Stuck in place and stuck in time TB Eruvin 35

We have previously learned the eruv has to be physically accessible and halakhically access, being in the same domain. The Mishnah on TB Eruvin 35 discusses what happens if the eruv is destroyed. The eruv becomes effective at twilight, bein hashsmashot- בין השמשות). If the eruv is destroyed before twilight, there is no eruv. If the eruv is destroyed on Shabbat, there was a valid eruv at twilight to create the new “home” (makom shevitah- מקום שביתה). What caught my attention is when you just don’t know when the eruv was destroyed.

“MISHNA:…If the matter is in doubt, i.e., if he does not know when one of the aforementioned incidents occurred, Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Yehuda say: This person is in the position of both a donkey driver, who must prod the animal from behind, and a camel driver, who must lead the animal from the front, i.e., he is a person who is pulled in two opposite directions. Due to the uncertainty concerning his Shabbat border, he must act stringently, as though his resting place were both in his town and at the location where he placed the eiruv. He must restrict his Shabbat movement to those areas that are within two thousand cubits of both locations.

 “Rabbi Yosei and Rabbi Shimon disagree and say: An eiruv whose validity is in doubt is nevertheless valid. Rav Yosei said: The Sage Avtolemos testified in the name of five Elders that an eiruv whose validity is in doubt is valid.” (Sefaria.org translation)

 Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Yehuda take a very stringent position in this doubtful case. The person is stuck. He can’t go to the makom shevitah nor can he return back home. That person is stuck in his physical location. Alan Lightman in his book Einstein’s Dreams imagines that Albert Einstein, before he discovers his theory of relativity, in his dreams imagines new worlds, in which time can be circular, or flow backwards, or slow down at higher altitudes, or be sticky.

 “Hypothetically, time might be smooth or rough, prickly or silky, hard or soft. But in this world, the texture of time happens to be sticky. Portions of towns become stuck in some moment in history and do not get out. So, too, individual people become stuck in some point of their lives and do not get free….

“On closer look, it is a town in many pieces. One neighborhood lives in the 15^th century here, the storeys of the rough stone houses or joined by outdoor stairs and galleries, while the upper gables gape and open to the winds. Moss grows between the stone slabs of the roofs. Another section of the village is a picture of the 18^th century. Burnt red tiles lie angled on the straight-line roofs. A church has oval windows, corbeled loggias, granite parapets. Another section holds the present, with arcades lining every avenue, metal railings on the balconies, façades made of smooth sandstone. Each section of the village is fastened to a different time….

 “Another house, a man sits alone at his table, laid out for two. 10 years ago, he said here across from his father, was unable to say that he loved him, searched through the years of his childhood for some moment of closeness, remembered the evenings that silent man said along with his book, was unable to say that he loved him, was unable to say that he loved him. The table set with two plates, two glasses, two forks, as on the last night. The man begins to eat, cannot eat, weeps uncontrollably he never said that he loved him….

 “The tragedy of this world is that no one is happy, whether stuck in a time of pain or of joy. The tragedy of this world is that everyone is alone. For life in the past cannot be shared with the present. Each person who gets stuck in time get stuck alone.” (Pages 62-65)

I hope that you are not stuck in time like these imaginary people. If you are, do not worry or lose hope. Judaism teaches us to have faith that our future will be better. God is always ready to help you get unstuck starting right now as we face the New Year 5781.