פירוש על עירובין 4:10

מי שיצא –[a person who left] from his city that the people of city sent him to bring to them an Eruv [with a piece of bread] in order that they would be able to walk on the morrow to a city that is making an Eruv for it that is near to them two Sabbath limits and one can walk from one to the other through [the use of] an Eruv.

Introduction Our mishnah deals with two towns which are located in close proximity to one another (within 4000 cubits), and the people from one town customarily set up an eruv so that they can get to the other town on Shabbat.

והחזירו חברו – for he said to him, it is a period of heat, or a period of cold.

One who left to go to a town with which [his home town is wished to be] connected by an eruv, but a friend of his returned him home, he himself is allowed to go to the other town but all the other townspeople are forbidden, the words of Rabbi Judah. This person left his town to go set up a communal eruv that would allow him and the other people of his town to travel from their town to a neighboring town. While on the way, his friend tells him that he will set up the eruv instead, but then his friend does not set up the eruv. According to Rabbi Judah, the person who went out to set up the eruv may go to the other town on Shabbat, even though his friend never set up the eruv for him and the rest of the town. Since this person began to go on the way to where he wanted to set up his Shabbat place, his situation is like the person in mishnah seven who was traveling and saw a familiar point. In other words, since he sees where he wants to go, he may establish his Shabbat place there at a distance. This is an eruv set up by physical presence just at a distance. However, the other people of the town who were relying on an eruv of a meal cannot go to the other town because their eruv was not set up. They get the normal 2000 cubits in all directions

הוא מותר לילך – on the next day to the same other city for since he took possession of the path in order to purchase a Sabbath resting place at the end of two-thousand cubits away from the city, he is like a poor person who states that “my Sabbath resting place is in a certain place,” and he has acquired there his resting place.

Rabbi Meir says: whoeve is able to prepare an eruv and neglected to do so is like one who is both a donkey-driver and a camel-driver. Rabbi Meir disagrees with Rabbi Judah concerning the person who began to go on the road in order to set up his eruv. According to Rabbi Meir this person loses in both ways. He doesn’t get to go all the way to the city, because he didn’t set up his eruv, neither with bread, nor with a full declaration of “my Shabbat place shall be here.” However, he is also not allowed to walk 2000 cubits around his own city lest he did set for himself a “Shabbat place” on the way to the other city. All he may do is walk 2000 cubits from his city to the other city. Rabbi Meir compares this to a person driving a camel and a donkey, standing in between the two (see above 3:4, where we explained this image).

וכל בני עירו אסורין – for they did not take possession of the path and they have nothing other than two-thousand cubits in every direction from their city.

רמ"א וכו'- Rabbi Meir doubts whether he is poor since he left from his house and took possession of the path or perhaps because he was able to make an Eruv with bread or he didn’t make an Eruv, he is not a poor man; therefore he is an ass driver [or] a camel driver, who does not have two-thousand cubits from his city in every direction lest his Sabbath resting place is in the place where he was walking to bring there the Eruv at the end of the two-thousand [cubits] from his city and at the end of the two-thousand [cubits] from his city, he also did not acquire two-thousand [cubits] towards the side of another city – lest he did not acquire a Sabbath resting place other than in his own home, but the Halakha is according to Rabbi Yehuda.