Ask A Question about the Daf

Introduction to Eruvin

Eruvin 2

1) HOW DOES A "KORAH" WORK?

QUESTION: Rav explains that the Chachamim learn the maximum height of a Korah from the door to the Heichal, while Rebbi Yehudah learns it from the height of the door to the Ulam.

We know that the Korah at the entrance to the Mavoy permits the use of the Mavoy in one of two ways: either it is a reminder (Heker) that one may not carry from the Mavoy to Reshus ha'Rabim, or else it serves as an actual partition (Mechitzah) between the Mavoy and Reshus ha'Rabim. Either way, what does the Korah have to do with doorways? It should be invalid above 20 Amos either because no Heker is supplied by so high a Korah (as the Gemara suggests on 3a), or because the Rabanan enacted that when the Korah is too high up (and cannot be seen) we do not apply to it the laws of Gud Achis (Rashi, 5a DH u'Man). In neither case does it have to be with the size of doorways!

ANSWER: The RASHBA and other Rishonim explain that there is a third possibility: Korah works by giving the opening it covers the form of a doorway (like a Tzuras ha'Pesach, even though the Korah has no side posts upon which it rests). If so, it is obvious that a Korah not be allowed to be placed higher than the height of the tallest doorway. This is the approach of Rav.

Rav Yehudah teaches in the name of Shmuel that animals being offered as Shelamim must be slaughtered "Pesach Ohel Mo'ed," i.e. while the doors of the Heichal are open. RASHI in Zevachim (61a, DH I'ba'is Eima) says that this Halachah applies only to Shelamim and not to other Korbanos, while Tosfos in our Sugya and in Zevachim asserts that it applies to Olah and other Korbanos as well.

The MESHECH CHOCHMAH (Shemos 29:11) suggests a reason why, according to Rashi, this Halachah applies to Shelamim and not to other Korbanos. The IBN EZRA (Vayikra 1:5) writes that the Korban Olah is slaughtered in the northern part of the Azarah, corresponding to the location of the Shulchan. The Meshech Chochmah explains that he means it is slaughtered in the north to denote that it is Kadosh and belongs, as it were, to Hashem ("*Shulchan* Gavohah").

However, only Kodshei Kodshim are slaughtered in the northern part of the Azarah. Some act must be done with Kodshim Kalim to show that they, too, are Kadosh and belong to Hashem. For this reason, suggests the Meshech Chochmah, Kodshim Kalim (i.e. Shelamim and its "daughter" Korbanos) are slaughtered while the doors to the Heichal are open, to show that the Korban is directed to Hashem.

With this understanding, the Meshech Chochmah explains a verse that seems to contradict Rashi. The verse (Shemos 29:11) says that the Korban Olah that was brought at the time of the dedication of the Mishkan (Shiv'as Yemei ha'Milu'im) had to be slaughtered "Pesach Ohel Mo'ed." According to Rashi, only Shelamim need to be slaughtered while the doors of the Heichal are open, and not Olos!

The Meshech Chochmah answers that the Gemara in Shabbos (87b) says that the eighth day of the dedication of the Mishkan was the first day for eating Kodshim. TOSFOS there cites a variant reading which says that it was the first day for *slaughtering Kodshim in the north*. If so, the Korbanos that were brought before the eighth day were not slaughtered in the north even though they were Kodshei Kodshim. As a result, they were missing the symbolic indication that they were Kadosh and were directed towards Hashem. Therefore, these Korbanos in particular were slaughtered "Pesach Ohel Mo'ed!"

2b

The Gemara challenges Rav's statement and says that if the Rabanan and Rebbi Yehudah learn the measurements from the entranceways which were in the Beis ha'Mikdash, then they should maintain that an entranceway may be as wide as *20* Amos, and not just 10, since the entranceway to the Chatzer (courtyard) was 20 Amos wide and 5 Amos high.

Why does the Gemara ask this question on both the Rabanan *and* Rebbi Yehudah? It is not a problem for Rebbi Yehudah! Rav says that Rebbi Yehudah learns his opinion from the height of the entranceway of the Ulam (20 Amos), which itself was 20 Amos wide as well! It *must* be that he maintains that the maximum width of an entranceway is indeed 20 Amos.

And if, on the other hand, we assumed at this point that Rebbi Yehudah agrees with the Rabanan regarding the 10-Amah width on an entranceway (as would appear from the next Sugya), then the Gemara should have challenged Rebbi Yehudah's statement from the 20-Amah width of the entranceway to the Ulam itself, since it is from there that Rebbi Yehudah learns the height of an entranceway! (GILYON HA'SHAS of ha'Gaon Rebbi Akiva Eiger)

ANSWERS:

(a) TOSFOS in Zevachim (60a) asks this question and based on this and other questions he proves that the logic of the *first* explanation cited by Rashi here (DH mi'Sefas Kela'im), which Rashi rejects, is correct. According to the first explanation cited by Rashi, the Gemara's question on the Rabanan and Rebbi Yehudah from the dimensions of the entranceway of the Chatzer is with regard to the *height* and not the width of an entranceway. The Gemara is asking that the *height* of an entranceway should be no more than 5 Amos, since that was the height of the entranceway of the Chatzer. If so, it is indeed a question on both the Rabanan (who say the maximum height is 10 Amos) and on Rebbi Yehudah (who says the maximum height is 20 Amos).

Rashi (DH Leilfu m'Pesach), however, rejected this explanation, because there is no reason to learn from the Chatzer that the *maximum* height of an entranceway is 5 Amos, since we already have demonstrated that there were higher entranceways -- those of the Heichal and of the Ulam!

Tosfos answers this question by saying that it is not so simple that the entranceways of the Heichal and the Ulam can be called entranceways. Those two entranceways correspond to the entranceway that was in the *Mishkan*, which the torah calls "Pesach." Since that opening was not a real entranceway (because it had no doorposts; the fourth side of the Mishkan was entirely open), then it stands to reason that the entranceways which correspond to it in the Beis ha'Mikdash are also not real entranceways and cannot be used to determine the dimensions of an entranceway (that is, *if* we can find another source for the dimensions of an entranceway).

The Gemara answers that the curtains were not just 5 Amos high on the side of the entranceway, but they were *20* Amos high. Therefore, the Rabanan can indeed use the entranceway of the Chatzer as a source for their opinion regarding the height of an entranceway. (This answer, though, will not explain for Rebbi Yehudah, since he maintains that an entranceway can be higher than 20 Amos. Tosfos therefore says that Rebbi Yehudah will rely on the first answer of the Gemara, that the entranceway of the Chatzer is not called an entranceway but a *gateway*, and therefore he has no choice but to learn the dimensions from the Ulam.)

(b) The RITVA says that according to Rashi and the other Rishonim, the reason why the Gemara asks its question on Rebbi Yehudah as well is because at this point, the Gemara indeed assumes that Rebbi Yehudah *agrees* that the width of an entranceway is *10* Amos. He only learns the *height* from the Ulam, but the width he learns from the Heichal. Although the Gemara could have asked on Rebbi Yehudah from the width of the entranceway of the *Ulam* (as it eventually does), it preferred to ask from the entranceway of the Chatzer in order to ask on both the Rabanan and Rebbi Yehudah at one time.

The Gemara concludes that when the verse says that the curtains were 15 Amos, it is referring to their height. According to the second explanation cited in Rashi, this was the height of all the curtains around the Mishkan and not just the height of the curtains on the eastern side. Why, then, does the verse (Shemos 27:14,15) specify that the curtains on the *east* were 15 Amos high, if they were that high on all sides of the Mishkan?

ANSWER: Perhaps the verse specifies that the curtains on the eastern side were 15 Amos for the following reason. The Torah clearly says that the Masach (veil) that was in front of the entranceway to the Chatzer (which was on the east) was "20 Amos." Since the Gemara concludes that the entranceway covered by the Masach was *not* 20 Amos, but rather no more than 10 Amos, it must be concluded that this verse, too is referring to the *height* of the Masach and not its width. Apparently the entranceway was 20 Amos high, even though the curtains around the rest of the Mishkan were only 15 Amos in height.

If the curtains on the eastern side were the same height as the curtains all around the Mishkan, then the Masach extended above the height of the curtains by 5 Amos. Therefore, one might have thought that on the eastern side, the curtains were also 20 Amos high, to match the Masach. This is why the verse specifies that even the curtains on the eastern side were also 15 Amos high. (M. Kornfeld)