daf bit: Eruvin 26

[cellio]

(Today's daf is 27.)

An eiruv for Shabbat depends on providing for a communal meal, e.g. food that all in the shared courtyard can eat. (They are not required to actually eat it; it just needs to be available.) The mishna says that all foods can be used for this purpose except for water and salt, because water and salt do not make a satisfying meal. If a man vowed to abstain from food, the mishna points out, he is allowed to consume water and salt.

What about food restrictions? An eiruv may be prepared for a Nazarite (one who has vowed to abstain from wine) using wine; though the Nazarite can't drink it, somebody else can. Similarly, an eiruv for an Israelite may be prepared with terumah (food that is dedicated to the kohanim, or priests), but Symmachus dissents and says only unconsecrated foods may be used. So, Symmachus aside, the rule seems to be that if any member of the affected community can eat it, that's good enough. (26b, bottom of page)

(Aside: I learned as a result of asking a related question that in Pittsburgh, there is a communal box of matzah, with synagogues rotating annually who has custody of it. If nobody eats it I think it gets replaced once a year.)

Comments

[talvinm.livejournal.com]

In re: the aside. I keep having images of fruitcake.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

Hey!

*grins at cellio*

[talvinm.livejournal.com]

Well, I mean, instead of the fruitcake that gets handed around every year, it's the box of matzah. :P

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know what you meant, I just had to defend fruitcake's good reputation. ;)

[zare-k.livejournal.com]

I had no idea that there is a food component to making an eruv until I just now looked it up, and was really confused about why one would try to delineate a physical boundary using wine or matzot.

[cellio]

He must certainly not mean fruitcake the likes of yours, true things of beauty and succulence without measure, but rather the more conventional form of the "this is your grandfather's fruitcake; care for it well and pass it on to your grandchildren (for surely you would break a tooth were you to eat it now)" style.

Someday you should remind me to tell you about the Ancestral Fruitcake of the AEthelmearc Order of the Laurel (SCA high-end arts order). I believe it has been shellacked, just in case.

[cellio]

*laugh* It's like a trail of breadcrumbs, only not! :-) (Yeah, boundary plus food, not boundary of food.)

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

*giggles* I know, but had to say something, because I'm me.

One day I must hear this tale! *makes a note*