daf bit: Eruvin 34

[cellio]

Today's daf (and surrounding ones) discusses the placement of the food on which an eiruv is based. As noted previously, an eiruv depends on food for a Shabbat (or holiday) meal, regardless of whether anybody actually eats it. That food must be placed somewhere. A mishna on today's daf says: if it was put into a cupboard and the key was lost, the eiruv is nonetheless effective. (R. Eliezer has an objection I don't understand.) The g'mara then clarifies: we are talking here about a cupboard made out of bricks, meaning it is like a structure, rather than one made out of wood, which would be like a k'li (vessel). The difference is important: we are allowed to make a breach in a structure to get food out, but not in a vessel. (34b)

The g'mara says that we "previously learned" (I'm not sure where) that if a house that was filled with fruit was closed up, yet a breach accidentally appeared, we are allowed to take the fruit out through the breach. This forms the basis of the statement above. I am having trouble getting the image of a sealed house full of fruit, especially in a warm Mediterranean clime, out of my head. :-)

Comments

[magid.livejournal.com]

I started giggling as I read this, precisely about the sealed house of fruit. Fascinating.

[cellio]

Yeah, I found myself wondering which fruits would be least bad, and that led to "fruit flies like bananas", and it went downhill from there. :-) (And time was not flying like an arrow, either.)

[magid.livejournal.com]

Hee!
A later thought: maybe it was a house of dried fruit, which makes a bit more sense.

[zevabe.livejournal.com]

This could be a storage box of 4 handsbreadths (1.2 ft) by 4 handsbreadths and 10 handsbreadths (3 ft) high. So it isn't so much a house of fruit as a tall box or storage area. Also, it could be more like a well which might be at least a little bit preservative.