Topics covered:
Chapter 5, Mishna 5, 6, 7
If there’s a ladder leading to a private courtyard at the dead end of a public domain, is it an entrance or a partition? How does this compare to a ladder in a courtyard leading up to a balcony? Rav Yosef tasked Abaye to create an eruv chatzeiros – joining of courtyards – for the residents of Kakunya, and to do so CAREFULLY. Abaye learned why his master added the warning! Mishna 6 brings us back to the subject of Shabbos techum, how far we may walk on Shabbos (as opposed to whether or not we may carry). Key principle here is that if a dwelling is in a city, one gets the whole city as his “dwelling” and we measure the techum from the city limits. Curious case of neighboring hillside towns Geder and Chamtan, which were told to measure differently because 1) the upper city of Geder had a safety wall below the town that could function as its city limit AND/OR 2) the people of Geder had personality issues. Mishna 7 asks whether a large cave is treated like a city if one establishes his Shabbos dwelling there?