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Shabbos 7

1) WALKING OVER EXCREMENT

QUESTION: Rav Ashi states that excrement lying in Reshus ha'Rabim is not considered a Mekom Petur, but it is part of Reshus ha'Rabim.

Generally, areas where people do not walk are considered to be a Mekom Petur and *not* Reshus ha'Rabim. Why, then, is excrement considered to be Reshus ha'Rabim if people do not step in it?

ANSWER: The Mordechai (#377) says that Rav Ashi is consistent with his opinion later (100b). Rav Ashi maintains that a narrow puddle less than four Tefachim wide is considered a Reshus ha'Rabim even though people do not step *into* it, since they step *over* it. Here, too, Rav Ashi says that since people walk *over* the excrement, that is enough to make it into Reshus ha'Rabim. (Ohr Somayach, Shabbos 14:24, and Sefas Emes 100b, suggest the same approach without mentioning the Mordechai.)

QUESTION: RASHI (DH d'Ad Asarah) implies that a Karpaf (open valley) which is larger that Beis Sasayim and was fenced in but not for the purpose of residential occupation is considered a full-fledged *Karmelis*. This seems to contradict what the Gemara says earlier, that it is a *Reshus ha'Yachid* with the stringencies of a Karmelis. Rashi reiterates his opinion that it is a full-fledged Karmelis, and not a Reshus ha'Yachid, on 80a and 99b (Gilyon ha'Shas).

ANSWER: The Acharonim explain that RASHI (DH K'gon) stresses that a Karpef that was not fenced in for residential occupation is a Reshus ha'Yachid *if it did not have any houses in it before the wall was built around it*. That implies that *after* the wall was built, a house *was erected* inside the Karpaf. Perhaps Rashi holds that a fenced-in Karpaf is only considered a Reshus ha'Yachid if a house was later built inside the walls. But if a house was never built inside the walls, the Karpaf remains a full-fledged, genuine Karmelis.

7b