Chapter 17
Principles of the Laws Relating to the Transfer of Objects from One Place to Another
LAWS OF EIRUV CHATZEIROTH AND SHITUFEI MEVO’OTH (TRANSFERS INVOLVING PROPERTY OWNED IN COMMON)
13.a. In order to avoid the restrictions on transfer mentioned in paragraphs 11 and 12 above, one should make an eiruv chatzeiroth.
13.b. An eiruv chatzeiroth may be made in either of two ways.
1) a) Before Shabbath, one collects from each of the owners or tenants a whole loaf of bread, roll or matza.
b) All of the food is put inside one receptacle and kept in one of the houses, apartments or rooms, as the case may be (but not in any commonly owned property in which no one lives, such as an entrance hall).
c) The blessing to be said on making the eiruv,
“בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה’ אֱלֹקֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָׁנוּ בְּמִצְווֹתָיו וְצִוָּנוּ עַל מִצְוַת עֵרוּב”
is recited at the stage where one collects the food.
d) When making the eiruv, one says, ‘By virtue of this eiruv, it shall be permitted to transfer articles between the houses, apartments or rooms [as the case may be] of the participants.”
2) a) Alternatively, one of the owners or tenants provides the bread, rolls or matzoth for all the others.
b) Before Shabbath, he takes the quantity mentioned in paragraph 15 below and says the blessing set out above.
c) He then requests a second person (other than his wife or his children who regularly eat at his table) to take possession of the food, on behalf of all of the owners or tenants, by raising it at least one tefach.
d) Next, he says, “This food shall belong to all of the present and future owners or tenants of the houses, apartments or rooms [as the case may be], for the purpose of the eiruv I am now making, permitting the transfer of articles between them.”
e) The eiruv chatzeiroth is effective and the other owners and tenants may take advantage of it, even if they did not know it was being made, in conformity with the principle that a benefit may be conferred upon a person without his knowledge.
13.c. The theory upon which the Rabbinical institution of eiruv chatzeiroth is based is that all of the owners and tenants are considered to have a right of access to the house, apartment or room in which the food belonging to them all is kept, and all of the reshuyoth ha-yachid, whether owned or tenanted by individuals or in common, are therefore treated as being within the same common ownership, forming one, large reshuth ha-yachid.
