Q&A: The Dispute over Eruv Chatzerot
The Dispute over Eruv Chatzerot
Question
What is your opinion about the validity of the eruv chatzerot nowadays, as is made in various cities?
Answer
Questionable, but there isn’t much choice. This is a case of possible rabbinic prohibition.
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Questioner:
Why is there no choice? One can simply avoid carrying, no? Also, regarding the dispute over what counts as a public domain on a Torah level—whether it requires 600,000 people or not—why do you hold specifically that it requires 600,000 (as I recall, Maimonides holds otherwise)?
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Rabbi:
It is impossible for the entire public to avoid carrying (what about parents of babies? Should they not leave the house?) An eruv does not help in a public domain, only in a karmelit. In a public domain there is no solution, and one may not carry.
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Questioner:
I assume that during the exile period, even parents of babies refrained from carrying (correct me if I’m wrong)—so why shouldn’t they continue that way? I meant the dispute about today’s streets: some view them as a public domain and some do not. I assume that you require 600,000 people to pass through a street each day for it to be considered a public domain. The question is why you hold that way if it is not mentioned in Maimonides, or in the Rif, or in the Talmud.
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Rabbi:
What does that have to do with exile?
It is customary to rule in accordance with Rashi’s view that 600,000 are required (it may be that this is the result of practical difficulty considerations).
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Questioner:
As for exile, I assume that in Vilna or in Sana’a there was no eruv like the ones today around Petah Tikva or Ramat Gan (correct me if I’m wrong). And nevertheless, Jews lived there just fine, apparently without carrying.
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Rabbi:
There were eruvin abroad. There is even a well-known story about Napoleon and the Paris eruv.
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Jonathan:
It was told to me that Rabbi Kapach’s view, of blessed memory, was that one can make an eruv even in a public domain, and on that basis it would be possible to permit the eruv today as well, even without being forced to rely on the 600,000-person position.
What do you think about that?
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Rabbi:
I would be very glad if there were good arguments in favor of that. I am not familiar with Rabbi Kapach’s position. Do you have a source or link where one could read his reasoning?
Discussion on Answer
If someone thinks that Maimonides’ approach to defining a public domain—that 600,000 are not required—is more reasonable than Rashi’s approach, should he be stringent and refrain from carrying in a public domain on the Sabbath?
In principle, yes. Though in a pressing situation there is room to be lenient in accordance with other views.
I understood that those who prohibit are concerned about non-Jews living within the area of the eruv, which was made without their knowledge. Admittedly, they argue that since the state is Jewish, their presence is not absolute and therefore their consent need not be taken into account, but there are those who are still concerned.