Eiruvin 88a, b

I was relieved to read that Eiruvin is considered to be a difficult masechet.  But I am certain that I will be encountering many more painfully elusive dapim as this learning continues.  Somehow I will have to find a way to put my mind to the material.

Needless to say, today offered up another challenging daf for me.  It seems that the rabbis are intent on determining exactly how we are to gather and dispose of water with regard to balconies, ditches and gutters.  I struggle with the measurements, the basic rules (Is sprinkling water on dusty floors permitted during Shabbat?), the lines of argument and the players involved.

A couple of points stood out for me today, both of them regarding historical and sociological perspectives.  First, waste water.  Were they speaking of sewage, or of water that had been used for cleaning and was ready to be discarded?  Who did the work of collecting and disposing of that water?  How clean were the courtyards that are continually discussed?  Why was run-off water such an issue compared with water that would be absorbed into the ground?  Who stood to benefit from the systems for water use as they are described?

I imagine that all water used in the home was under the watch of women.  How did the water disposal system affect their lives?  I wonder how much Torah conversation was prompted by women telling their rabbi husbands about problems in the home.  

Another issue that jumped out at me today was a conversation in 88b on gutters, rainwater, and the different seasons.  It would seem that there was a pronounced rainy season in Babylonia at the time of these conversations.  Muddy, overflowing courtyards, gutters filled with rainwater - the rabbis suggest scenarios that would force people to adjust their daily routines and practices.  Did they have the equivalent of rainboots?  Did they take off shoes at the door of their homes?  It would seem that they had potentially dusty floors of dirt.  Were women responsible for keeping the dust down?  How was that work done, beyond sprinking water?  Was a muddy inside floor acceptable?

If the rainy season was a given, then people must have made changes in their clothing, their footwear, their schedules, their intake of wheat or other foods dependent on dry fields... and so on.  Compared to today's standard of cleanliness, how did our ancestors fare?

It might seem that I am focusing on housework.  In fact, the topic interests me greatly.  How do tasks get divided in a given household?  Who carries ultimate responsibility? In my own home, I have never been particularly skilled at cleaning or neatening.  What would have been the impact of my behaviour in the times of the Talmud?  Today's daf did open that question for me.