Eruvin 60 – The quandary of Abaye

The residents of a town of Kakunaei came to Rav Yosef, asking him to appoint someone to arrange an eruv for them, so that they should be permitted to carry in it on Shabbat. Rav Yosef appointed Abaye, telling him, “Make sure they don't complain.” He meant to do it right by properly observing the rules of exclusion.

Abaye saw in the town some houses that opened toward the river, without an opening toward the city. He said, “Let these houses be the ones excluded from the eruv.” However, he then reconsidered, saying that the rule stated  “excluded,” which means that they potentially could be included, and these houses cannot be included anyway, because their courtyards don't open into the city.

He then thought of asking them to make windows in those houses. However, then he reconsidered again, citing a different precedent with ditches separating neighborhoods which nevertheless joined in a common eruv. Then he reconsidered again, because in the precedent of ditches they could use roofs for connection, had they wanted to, but it was not so in the town of Kakunaei. Again he considered making windows. And then he remembered a case where a storehouse, where people did not even live, was used as an excluded area, and thus concluded that waterfront houses could be used to satisfy the exclusion rule. Then he said, “That is was Rav Yosef meant, saying that they should not complain – I could have forced them to make windows for no purpose.”

If one told his son to place his eruv to the east of town, for him being able to walk there on Shabbat, but the son placed it more than two thousand steps away – it is invalid, and he keeps the techum of his town.

Art: Windows by Henri Eugene Augustin Le Sidaner 1862-1939