Eiruvin 81a, b

At long last, a daf that seemed more straightforward to my beginner's mind.  For quite some time I have been struggling with each line, hoping to fit the pieces together.  Don't get me wrong - today was also difficult, as I am missing some of the basic building blocks for a fuller understanding.  But it was a pleasure to be able to read without jumping backward to double-check each sentence for congruity with the next.

We learn that fixing a broken loaf of bread is helpful when contributing to an eiruv.  And how do we fix a broken loaf? With a piece of wood.  So that there is no 'seam'.  Interesting - I cannot quite picture how that would work.  But I'm no baker.

The rabbis are concerned about portions - who gives how much to create the shared eiruv.  They compare this to taking challah, where 1/24 (for a homeowner) or 1/48 (for a baker) is separated from the loaf of bread to be given to the priests.  Some of the rabbis' conversations about terumah and how it differs from this tithing was lost on me.  But the rabbis' concerns about what other community members might think was telling.  If one neighbour was allowed to give a broken loaf, another neighbour could complain about having to give more toward the eiruv.  

Clearly the rabbis are aware of the very real social issues created by these rules forcing people to give, to share, and to cooperate with each other.  More consideration is given to the exchange of money to confer to another person the establishment of an eiruv.  Again, some of this conversation was challenging for me as I was not clear about how conferring responsibility would work in practice.  

Interestingly, the rabbis tell us (and Steinsaltz elaborates) about the transfer of possession in ancient times.  The transfer of money is considered to be the promise of acquisition and not the actual acquisition. Instead, possession transfers when an object is taken and pulled from one person to another (again, this was done as part of the bedeken in my marriage ceremony).  Great pains are taken to ensure that people have little reason to argue about the process of establishing eiruvin.  But when that process is this complicated, there will be different understandings and many conflicts, I'm sure.

On a lighter note - at least, in my mind - the rabbis discuss what kinds of food and how much food should be used to create an eiruv.  They participate in a fun conversation about what type of bread is appropriate.  Not millet bread, as that is inedible of course.  What about lentil bread?  Wasn't that fed to a dog and the dog rejected it? No, that dog-rejected loaf was the bread of Ezekiel, made of many different grains and other foods.  And Rav Pappa reminds us that not only was it rejected by a dog, it was roasted in human excrement.  So there.  And lentil bread is just fine to eat and to use in the eiruv, by the way, say the rabbis.