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Eruvin 74

1) HALACHAH: THE TYPE OF MAVOY IN WHICH CARRYING MAY BE PERMITTED

OPINIONS: In order to permit carrying in a Mavoy (with a Lechi or Korah, and with Shituf Mavo'os), Rav requires that there be at least *two houses* in *two Chatzeros* opening into the Mavoy. Shmuel says that it is sufficient to have *one house* in *one Chatzer* opening into the Mavoy, with *one other house* opening directly into the Mavoy without a Chatzer. Rebbi Yochanan adds that the other house opening into the Mavoy may even be an uninhabited Churvah. What is the Halachah?

(a) The Rishonim (TOSFOS 12b, u'Batim; ROSH 6:20; see Beis Yosef OC 363) rule like Rav, because Rav Nachman (12b) follows the opinion of Rav. Even though there is a general rule that in the laws of Eruvin, the Halachah follows the lenient opinion (and Rav is the more stringent opinion here), that rule applies only when there is an argument between Tana'im, but not when Amora'im argue. Furthermore, the Gemara (74b) shows that Shmuel himself accepted Rav's opinion.

(b) However, RABEINU CHANANEL rules like Shmuel and Rebbi Yochanan because of the rule that in the laws of Eruvin, the Halachah follows the lenient opinion.

(c) The RAMBAM (Hilchos Shabbos 17:8) writes that the Mavoy must have more than one house and more than one Chatzer (see also Rashi on 12b, who also says that a Mavoy needs two Chatzeros with but *one* house in each Chatzer, or a total of two houses). The MAGID MISHNAH explains that the Rambam understood Rav to mean that it is necessary to have two Chatzeros opening into the Mavoy, and two houses opening into the Mavoy. The houses need not open into the Chatzeros.

HALACHAH: The Poskim (SHULCHAN ARUCH OC 383:26) rule in accordance with most of the Rishonim, that a Mavoy requires two houses in two Chatzeros in order to permit carrying in it (a).

74b

QUESTION: Rav states that if there is a Mavoy with a gentile on one side, in his own Chatzer, and a Jew on the other side, in his own Chatzer, and in the back of the Jew's house is a window which opens into another Jew's house (which does not open into the Chatzer in this Mavoy), the two Jews may *not* make an Eruv together to permit the second Jew to carry from his house into the Mavoy, via the window of the first Jew's house. Rav Yosef adds that Rav's ruling applies to a Chatzer as well. (That is, when a houses of the gentile and the Jew open into a *Chatzer*, not a Mavoy, and in the back of the Jew's house is another Jew's house.)

The Gemara says that if Rav Yosef had not told us that Rav's ruling applies to a Chatzer as well, we might have thought that the reason Rav does not allow an Eruv to be made to permit carrying into the Mavoy is because the gentile's Chatzer does not count as a Chatzer.Consequently, the Jews cannot make a Shituf, because there are not two houses in two Chatzeros opening into this Mavoy.

If this is what Rav means to say, though, then why did Rav pick a strange case in which the house of one Jew opens through a window into the back of the house of another Jew? He should have stated his ruling in a simple case where there are two Jewish houses opening into the Chatzer or Mavoy; they cannot make a Shituf together to carry into the Mavoy because the gentile's Chatzer does not count and thus there are not two Chatzeros in the Mavoy!

ANSWERS:

(a) TOSFOS and other Rishonim cite an answer from RABEINU TAM. Rav wanted to teach a second Halachah tangentially -- that only when there is a gentile on the other side of the Mavoy is it prohibited for the Jews to make a Shituf. But had there been *Jews* on the other side of the Mavoy, it would have been *permitted* to make a Shituf, even though in this Chatzer there is only one house. Since there is a second house (behind the Chatzer) opening into the house in the Chatzer, it is considered as if there are two houses in the Chatzer, and therefore a Shituf could be made in such a case.

(b) TOSFOS gives another answer which is the opposite of the first answer. According to the first answer, the second house which opens into the first house through a common window is considered to be in the Chatzer, so that there are two Jewish houses in the Chatzer. According to this answer of Tosfos, the second house is *not* considered to be opening into the Chatzer.

That is, Rav is not referring to a case where there are simply two Chatzeros, one of which is a gentile's, and one of which is a Jew's (and the Jew's house is attached to another Jew's house behind it). Rather, when Rav says "one side is gentile, and the other side is Jewish," he is saying that on one side is a *gentile neighborhood* with lots of gentiles and lots of gentile Chatzeros (with two houses in each), and on one side is a *Jewish neighborhood* with lots of Chatzeros (but each one has only one Jewish house in it, and another Jewish house behind it, joining the first through a window.)

Rav is teaching that since the second house is behind the Chatzer, it is not considered to be *in* the Chatzer, and *that* is why the Mavoy is not considered to have two houses in two Chatzeros opening into it. Had the second Jew been living in the Chatzer itself, the Mavoy would have had two houses in two Chatzeros opening into it, because there are other Jewish Chatzeros here as well and all the Jewish Chatzeros have two such houses. Rav is thus teaching that the gentile Chatzeros do not count (to be considered two Chatzeros with two houses), *nor* do the Jewish houses which join the Chatzeros through a window count (to be considered two houses opening into each of the many Jewish Chatzeros).

(c) TOSFOS answers further that had the second Jew's house opened directly into the Chatzer, then the Mavoy would contain two Jews and the gentile. If so, there would have been a different reason why a Shituf could not be made in such a Mavoy -- because the residence of the gentile forbids a Shituf/Eruv to be made when two or more Jews live in the same Mavoy/Chatzer with him (Mishnah 61b). Therefore, Rav said that even in a case where there is really only *one* Jew living with the gentile (since the second Jew only opens to the first Jews house, and not to the Chatzer) and therefore the gentile's house or Chatzer does not forbid the Jew from carrying in his Chatzer or in the Mavoy, still a Shituf may not be made. As far as the rules of Shituf are concerned, there must be two Chatzeros of *Jews* opening into the Mavoy, and here the second Chatzer belongs to a gentile.

That is, Rav had to state his ruling in a case where the second Jew's house was in back and not opening into the Chatzer in order that there not be the additional problem of the gentile's presence forbidding the Jews from making an Eruv/Shituf.