Where do you draw the line? TB Eruvin 62

 On Shemini Atzeret we began the sixth chapter of massekhet Eruvin. We have previously learned that all shareholders of a courtyard must participate in the eruv hatzerot so everyone may carry from his home to the courtyard and back. If one of the members doesn’t want to participate in the eruv hatzerot he must temporarily give up his ownership of the courtyard either by renting it or “selling” it to his neighbors. Up to now we’ve only discussed cases were all the members of the courtyard were Jewish. This chapter begins to discuss the implications when somebody else other than a Jew shares that courtyard. We shall begin to see three different groups of people. The first group are Jews. The second group are people like the Sadducees or the Samaritans who accept the written Torah but reject the oral Torah. Of course the third group is gentiles (back then meaning a pagans).

 The Mishnah on TB Eruvin 61b begins our investigation. “One who resides with a gentile in the same courtyard, or one who lives in the same courtyard with one who does not accept the principle of eiruv, even though he is not a gentile, such as a Samaritan [Kuti], this person renders it prohibited for him to carry from his own house into the courtyard or from the courtyard into his house, unless he rents this person’s rights in the courtyard, as will be explained below.

 “Rabbi Eliezer ben Ya’akov says: Actually, the gentile does not render it prohibited for one to carry, unless there are two Jews living in the same courtyard who themselves would prohibit one another from carrying if there were no eiruv. In such a case, the presence of the gentile renders the eiruv ineffective. However, if only one Jew lives there, the gentile does not render it prohibited for him to carry in the courtyard.

 “Rabban Gamliel said: There was an incident involving a certain Sadducee who lived with us in the same alleyway in Jerusalem, who renounced his rights to the alleyway before Shabbat. And Father said to us: Hurry and take out your utensils to the alleyway to establish possession of it, before he changes his mind and takes out his own utensils so as to reclaim his rights, in which case he would render it prohibited for you to use the entire alleyway.” (Sefaria.org translation)

Jews have always been influenced by the surrounding culture. The great 20^th century Israeli Bible scholar Yekhezekal Kaufman described adapting others ideas to meet Jewish norms and understandings as pouring new wine in old bottles. The Bible is full of language borrowed from pagan society, but recast in a strict monotheistic understanding. My friend and colleague Dr. Burton Visotzky described this process in his very interesting and readable book Aphrodite and the Rabbis: How the Jews adapted Roman culture to create Judaism as we know it.  Feminism inspired Jewish women to break down the walls preventing them from full participation in Jewish life. Not only has this unleashed the power of half of our population, but also women’s insights to Torah have enhanced our understanding of our holy texts.

Sometimes this influence is detrimental. Christmas is a powerful example of this negative force on Jewish life. I made friends with an Israeli family because we worked together at Camp Ramah. Their daughter now lives in the United States and I learned that she bought and decorated a Christmas tree because she didn’t want her daughter to feel left out from the majority of Americans. Our daf TB Eruvin 62 recognizes this danger. This potential bad influence is reason why the tanna kama holds a stricter position than Rabbi Eliezer ben Ya’akov. “Everyone agrees that the residence of gentile is not considered a significant residence, and here they disagree about a decree that was issued lest the Jew learn from the gentile’s ways.” (Sefaria.org translation)

The quandary facing every generation of Jews is where you draw the line and how do you adapt new ideas. There are no easy answers and that’s why there’s so many different streams of Judaism providing answers to this important question.