[Avodah] Borders of Eretz Yisrael - Rashi

[Zev Sero]

Rabbi Ari Enkin wrote:

> RASHI-
> 
> The western border And what was the western border?
> [It shall be for you] the Great Sea As a boundary. and the border. The 
> islands in the sea are also included in the border. These islands are 
> called isles in old French. — [Gittin 8a]
> 
> *********
> 
> COULD THIS MEAN THAT CYPRUS MAY BE CONSIDERED ERETZ YISRAEL?

It depends on how you draw the western boundary.  See Encyclopaedia
Talmudit, erech Eretz Yisrael.  Some draw a line from the northern
tip of the EY coast to the southern tip, and include that part of
the sea that falls east of the line.  This would not include Cyprus,
even if you take Rashi's northern and southern tips (Antioch and the
Nile).  But some draw lines from the northern and southern tip to the
Strait of Gibraltar, and that would include most of the Med islands.
I don't think anyone living on those islands ever actually followed
this lehalacha.


-- 
Zev Sero               Something has gone seriously awry with this Court's
zev at sero.name          interpretation of the Constitution.
                       	                          - Clarence Thomas