Talmud zu Tahorot 6:12

Rav Joseph said, in fact we have stated¹⁴⁹While the technical term karmelit does not appear in the Mishnah, all the examples enumerated in the Tosephta are found in the Mishnah and the rules can be deduced from Mishnaic quotes. all of these. The sea as we have stated there¹⁵⁰Mishnah 11:5.: “One who in the sea throws four cubits is not liable.” Not only in the sea four cubits, but even if he throws the entire length of the sea he is not liable, for the entire sea is called karmelit¹⁵¹Since nobody can walk in the sea, it cannot be considered public domain..
A valley⁷³Karmelit is a part of the public domain not readily accessible to the public (Chapter 13 Note 68). The two main examples are “the sides of a thoroughfare”, the part of a street close to the houses if that part is not easy to use because of stairs extending from the houses or if the fronts of the houses do not form a straight line. The other is “valley”, a rural access path which is public domain, not a thoroughfare but meant only as a path for farmers working adjacent fields.
Since karmelit is not a thoroughfare (defined as road of at least 16 cubits width) it does not qualify as public domain for which transport from a private domain is forbidden. The statement of R. Joḥanan implies that he cannot consider walking as equivalent of standing still (Note 56) since transporting from a private domain to karmelit followed by transport from karmelit to public domain, while forbidden on the Sabbath, does not generate liability (Note 81).
(The etymology of the word karmelit is unknown. Cf. Accadic karmiš “like a ruin”.) as we have stated¹⁵²Mishnah Ṭaharot 6:4. The “valley” is agricultural domain accessible only by rural paths, not by a paved road. In the dry season, after the grain was cut and before the fields are ploughed for new seeds, the fields are accessible to everybody. Since there is nothing hidden there, it is like public domain for impurity but since it is not easy of access it cannot be considered public domain for the rules of the Sabbath.: “A valley during the dry season is private domain for the Sabbath but public domain for impurity¹⁵³Where any question of ritual impurity is resolved by presumption of purity, Soṭah1:2 Note 88.. During the rainy season it is (private) [public]¹⁵⁴The word in parentheses is from the text of the scribe here, the reading in the Mishnah, the quote in the Babli (Šabbat 6b, Bava batra 123b), and alluded to in Bava batra 9:8 (Note 87). The text in brackets is that of the first corrector. It was noted by Qorban Haˋedah (as emendation of the Venice text since the ms. was not accessible to this author) and supported by convincing arguments by S. Liebermann (תלמודא דקיסרין p. 17 Note 2, הירושלמי כפשוטו p. 15) and J. N. Epstein (Tarbiz 5, 1934, p. 264) that the text of the scribe is correct and the correction a corruption. In the rainy season the fields are sown, the grain is growing, and any trespass by unauthorized persons is criminal. There is no doubt that the fields have the status of private domain both for the Sabbath and for cases of doubt about impurity. domain for both.” If you say private domain for both it should not need surrounding by animals’ gear, but we have stated¹⁵⁵Mishnah Eruvin 1:8.
A caravan which in the dry season uses a “valley” as camping ground for a stay over the Sabbath is required to turn the fields into a guarded place by arranging the (camel or donkey) loads as a symbolic wall (of 10 hand-breadths height). In the interior then one may carry unrestrictedly. This proves that in the dry season the fields are not private domains in the commonly accepted sense; they are karmelit.: “If they surrounded it by animals’ gear one carries in the interior.”
A platform, as we have stated¹⁵⁶Mishnah Eruvin 9:5.: “And similarly one carries under open bridges on the Sabbath, the words of Rebbi Jehudah; but the rabbis forbid.¹⁵⁷It is supposed that the bridges are not simply a roadway on a flat support but that they have side walls extending somewhat under the roadway so that seen from below they delineate the space under the bridge. The Sages forbid to carry for four cubits or more in the informally defined space but they refrain from imposing liability; this proves that the prohibition is purely rabbinical; the space can be neither private nor public domain.”
A threshold¹⁵⁸This is a repetition of an earlier text as referred to by the Notes., as we have stated: ⁸¹Mishnah 10:2. “If one carries out foodstuffs and puts them on the threshold, whether he or somebody else carries them to the street there is no liability since it was not done in one action.”“If one carries out foodstuffs and puts them on the threshold; whether he or another person then carries it out, he is not liable since the work was not performed in one step.” Therefore if the work was completed in one step⁸⁹As noted before, the work of transporting consists of lifting, moving, and depositing. If this is done from private to public domain, it is a desecration of the Sabbath. But a combination of two actions, both involving karmelit and therefore not creating liability, still does not create liability. he would be liable. Ben Azzai said, even if he completed the work at one time he would not be liable.
Karmelit. Rebbi Ḥiyya stated: karmel “soft full”, neither moist nor dry but average¹⁵⁹The same etymology of the quadrilitteral כרמל is given in Sifra Wayyiqra I Parsheta 13(8), Pereq 15(1).. And here it is neither public nor private domain but karmelit. What is karmelit? Rebbi Yasa in the name of Rebbi Joḥanan, for example the store of Bar Justinus¹⁶⁰In the Babli (7a) the example is given of a stoa, a roofed domain bounded by pillars. Since such a stoa is a pedestrian mall, not accessible to vehicular traffic; if there is an additional obstacle to free circulation it becomes karmelit. S. Liebermann conjectured that the store in question was situated in such a stoa.. A multi-party courtyard and dead-end streets: if there is an eruv they are permitted, but if no eruv was made they are forbidden¹⁶¹A domain which is not public by biblical standards can be turned into a private domain by an eruv, “mixing” (of domains), by arranging the potential of a common meal for all interested persons. A genuinely public domain cannot be turned into a private domain. Therefore the domains mentioned as candidates for eruv cannot be public domains. They also cannot be private domains since then they would need no eruv..

Rebbi Joḥanan said: Somebody became possibly impure⁸⁷Mishnah Ṭahorot 6:6 declares that a doubt which arises about impurity in a private domain is treated as if the case were about certain impurity whereas in a public domain the same case is treated as one of purity. Mishnah 6:7 then notes that an agricultural area is treated like a private domain during the rainy season (the entire time between ploughing at the time of the first rains through harvest in early summer) but as a public domain after the harvest is completed and the fields are cleared. in an agricultural area whether in summer or in winter; this refersn to the dispute between Rebbi Meїr and the Sages⁸⁸Since R. Meїr holds that individual cases have to be decided according to the situation actually before the court (Note 79), for him the problem is not the state of the area when the question arose but when it is asked of the rabbinic authority.. If he comes to ask in summer, one answers him according to the rules of summer; in the winter, one answers him according to the rules of winter. Rebbi Joḥanan said, only days close to the rainy season⁸⁹Even R. Meїr will not decide according to the situation when the question was asked if there was a long interval between the creation of the problem and its resolution..