A man makes a stipulation over his eruv, saying: "If the idolators come from the east, my eruv is to the west; if from the west, my eruv is to the east." [He places two eruvin; one, two thousand cubits to the east of his house, and one, two thousand cubits to the west, and he says: If the idolators come form the east and I must flee them, let my eruv in the west effect (acquisition) for me, so that I have four thousand cubits to the west of my house. And even though they come only on the morrow (Sabbath), we say that there is breirah (retroactive designation), that ben hashmashoth his eruv on the other side (the west) effected acquisition for him.] (He says:) "If they come from both sides, I shall go wherever I choose." "If they come from neither side, I am as one of the (other) men of my city." [i.e., I have two thousand cubits from my city on every side, and I need not gain in one direction and lose in another.] "If the sage comes from the east, my eruv is to the east; if from the west, it is to the west." [(If he comes) outside the tchum of my city, and I wish to learn from him — and now I do not know whether he will come — and tomorrow I will hear from men who come here from there by means of an eruv, etc.] "If he (i.e., a sage) comes from either side, I shall go wherever I choose." "If he comes from neither side, I am as one of the (other) men of my city." R. Yehudah says: If [they came from both sides and] one of them were his teacher, he goes to his teacher [and not to the other, for we posit that when his eruv effected acquisition ben hashmashoth, his will was that the eruv in the direction of his teacher do so.], and if both of them were his teachers, he goes whither he wishes. [The halachah is not in accordance with R. Yehudah, one sometimes favoring his friend over his teacher.]
Bartenura on Mishnah Eruvin
מתנה אדם על עירובו – he places two Eruvin, one at the end of two-thousand cubits to the east of his house and one at the end of two-thousand cubits to the west of his house, and he states: “If idolaters came to the east and I need to free from before them, I will acquire for myself My Eruv that is in the west and my house will be for me four-thousand cubits. But even though that they didn’t come until the morrow, we state that there is a retrospective designation (i.e., literally, a choice), that he acquired for himself an Eruv in the other direction at twilight.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Eruvin
Introduction
This mishnah deals with a person who puts an eruv on both sides of the town, because he doesn’t know whether he will need to go to the west or to the east. Normally, a person cannot make two eruvin and have them both be effective, because a person is considered to be where he left his eruv and he can’t be in both places. The mishnah teaches that there is a way of getting around this problem by making a stipulation.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Eruvin
הריני כבני עירי – two-thousand [cubits] from my city in every direction and I do not need to profit from here and to lose from there.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Eruvin
A man may make a stipulation concerning his eruv and say, “If foreigners came from the east, let my eruv be that of the west; [if they came] from the west let my eruv be that of the east; if they came from both directions, I will go in whatever direction I desire; and if they came from neither direction I will be like the people of my town.” In this situation, he knows before Shabbat that foreigners may be coming and he wants to be able to run away from them to one of the sides of the town. However, he doesn’t know from which direction they will be coming, so he puts an eruv (a meal) in both directions. He then says, that if they come from the west, the valid eruv should be in the east and vice versa. If they come from both directions, then he may choose whichever eruv he wishes. Finally, if the foreigner doesn’t come after him, then he shall be like the other people in the city, who can go 2000 cubits in each direction without an eruv (2000 cubits is the Shabbat border). Note that this mishnah is not referring to a life or death situation, for in such a situation the rules would be suspended in any case.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Eruvin
אם בא חכם למזרח – outside of the Sabbath limit of my city and I want to learn from his mouth, and now I don’t know to which side he will come, and on the morrow I will here from people that come from there that it is to here near the Eruv.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Eruvin
[Likewise say,] “If a sage came from the east let my eruv be that of the east; if from the west let my eruv be that of the west; If he came from either direction I will go in whatever direction I desire; and if no one came from either direction I will be like the people of my town.” Rabbi Judah says: if one of them was his teacher he may go only to his teacher, but if both were his teachers he may go in whatever direction he prefers. In this situation, instead of foreigners coming to cause trouble, a sage is coming to give a derashah (expound upon the Torah) and he wants to go here the derashah. He may again make a stipulation which will allow him the flexibility to have an eruv in either direction. Rabbi Judah says that if one of the sages coming was his teacher, then he can only go to him. This is because we assume that he wishes to hear his teacher and hence only the eruv on that side of the city is effective. However if both are his teachers and they come from different directions he may choose freely between them.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Eruvin
רבי יהודה אומר – if they came from here and from there, and one of them was his Rabbi/Teacher, he should go to his Rabbi/Teacher, and not towards the other, for we hold that with a creature, that at the time of acquisition of the Eruv at twilight, his intention is to acquire for himself that Eruv that is on the side of his Rabbi/Teacher. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yehuda, for sometimes it is more enjoyable for a person to be with his friends more than his Rabbi/Teacher.
