommon. But in truth, the Rishonim disagree with this. One should not object to those who follow the lenient practice of relying on a tzuras hapesach, since that is the common custom. But anyone who is careful about these matters should be stringent and not carry on the basis of a tzuras hapesach alone, without doors. The Alter Rebbe says: “Even by rabbinic law, a tzuras hapesach does not suffice for a full-fledged reshus harabim.” To permit carrying in it,

16:13 Speaker 2 you need to put a door on each side, and they must be locked at night. Locking the doors makes it like a single courtyard shared by many people, for which an eruv can be made. Right? “And some say the doors need not be locked at night, but only capable of being locked. One should follow the first, stringent opinion, although the main ruling follows the latter opinion. And it has already been explained that nowadays we have no full-fledged reshus harabim.” Here’s a picture of a tzuras hapesach with a door. If you look, on the right and left there are yellow doors that can be locked. There are three tzuras hapesach openings there, and all of them have doors. There’s a large one across the road, high enough for a car or a bus to pass through, with a door ten tefachim high. On the right there’s also a small tzuras hapesach with a small door on the left side of the opening. That’s why you can’t see it: the two doors are folded against each other. Likewise, on the left there’s a small tzuras hapesach that’s harder to see in the picture, but it’s there, and it also has a door. This is another eruv, where you can see the doors on the traffic island in the middle. There’s a thick post, another post on the right, and one on the left near the car. There’s a post at the end that’s hard to see on the left of the picture. The wire passes over three posts, and all the doors that close this tzuras hapesach are in the middle. This is another eruv made with doors. Here’s yet another eruv made with doors. The doors are folded toward the middle; there’s a wall on the right, a fence on the left, three posts with a wire over them, and doors. So the question is: Do we have a reshus harabim nowadays or not? The Beis Yosef says: A reshus harabim is a street sixteen amos wide that has no roof and no wall. Right? Even if it has a wall, if it is open from gate to gate and the doors are not locked at night, it is a reshus harabim. Some say

18:39 Speaker 2 that if 600,000 people do not pass through it, it is not a reshus harabim. Generally, when an unqualified ruling is followed by “some say,” the halachah follows the unqualified ruling. The Mishnah Berurah brings: “As for the practical halachah, since the Mechaber presents this opinion as ‘some say,’ it seems he does not agree with it.” He does not agree with the opinion requiring 600,000 people. Nevertheless, we do not have the power to object to those who rely on that opinion. It is not an isolated opinion either, as the Rema writes. The Alter Rebbe says: “Streets and marketplaces sixteen amos wide”—that was the width of the street in the camp of the Levi’im in the time of Moshe Rabbeinu—“provided they have no roof or wall. Even if they have a wall, if they are open from gate to gate,” right, “they have the status of a reshus harabim.” The Alter Rebbe continues: “Provided the doors are not locked at night.” Right? “And some say that wherever 600,000 people do not pass through, as in the encampment in the wilderness, it is not a reshus harabim but a karmelis. Although the widespread custom is to be lenient and say that nowadays we have no full-fledged reshus harabim, one should not object to them. They have an opinion to rely on.” In other words, the Alter Rebbe is saying: Don’t call him someone who desecrates Shabbos. Don’t object to him or call him a non-Jew or a sheigetz. Or tell him he’s not a chossid. Don’t object—and let’s say amen to that. If he wants to carry within an eruv, fine. “But every G-d-fearing person should be stringent for himself, since this is the view of the leading Rishonim, who have good reasons for their position: 600,000 is not mentioned in the Gemara.” What does that mean? It means not relying on an eruv that has no doors. Don’t rely on an eruv without doors. The Shaarei Teshuvah says: “One should not be stringent and treat a place without 600,000 people as a reshus harabim, making a tzuras hapesach insufficient and requiring doors. That is impossible to do without the authority of the king and his officials. Someone who wishes to be stringent should do so for himself, not for others.” Ah,

20:51 Speaker 2 Here in Israel, anyone who asks the government for permission to put up gates will get permission. The government approves them, and the Ministry of Religious Affairs even provides funding to build the eruv. That’s only in Israel. Everywhere else in the world, any community that wants to build an eruv has to raise the money itself. But here, the government provides money for the eruv, not for the gates. We have to arrange to put up the gates ourselves, because they hold, as you said earlier, that an eruv can be made without gates, with just a wire overhead—not one running along the side. There’s another problem I’ve seen. Those poles and wires—a rabbi in Israel pointed this out—people don’t know what they are. In practice, an eruv is built around a city, but people don’t know where it begins or ends, and they carry. They don’t even know there’s a prohibition against carrying on Shabbos. I’ve seen a father going to shul with a siddur in his hand, candy, a drink for his child, and all kinds of other things. He’s carrying on Shabbos. Who told him it’s forbidden to carry on Shabbos? There’s a halachah in the Shulchan Aruch that a portion of the city must be left outside the eruv, so people will know that carrying is forbidden there. But in practice, whether or not a portion is left out, people don’t know where the eruv is and carry throughout the city or wherever they go, both inside and outside the eruv. I’ve seen just one rabbi in all of Israel do this: he put signs on the eruv poles saying, “Eruv boundary,” so people would know where the eruv is. From here inward, carrying is permitted; beyond this point, even if you rely on the lenient opinions… Yasher koach to him. I think others should see what he has done and learn from him, because in practice, even in places where an eruv has been built,

23:13 Speaker 2 you see that people don’t know where it is. Someone else made the openings to a mehadrin standard, so there would be no question of the wire running along the side, as I discussed, and printed on them: “Shabbos eruv.” And, as you know, here in Israel there are also “Do not post notices” signs—because that’s another problem: people stick advertisements anywhere they can. But this way, people know it’s the eruv. Most people don’t understand what they’re looking at when they see an eruv pole and its wire—and you can barely see the wire unless you have good eyesight. Another person built an eruv with an actual partition and put up a sign saying, “Shabbos Kodesh eruv.” He deserves a blessing for showing people where the eruv boundary is. This is very, very important. People don’t understand any of this. May Hakadosh Boruch Hu help us observe Shabbos according to halachah and know that, wherever possible, we should build an eruv properly. If the eruv is built according to all opinions, in a place with no street sixteen amos wide—that is, just under eight meters—and there are fewer than ten amos between poles, roughly four and a half meters, then there’s no reason to be stringent, provided there are gates and all the other requirements are met. Or if most of it is surrounded by actual partitions, then even according to the Rambam, when most of the partitions are actual partitions, the distance between poles may exceed ten amos. This lesson has only touched on eruvin, using pictures from actual sites. Every halachah we learn in the Shulchan Aruch needs to be seen in practice, on the ground, so we understand the reality. If we build the eruv according to all opinions, as the Alter Rebbe teaches us, then we’ve made sure it meets the Rambam’s position, including his stringencies, as well as the position of most of the Rishonim: even if 600,000 people do not pass through, a public domain requires gates. There is no reason to be stringent and refrain from carrying. But when an eruv depends on a dispute—when it meets only some opinions and not all of them—anyone who is G-d-fearing will not carry within it.

25:56 Speaker 2 May Hakadosh Boruch Hu bless us so that, through the holiness of Shabbos, we may bring Moshiach Tzidkeinu speedily in our days.