[Avodah] The term 'erusin'

[Zev Sero]

kennethgmiller at juno.com wrote:
 
> Furthermore, the term "eruv" in the language of the Gemara, and even after the sealing of the Talmud, and until our latest generation, is used to refer to the shared food, and not to the string around the town, and it is therefore certainly ab initio improper to refer to a mere tzuras hapesach as an eruv.

I don't think that's true.  The term "eruv" has been used of any
arrangement that permits carrying, since the gemara or perhaps even
earlier.  Cf Eruvin 22a: "Ein me'arvin reshut harabim bekach", referring
to a proposed arrangement that doesn't even include an actual eruv!

You will find many references in sources older than this generation to
an eruv having broken, by which they do not mean that the food has been
eaten or destroyed; actually if that happens on Shabbos the eruv is still
fine, whereas if the mechitzot break on Shabbos one may no longer carry.


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Zev Sero                      The trouble with socialism is that you
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