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Eruvin 62

1) LIVING IN PROXIMITY OF A NON-JEW

QUESTION: The Mishnah (61b) says that the presence of a non-Jew residing in a Chatzer prohibits the Jewish residents from carrying in that Chatzer on Shabbos. The non-Jew may not be included in the Eruv, nor may he be Mevatel his Reshus to the Jewish residents. The only way the Jews can permit carrying in the Chatzer is by renting from the non-Jew his rights to the Chatzer. This makes it difficult to permit carrying in the Chatzer, because the non-Jew will not want to rent out his rights to the Jews.

The Gemara says that the Rabanan made it so difficult to permit carrying in a Chatzer shared with a non-Jew in order to deter Jews from living so close to a non-Jew, so that they should not learn from his ways and begin to act like him.

If the Rabanan did not want Jews living in the same Chatzer as a non-Jew, then instead of decreeing that an Eruv cannot be made in a Chatzer without first renting the rights of the non-Jew, they should have simply decreed that it is *forbidden* to live near a non-Jew! Why did they enact such an indirect deterrent, when they could have forbidden Jews to live near non- Jews outright?

ANSWER: The GA'ON YAKOV explains that the Rabanan did not choose to forbid living near a non-Jew, because sometimes one has no choice as to where he lives. (He may have inherited a house in a non-Jewish courtyard, or received it as a bequest). The Rabanan did not go so far as to forbid one from living near a non-Jew when he has no choice.

Instead, the Rabanan decreed that one who lives with a non-Jew must rent rights from him in order to permit carrying in the Chatzer on Shabbos. Such a Gezeirah would deter one who *does* have a choice where to live from living near the non-Jew, while still permitting one who has no choice, to live near the non-Jew.

62b

QUESTION: The Gemara asks that there is an apparent contradiction between the Beraisa (62a) and the Mishnah (61b). The Beraisa states that a gentile's residence in the Chatzer in which Jews live does not forbid the Jews from carrying there. The Mishnah, however, states that a gentile does forbid the Jews in the Chatzer from carrying there.

The Gemara answers that the Beraisa is referring to when the gentile is not at home. That is, when a Jew who is not part of the Eruv is *not* home, the *Rabanan enacted* that he nevertheless forbids the residents of the Chatzer from carrying. A gentile, however, ought not prohibit his Jewish neighbors from carrying in the courtyard even when he *is* present (if not for the not-Shabbos-related consideration that the Rabanan wanted to deter Jews from living with gentile in order that they should not learn from his ways). Therefore, when he is *not* at home it is permissible to carry in the Chatzer.

Why did the Gemara take it for granted that a Jew who is not at home forbids the other residents of the Chatzer from carrying only because of a Gezeirah ("Dirah b'Lo Ba'alim Lo Shmah Dirah")? The Gemara could have simply said that one who is absent from his home *is* considered to be residing in his home ("Dirah b'Lo Ba'alim *Shmah* Dirah") and therefore a *Jew* forbids his neighbors from carrying even when he is not home but a *gentile* (whose presence forbids Jews from carrying only to deter them from moving in with him in the first place) does not!

ANSWER: The Gemara did not give this answer, because if, when a person is not home, it *is* considered as though someone is living there ("Dirah b'Lo Ba'alim"), there would be absolutely no basis to differentiate between one who is or is not home -- even if he is a gentile. If, when he *is* actually present, he forbids the residents of the Chatzer from carrying, when he is not there he would also forbid them from carrying (GA'ON YAKOV).