Eruvin 101a

עירובין ק״א ע״א

Learn Eruvin 101a step by step: Aramaic beside English, every question, answer and proof colour-coded.

Open Eruvin 101a in Gemara Clarity

Topic

Closures that may look like building on שבת and יום טוב, and unlocking doors across domains (רבי מאיר and the חכמים)

Overview

The amud opens with a משנה: makeshift closures like a back-court door, thorn bundles in a breach, or mats may close an opening on שבת only if they are raised off the ground, so that closing them does not look like בנין. A ברייתא seems to require only that they be tied and hanging. אביי explains that it means closures with a ציר (hinge), and רבא says it is enough if they once had one. A second ברייתא requires raising, and each אמורא reads it as 'hinge OR raised'. The גמרא adds rulings on thorn bundles and on a 'widowed door', and רב יהודה's rule that a woodpile and similar items on יום טוב must be set up top-down, not bottom-up. A story follows in which רבי יהושע בן חנניה turns a heretic's insult about 'thorns' into praise of the righteous. A new משנה then has רבי מאיר forbid unlocking a door across רשות היחיד and רשות הרבים without a ten-טפחים partition, and the חכמים answer with a story from a market in ירושלים. The גמרא asks how a story about a כרמלית can answer a ruling about רשות הרבים. רב פפא answers that the story happened after the walls were breached. רבא begins rereading the end of the משנה as a case of garden gates, and that rereading continues on the next amud.

Opening lines

The steps (24)

1. StatementThe משנה: makeshift closures must be raised off the ground
2. ChallengeA ברייתא that only requires tying and hanging
3. Resolutionאביי: the ברייתא is about doors with a hinge
4. Resolutionרבא: even if it once had a hinge
5. ChallengeA second ברייתא requires raising even a hair's breadth
6. Resolutionאביי and רבא each fit the second baraita into their own view
7. StatementTied and hanging thorn bundles may be used to close a breach
8. Statementרבי חייא: a dragging 'widowed door' may not be used
9. QuestionWhat is a 'widowed door'?
10. ResponseTwo definitions of a widowed door
11. Statementרב יהודה: stacking wood for a fire top-down is permitted, bottom-up is forbidden
12. StatementThe same rule applies to eggs, a pot, a bed, and barrels
13. ChallengeA heretic mocks רבי יהושע בן חנניה as a 'man of thorns'
14. Resolutionרבי יהושע answers: read the end of the verse
15. QuestionSo what does 'the best of them is like a thorn' mean?
16. ResponseThe righteous protect us like thorns protect a breach
17. ResponseAnother reading: the righteous crush the nations into גיהנם
18. Statementמשנה: Do not unlock a door in another domain without a partition
19. ProofThe חכמים cite the practice in the poultry market of ירושלים
20. Statementרבי יוסי: it was the wool dealers' market
21. ChallengeThe חכמים answered a רשות הרבים case with a כרמלית story
22. ProofProof that ירושלים was only a כרמלית
23. ResolutionBefore and after the walls were breached
24. Resolutionרבא: the end of the משנה is about garden gates