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Source that a Reshus haRabbim Requires 600,000 People</title><link
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href="https://www.aishdas.org/asp/the-source-that-a-reshus-harabbim-requires-600000-people">The
Source that a Reshus haRabbim Requires 600,000 People</a>'<br>
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<font size=+1><br>
<p>The following is based on an article by Rav Mordechai Yehuah Leiv Zaks in
no. 27 vol. 6 (1953) of HaPardeis. (H/T <a
href="http://eruvonline.blogspot.com/2006/01/part-1-shishim-ribo-mystery-solved.html"
target="_blank" rel="noopener">Eruv Online blog</a>.)</p>
<p>All of our community <em>eiruvin</em> rely on Rashi’s opinion that if
the area does not have ששים ריבו, sixty myriads (=600,000), people
using the street, it is not a true <em>reshus harabbim</em> (public domain)
according to the Torah, only a <em>karmelis</em> (an in-between domain) which
is only prohibited <em>derabbanan</em> if it has no <em>eiruv</em>.</p>
<p>The Ramban (twice: Shabbos 57a, Eiruvin<em> </em>59a), the Ritva (Eiruvin
ad loc.) the Maggid Mishnah (Hil’ Shabbos 14:1) and the Rivash (#405)
all ask where Rashi gets this from. They knew odf no source from Chazal.</p>
<p>Well, Rabbi Zaks believed he found the source!</p>
<p>The Me’iri (Shabbos 6a) has a line in the gemara we don’t have.
” “לפי שאמרו בכאן אין רשות הרבים בבבל
— because they say that here [in Bavel] there is no <em>reshus
harabbim</em>.” The <em>Ravyah</em> (<em>#</em>201) quotes a different
variant of the missing line, “אמר עולה אין דרך רשות
הרבים בבבל — Ula said: there is no route that is a reshus
harabbim in Bavel.”</p>
<p>A line that is found in our edition of Berakhos (58a) states:</p>
<blockquote>
<p dir="rtl">אמר עולה נקיטינן אין אוכלוסא בבבל<br
/>תנא אין אוכלוסא פחותה מששים רבוא</p>
<p dir="ltr">Ula said there is no <em>ukhlusa</em> in Bavel.<br />Mishna:
there is no <em>ulukhsa </em>smaller than sixty myriads [of people].</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Rav Zaks actually found a manuscript with the missing line from Ulla. In
the Vatican Library (Bibliotheca Apostolica, Ebr. 127), paralleling our
Shabbos 7a.</p>
<div class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><figure class="aligncenter
size-large"><img loading="lazy" width="284" height="400"
src="https://i1.wp.com/www.aishdas.org/asp/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/0035R20copy2021.jpg?resize=284%2C400&ssl=1"
alt="" class="wp-image-6495" data-recalc-dims="1"/></figure></div>
<p>It reads:</p>
<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
<p dir="rtl">אמ’ עולה אין רשו’ הרבי’
בבבל<br />אמ’ רבה בר בר חנה ירושלים אילמלא
דלתותי נעולות בלילה חייבי משו’ רשו’
הרבי.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Ulah said: there is no <em>reshus harabbim</em> in Bavel.<br
/>Rabbah bar bar Chanah said: Yerushalayim, if its doors weren’t closed
at night, would be obligated as a <em>reshus harabbim</em>.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>(This second line is in our gemaros in Eiruvin 6b, and the Vatican
manuscript has a second copy there as well.)</p>
<p>So Ulla believes there is neither a 600,000 person crowd in Bavel nor a
<em>reshus harabbim </em>there.</p>
<p>Someone may have inserted the line in a margin note in the Munich codex
(Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Hebrew MS. No. 95) copy of Shabbos as well. The
text is barely visible, though. See the area in the rectangle.</p>
<div class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><figure class="aligncenter
size-large"><img loading="lazy" width="400" height="297"
src="https://i2.wp.com/www.aishdas.org/asp/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/mu20copy.11.jpg?resize=400%2C297&ssl=1"
alt="" class="wp-image-6496" data-recalc-dims="1"/></figure></div>
<p></p>
<p>I want to highlight the sources of the different variants of the Talmud
Bavli in question.</p>
<p>The Vilna edition of shas that we all use derived from the Bomberg shas
(1519-1523, Venice) in having the same dafim, Rashi on the outside, Tosafos on
the inside, and is the primary source for the specific text as well. Bomberg,
in turn, based his version of the text on that of Joshua Solomon Soncino
(1483, in the town of Soncino, which is in the duchy of Milan), who also had
the same layout of Rashi and Tosafos, but not our current pagination. All in
all, the text we use has an Italian heritage.</p>
<p>I would therefore highlight the origins the Vatican manuscript, which was
produced in Germany in the late 14th century and of the Munich codex (1369),
which based on a mid-9th century manuscript. The text or texts Rabbi Zaks
found are both from Medieval Germany. They are more likely to be similar to
the text Rashi studied from. Rashi is simply ruling like Ulla, as he appears
in Ashkenazic tradition.</p>
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