פירוש על עירובין 4:2

לנמל – a place where the ships park when they leave from the ocean to its shoreline.

Introduction In yesterday’s mishnah we learned about a person who set sail (against his will) on Shabbat. Today we learn about a person who docks on Shabbat, and whether or not he may disembark.

מה אנו לירד – from the ship into the city for we had not come from outside the [Sabbath] limit once it became dark, and this harbor is not surrounded by partitions for had it been surrounded by partitions, that which Rabban Gamaliel had said above (i.e., Mishnah 1) that he had been placed in a pen or a stable, he would be able to walk throughout it all.

Once they did not enter the harbor until dusk [on Shabbat eve]. They asked Rabban Gamaliel, “Can we disembark?” He said to them, “You may for I was already observing and we were already within the Shabbat limit before it grew dark.” As we have previously learned, one’s Shabbat limit is fixed by where he is at dusk on the eve of Shabbat. If the boat was out of the Shabbat limit of the harbor at dusk, then when the boat docks they may not disembark. This is what the other rabbis asked Rabban Gamaliel. He answered them that he had been observing carefully where they were when Shabbat began and he is certain that they were already within the limit of the harbor. Therefore they may disembark. The relationship of this mishnah to the previous one is slightly tricky. Above, Rabban Gamaliel held that one who was taken out of his city against his will and put into a second city becomes like the people of the second city. Hence, we would think that in this situation, where Gentile sailors brought him into the port, even if they docked on Shabbat he should be allowed to disembark. One answer to this problem is that Rabban Gamaliel is responding to Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Joshua according to their halakhah and not stating his own opinion. They hold that if they were not within the border of the port before Shabbat began, that they cannot go more than four cubits, so he responds to them that they were within the Shabbat border. According to his opinion, this is not important.

שכבר הייתי מסתכל – in the tube of a perforated reed that was properly prepared to the measurement of the clearness/viewing of two-thousand cubits.