Eruvin 43b — the Talmud in English

and it is prohibited to drink wine throughout all the weekdays.

And one might have thought that the reason it was obvious to us that the Messiah will not come on Shabbat or on festivals is because of the prohibition against traveling beyond the Shabbat boundary. Therefore, we seek to prove:

Granted, if you say that there are Shabbat boundaries

above ten handbreadths,

this is why it is permitted on Shabbat and festivals.

But if you say that there are no Shabbat boundaries

above ten handbreadths, then the Messiah could come without violating the prohibition against traveling beyond the boundary.

Why, then, is it permitted on Shabbat and festivals?!

And we reject this proof:

That case is different:

the fact that we are not uncertain whether the Messiah might come on Shabbat or festivals is for another reason.

For

this is what

the verse says: “Behold, I am sending you Elijah the prophet

before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord,” and we learn that on the day before the coming of the Messiah, descendant of David [according to Rabbi Yaakov Gaon’s understanding of Rashi], Elijah will come to announce it to us.

And

this

is because, since we see that

Elijah did not come yesterday,

the Messiah will not come today.

And we raise a difficulty concerning this:

If so,

if we rely on the fact that since we did not know that Elijah came to announce it to us, the Messiah will certainly not come today, then

on every weekday as well it should be permitted, since Elijah did not come yesterday?!

Rather,

the reason that it is actually prohibited throughout the weekdays must be that

we say that perhaps

perhaps

Elijah came to the Great Court

in Jerusalem

yesterday,

and it is we who do not know about it.

And if so,

here—

on Shabbatot and festivals—

also

he should be prohibited, since

we can say that Elijah came to the Great Court

yesterday.

And we explain:

Israel has already been assured that Elijah does not come on the eve of Shabbat or on the eve of a festival, because of the exertion involved

in having to set aside the preparations for Shabbat and go out to greet him. Since Elijah does not come on the eve of Shabbat or a festival, the Messiah does not come on Shabbat or a festival; therefore, he is permitted to drink wine on those days.

And

one might have thought that, since Elijah did not come

on the eves of Shabbatot and festivals because of the exertion involved in preparing for Shabbat,

the Messiah likewise does not come

on the eves of Shabbatot and festivals. Therefore, we ask:

If so,

on the eve of Shabbat

[or on the eve of a festival],

it should be permitted

for one who vowed to be a nazirite to drink wine, since the Messiah certainly will not come that day. Why, then, does the beraita state that it is prohibited to drink wine “throughout all the weekdays”?!

And we answer:

It is Elijah

who

does not come

on the eve of Shabbat, but

the Messiah does come, since

once

once the Messiah comes, everyone

[the nations of the world]

will be slaves to Israel,

and they will prepare the needs of Shabbat for us, while we go out to greet our righteous Messiah.

We still need to resolve the question, for the following difficulty remains:

On Sunday

[the first day of the week]

it should be permitted

to drink wine, as will be explained. Since the beraita states that it is prohibited to drink on “all” the weekdays,

let us derive from it that there are no Shabbat boundaries

above ten handbreadths.

For if there are boundaries

above ten handbreadths,

on Sunday it should be permitted, since

surely

Elijah did not come on the preceding Shabbat

because of the prohibition against traveling beyond the boundary, and the Messiah does not come without Elijah coming to announce it on the eve of the day of his arrival.

And we reject this: The matter cannot be resolved from here, because perhaps

this tanna is uncertain whether there are Shabbat boundaries

above ten handbreadths

or whether there are no boundaries

above ten handbreadths,

and

therefore he follows the prohibition of a nazirite

stringently,

and it is prohibited to drink even on Sunday, because perhaps there are no boundaries above ten handbreadths, and Elijah already came on Shabbat to announce it to us.

And now we explain the main wording of the beraita: “I am a nazirite.”

We ask concerning it:

When was

the person who made the vow

standing when he made the vow

[that is, on what day did he make his nazirite vow]?

If we say that he was standing on a weekday

and said, “I am a nazirite on the day when the descendant of David comes,” this is difficult. He does not know when the Messiah will come to the place to which he will come speedily, and perhaps he has already come and the nazirite status has taken effect.

Once the nazirite status has taken effect—

which lasts at least thirty days—

how can Shabbat suspend it,

and why is he permitted to drink on the Shabbatot and festivals following his vow? Although the Messiah did not come today, perhaps he came yesterday?!

And we explain:

Rather,

yes, indeed: he is prohibited even on Shabbatot and festivals because of this uncertainty. The statement that he is permitted on Shabbat refers to a case where

he was standing on Shabbat and made the vow,

meaning that if he made the vow on Shabbat, he is permitted on that same Shabbat;

and

likewise, the statement that he is permitted on festivals refers to a case where

he was standing on a festival and made the vow, and on that day—

the Shabbat or festival on which he made the vow—

he is permitted; from that point onward—

even on Shabbatot and festivals—

he is prohibited,

because there is always uncertainty that he may have come the previous day, and so it remains indefinitely.

We learned in the Mishna:

Once they did not enter the harbor

until it became dark. They said to Rabban Gamliel, “What are we to do? May we disembark?” He said to them, “You may, for I had already observed the situation, and we were within the boundary before it became dark.”

And we explain: How did Rabban Gamliel know how to estimate the distance between the place at sea where they were when Shabbat began and determine that they had been within the city’s boundary before it became dark? [In the commentary of Rabbi Chananel, it appears somewhat that the Gemara’s reading is: “From where did he know?”]

A tanna

teaches in a beraita:

He had a viewing tube

[a hollow tube. When it is long, one cannot see through it over a great distance, while when it is short, one can see farther through it, according to Rashi. See the Meiri, who appears to explain it differently],

which Rabban Gamliel had,

and he had adjusted its length so that it could be used to view a distance of two thousand cubits at sea.

And how did he adjust it?

He would look and see through it for two thousand cubits on land,

meaning that he measured two thousand cubits on land and adjusted the tube’s length so that one could see through it to the end of those two thousand cubits, but no farther.

And corresponding to it,

he would measure

two thousand cubits at sea,

meaning that by using that same tube he could determine where two thousand cubits ended at sea: the farthest point that could be seen through the tube marked the end of two thousand cubits from the place where the observer was standing.

Using that same tube, Rabban Gamliel knew that they had been standing within the city’s boundary when Shabbat began. He looked through it toward the city, and since the city could be seen when it became dark, they must necessarily have been within the city’s boundary. [This has been explained according to Rabbi Chananel; Rashi’s wording requires further study.]

One who wishes to know how

much

the depth of a valley

[a depression] is

brings a viewing tube and looks through it

on land. He measures how many cubits he can see through it. “Then he goes to the edge of the valley and looks through it toward its depth, and moves backward until he notices that the point where the depth of the valley ends is also the point where the tube’s range of vision ends, so that if he moves back a little farther he will no longer see the floor of the valley,”

and he will know how deep the valley is,

“for the depth of the valley and the distance he moved back from its edge together equal the range of vision of the tube” [the wording of Rashi].

One who wishes to know how tall a palm tree is,

and is afraid to climb it and measure it, can determine its height by measuring the length of the palm’s shadow and calculating the ratio between the height of an object and the shadow cast by that object. This ratio is not constant: sometimes the shadow is longer than the object’s height, and sometimes it is shorter. When the sun is high in the sky, the shadow of every object is short, while when the sun is near the horizon, every shadow is long. Therefore, he must know the ratio between a shadow and the height of an object at the same time that he measures the length of the palm’s shadow. He does so as follows:

He measures his height

[his own height],

and

at the same time he measures

the shadow

of the palm

and the shadow of his own height,

and

he will know how tall the palm tree is.

For example, if the ratio between his height and the shadow of his height [at that time] is one to two, he will know that the palm tree’s height is half the length of its shadow.

One who wishes to prevent a wild animal from sheltering in the shade of a grave

[a monument-like structure was erected over the grave, like the mound of earth that we raise over a grave], since animals habitually come there to shelter in the monument’s shade from the heat of the sun, and he is concerned that the animal may smell the odor of the deceased and scratch up the grave, should construct the monument so that it will not cast a shadow at that time of day when the sun is hot and the shade is cool—namely, at the fourth hour of the day.

And how should he do this?

He plants a reed at the fourth hour of the day

in the place where he intends to build the monument,

and observes where its shadow

of the reed

falls.

He should build the monument in the direction toward which the shadow falls, with its structure

sloping upward on one side and downward on the other,

meaning that he should build the monument with a long, gradual slope, so that it will not cast a shadow. [Although when the sun moves it will cast a shadow in another direction, since the animal does not come to the grave at the time when shade is most desirable for shelter, it will not later come to seek shelter in the monument’s shade. Furthermore, after the fourth hour even the shade is hot, and the animal has no interest in it, according to Rashi.]

Nehemiah son of Rav Chanilai was so absorbed in his learning that he went outside the Shabbat boundary

[he was engrossed in his Torah study and was drawn outside the boundary]. Once he went outside his boundary, he was prohibited from going beyond four cubits for the entire Shabbat, as we learned at the beginning of this chapter in the Mishna: even one who left involuntarily has only four cubits.

Rav Chisda said to Rav Nachman: Nehemiah, your student, is suffering,

since he is prohibited from leaving his place!

He said to him,

Rav Nachman said to Rav Chisda:

Make a human partition for him,

by having people who had established an eruv and are permitted to travel outside the city boundary stand in two groups, one on each side, extending from the place where Rav Nehemiah was located to the city boundary itself.

Since Rav Nehemiah was situated within partitions, his status was like the case stated in our Mishna: If non-Jews took a person out and placed him in an animal pen or enclosure surrounded by a partition, then, according to Rabban Gamliel, the entire area is considered like four cubits for him, and he may walk throughout it, even though he had not been present within those partitions when Shabbat began.

Since the surrounding partitions extended to the city boundary, Nehemiah could walk within them

and enter

the city boundary. From that point onward, his status was like that of the other residents of the city, who were permitted to walk throughout the city and its surrounding area. [See Tosafot for the reason and source of this law.]

Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak was sitting behind Rava, and Rava was sitting before Rav Nachman

[bar Yaakov, according to the Ritva], at the time when Rav Chisda came to Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak. When they saw what had happened,

he said

asked

Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak asked Rava:

What question was Rav Chisda asking,

since he had not instructed them himself to do this? His intention can be understood in two ways:

1.

Let us say

[shall we say]

that we are dealing with a case where there were enough people

[there were enough people who had established an eruv to form a partition from Rav Nehemiah’s location all the way to the boundary itself],

and he was asking

Rav Chisda:

Is the halakha in accordance with Rabban Gamliel,

who holds that partitions of this kind, within which the person had not been present when Shabbat began, are nevertheless considered like four cubits for him?