The Sefer – Page
58 (continued):
This position represents both a great leniency and a
great stringency. On the one hand, a street is not a reshus hrabim unless
600,000 people travel the street every day.
On the other hand, in a city with the necessary population density where
a reshus hrabim would be assumed, every side street is also considered part of
this reshus harabim.
Rebuttal: Rav
Moshe’s position is not a leniency at all. There are few poskim who
maintain that the criterion of shishim ribo is conditional of a city
[which according to Rav Moshe is an area of twelve mil by twelve mil]. The
overwhelming majority of poskim follow the simple reading of the Shulchan
Aruch that the criterion of shishim ribo is conditional of the
street. Only if 600,000 people would actually traverse the street itself on a
daily basis would it be classified as a reshus harabbim (see also Section
Three). Moreover, Rav Moshe admits that his shita is a chiddush
that is not mentioned in the Achronim (ibid., 139:5, 4:87). Consequently,
Rav Moshe’s shitos are not leniencies since the simple understanding of
the criterion of shishim ribo is that it is conditional of the
street.
The Sefer –
page 58 (continued):
Application: A large city with a population of two
million people has a busy main street that is used, at least occasionally, by
half of the city’s population. This
street meets the criterion of being wider than sixteen amos. In terms of the
traffic criterion, this main street would be considered a reshus harabim
according to many Poskim, since the city’s population is more than 600,000 and
the street itself services 600,000 people occasionally.
Rebuttal:
It is not “many poskim” but only one or two poskim. The
overwhelming majority of poskim maintain that the criterion of shishim
ribo is conditional on 600,000 people actually traversing the street. The
authors continuously confuse this issue. The one or two poskim who argue that
the fundament of shishim ribo is conditional of the city maintain that
if the city contains a population of 600,000 people the entire city would be
classified as a reshus harabbim and not just the main street. On the
other hand, for the one or two poskim who uphold that the criterion of
shishim ribo is fulfilled if a street services 600,000 people occasionally,
the city’s population would not play a role in the tally; only the number of people who actually traverse the street
itself (at the minimum occasionally) would be included in the tally.
The Sefer – Page
59:
However, according to the opinion of Hagaon Rav Moshe
Feinstein, the street is not a reshus harabim, since it is not traveled by
600,000 individuals on a daily basis. The entire city would not be considered a
reshus harabim because it does not have a density similar to the density of the
Jewish encampment in the desert, since the entire population is only two
million people.
Rebuttal: The
authors got this right. It should be noted that even with all of Rav Moshe’s chiddushim
in regards to eruvin, few cities would be classified as a reshus
harabbim since they do not meet all of his criteria.
The Sefer – Page
59 (continued):
Many Poskim would not construct an eruv that includes a
street that services 600,000 individuals unless there are additional halachic
considerations that would provide a basis for leniency. An eruv that excludes the main streets is a
much better option, since the side streets do not service 600,000 people even
occasionally.
Rebuttal: I
reiterate, it is not “many poskim.” The authors have a tendency to use
the label “many poskim” when in fact the term should be “one or two
poskim.” On the contrary, there are almost no poskim who maintain
that a road would be classified as a reshus harabbim if it just services
shishim ribo without actually having 600,000 people traversing it within
a day or, at the minimum, on occasion.
Moreover, an eruv would be allowed in most modern day cities since
they do not meet the criterion of mefulash u’mchuvanim m’shaar l’shaar,
and most cities would be able to make use of the Chazon Ish’s shita in mechitzos,
as well, which the authors conveniently omitted in the English section.
The Sefer – Page
59 (continued):
However, some Poskim(47) would object to this as well,
since the city has a total population of more than 600,000 individuals.
Rebuttal: As
we shall see in the source mentioned in the following footnote (47), there
really is only one posek who maintains as such.
The Sefer – Footnote 47
כך שמענו מהגר״מ
רוזנר בשם הגרי״ש אלישיב, שבעיר שיש בו ששים רבוא כל הרחובות אפילו הקטנות אם
שייכים הם להרבים, אין לתקנם, בצוה״פ.
Rebuttal: The person who the authors cite as the source for Rav Elyashiv’s shita is also a member of “Chevrah Hilchos Issurei Eruvin” and cannot be trusted (see Or Yisroel, no. 44 pp. 55-72, no. 45 pp. 130-144, for a rebuttal of much of what this source alleges in his sefer).
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