Sadducee Rejection of the Law of Eruv
About This Entry
Before the time of the Mishnah, a proscription against carrying items from one domain to another on the Sabbath had emerged as normative (see Jeremiah 17:21–22). The legal concept of eruv developed to allow a shared courtyard to be designated as a single private domain and thereby permit the carrying of items within it on the Sabbath. This mishnah asks whether a courtyard shared with another person who does not accept the legal concept of eruv—whether Jew or non-Jew—invalidates the eruv for the use of the Jew who accepts its legal status. The second mishnah offers an anecdote to support the opinion that a neighbor who does not accept the concept of eruv invalidates it for one who does. In this anecdote, the neighbor who does not recognize the eruv is described as a Sadducee, indicating that the Sadducees did not accept the concept of eruv.
1. One who lives in a courtyard with a non-Jew or with one who does not acknowledge the [principle of] eruv, that [person] restricts him [from making use of the eruv]—the words of R. Meir. R. Eliezer ben Jacob says: One can never restrict another [from making use of an eruv] unless there are two Jews who restrict each other.
2. Rabban Gamaliel said: A Sadducee once lived with us in the same alley in Jerusalem, and father told us, “Hurry up and carry out all vessels into the alley before he carries out his and thereby restricts you.” R. Judah said [the instruction was] phrased differently: “Hurry up and perform all of your needs in the alley before he carries out his and thereby restricts you.”
Credits
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 2: Emerging Judaism.
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