Wednesday, September 23, 2020

Part 20: REBUTTAL TO THE LAWS OF AN ERUV

The Sefer – Page 58:

Application C: City C has a population of 1 million people. There is a grid of many side and main streets running through this city. Residents living in the southern part of the city have their own access to and from the city. The same applies to other neighborhoods. It is assumed that many of the residents of the south side of the city will seldom, if ever, travel the roads on the north side of the city. The same applies to residents of other neighborhoods. There are Poskim who consider the roads to be a reshus harabim, based solely on the population of the city, which is more than 600,000.(44) Other Poskim are more lenient since none of these main roads are actually servicing a population of 600,000 or more. 

Rebuttal: I reiterate, it is illogical to argue that the population of a city reflects the number of people who can make use of any street. Many people who live in one section of a city do not utilize the main streets in other sections of their city, so why should they be included in the tally of all the main streets of the city? As I mentioned previously, there are only one or two poskim who would consider all the roads in a city to be a reshus harabbim if the population of the city is greater than 600,000. The opinion of these poskim is not accepted l’halachah.

 

The Sefer – Footnote 44:

הנה לדעת הבית אפרים שהבאנו לעיל דכתב דמצוין שם בכל עת, לכאורה אין זה נחשב רה"ר, כיון דבדרך כלל אינם משתמשים בהרחובות שבצד השני של העיר כלל. וגם המשכנות יעקב שכתב מסורים יש לדון כיון דיש להם רחובות אחרים אין זה מסור להם. ...

Rebuttal: As mentioned previously, the poskim uphold that the Bais Ephraim requires that shishim ribo actually traverse the street over one day. The Mishkenos Yaakov’s shita has nothing to do with a city.  

 

The Sefer – Footnote 44 (continued):

...אבל ע' בספר שמחת ישראל בשם הגרש׳׳ז אורבעך ובשם הגרי״ש אלישיב דכתב וז״ל: שאלתי את פי הגרש״ז שליט״א מהדעתו להלכה בעיירות גדולות בזמנינו שיש בהם ס׳ רבוא אבל אין בשום רחוב ס' רבוא וגם אין שם כ״כ הרבה בכל העיר שיהו ברחובות ס׳ רבוא בזמן אחד, והשיב שלמעשה יש להחמיר דהוה חשש דאורייתא, וכן אמר לי הגרי׳׳ש אלישיב שליט״א, עכ״ל. וכן שמענו מהגר״מ רוזנר שיש לו בכתב מהגרי׳׳ש אלישיב שאם יעלה מספר התושבים בירושלים ליותר מששים רבוא שאין לסמוך שם על עירוב של צוה״פ.

Rebuttal: The sefer Simchas Yisrael cannot be relied on, as it was written by a member of the “Chevrah Hilchos Issurei Eruvin.” A case in point is that it is very clear from the writing of Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach zt”l (Minchas Shlomo, 2:35:19) that the shishim ribo would need to traverse the road itself. So much for relying on Simchas Yisrael. Regarding Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv zt”l, however, there is a letter which seems to state (in reference to the Yerushalayim eruv) that shishim ribo is conditional of a city (Kovetz Teshuvos, 4:34). This though is in opposition to all the poskim, and moreover, the metzius; there were eruvin established in cities that contained populations greater than shishim ribo prior to WWII. Clearly, the world did not follow Rav Elyashiv regarding this matter. Furthermore, we do not have to look further than Yerushalayim itself; most people obviously do not follow this letter of Rav Elyashiv and make use of the eruv there (see also Even Yisroel, 8:37 and Kinyan Torah, 4:40). It should be noted that Rav Elyashiv was only referring to an eruv consisting of tzuras hapesachim. However, he certainly would have allowed an eruv formed by mechitzos that are omed merubeh to be established (see the rebuttal to footnote 40, and The Toronto Community Eruv, p. 15).

Moreover, Rav Elyashiv is quoted in his sefer Ha’aros on Maseches Shabbos (6b) as advancing numerous reasons why Yerushalayim does not fulfill the criterion of shishim ribo (e.g. we require that the shishim ribo traverse therein the entire day, that we do not include in the tally non-residents, women, children, infirm, and non-Jews). Consequently, it is possible that Rav Elyashiv would agree that most large cities do not fulfill the criterion of shishim ribo and an eruv of tzuras hapesachim can be established.       

 

The Sefer – Page 58 (continued):

The opinion of Hagaon Rav Moshe Feinstein zt”l

Hagaon Rav Moshe Feinstein zt”l(45) has a unique formula for determining what constitutes a reshus harabim. According to his formula, a single street is not a reshus harabim unless 600,000 individuals travel this street every day, which is very rare in our time.  However, if it can be assumed that 600,000 individuals can be found throughout all the streets of the city at one time, then the entire street grid of the city becomes one large reshus harabim. This assumption is only justified if there are close to three(46) million residents living in an area of the city that is twelve by twelve mil (a mil is 2000 amos, twelve mil equals approximately 8.5 miles). This concept of the entire city becoming a reshus harbim is derived from the machaneh Yisroel, the Jewish encampment in the desert.

Footnote 45: אגרו״מ או״ח ח״א סי׳ קל״ט

Footnote 46: אגרו״מ או״ח ח״ה סי׳ כ״ח ענף ב׳ אות ה׳ וסי׳ כ״ט

Rebuttal: Rav Moshe zt”l, like most poskim, originally maintained (Igros Moshe, O.C. 1:109) that the criterion of shishim ribo was conditional on the street. Only later (ibid., 1:139:5) did he formulate his chiddush in which shishim ribo when applied to a city was not dependent on a street but over a twelve mil by twelve mil area. Rav Moshe added that the criterion of shishim ribo ovrim bo would require a sizable population living and commuting into the twelve mil by twelve mil area so that it could physically satisfy the condition of 600,000 people collectively traversing its streets. In the final two teshuvos which followed, we see that Rav Moshe codified his chiddush that the requirement of the criterion of shishim ribo is, "just about three million people," (ibid., 5:28:5) or, "at least five times shishim ribo," (ibid., 5:29) which could amount to even more than three million people.

It is important to explicate why Rav Moshe argued that the criterion of shishim ribo is, "at least five times shishim ribo."  Rav Moshe wrote (ibid., 4:87) that since eruvin in the past had been erected in cities whose populations exceeded shishim ribo, one could not classify a city as a reshus harabbim solely on the basis of the existence of a population of 600,000. Hence, Rav Moshe posited that the requirement is a population of three million. Rav Moshe’s argument is in direct opposition to those who allege that the criterion of shishim ribo is conditional of a city with a population greater than 600,000.

[It should be noted, 21 ¼ inches is sufficient according to Rav Moshe’s shiur amah in regards to Shabbos (see ibid., 1:136). Therefore, twelve mil would be approximately 8.1 miles.] 

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