Eiruvin 6a, b

What makes an alleyway? What makes an opening? What is a breach and what is a doorway?  How we answer these questions defines what must be constructed to create legal barriers between realms.  But on a more practical level, the answers to these questions help us know what can be carried where on Shabbat. So the lives of women, men and children who need to visit relatives or neighbours can do so without breaking the law.

The laws of eiruvin seem so arbitrary to me.  They are numerous and complicated.  They define something that I have never consciously followed. These laws do not inspire me to follow them, either. But I am not bored as I read through the rabbis' thoughts and words.  I am drawn into a world where lives were bound by laws defining what is here and what is there, what is in and what is out, what is permitted and what is liable for a sin offering.

If only life were so structured for me.  I do "x" and I'm fine; I do "y" and there is a clear punishment.  My world offers no such black and white certainty; every decision opens the floodgates of questions and confusion.  I have considered taking on Orthodox halacha in an attempt to create this external structure.  However, I have never managed to keep up with the rules.  Sometimes I wish it were different, but mostly I appreciate being able to step in and out, to access and to question.