סימן שסט

There is one se'if (section). If someone gives money to the baker and tells him, “If the members of my courtyard come to you to buy a loaf of bread for the Eruv (communal courtyard arrangement), take this money that I'm giving you and give me a share in the bread that you're going to give them,” Maran (our master) rules that it doesn't count. The reason is—let's see the Mishnah Berurah. I'm sorry, one more line. Even if the storekeeper is acting on behalf of everyone in the courtyard, including this guy, it doesn't work.

What's the problem? The Mishnah Berurah says: “How is it going to work? The storekeeper who makes the bread is going to have someone pick it up on their behalf and acquire it for everyone.” Now what's wrong with that? So why doesn't it work here? You want to be included with them. But he doesn't mention your name explicitly. He just has you in mind with everybody else. So why is it no good? Because you are not getting the bread as a gift like the others. The other people are getting the bread through zechiyah (as a gift), and you're getting it because of the money that you paid. And the rule is: money doesn't acquire movables. So the man who's making the Eruv on your behalf, who's telling someone, “Acquire for everyone in this courtyard”—everyone else is getting it as a gift, but you are trying to get it as payment. You want to own a share in the bread, and you're going to get that through the money you paid. The problem is that money doesn't acquire. Money doesn't acquire movables. There's a rabbinical decree that money doesn't acquire, and it comes out that you do not acquire it. You do not have a chalek (share) in the Eruv, and if one guy's missing, the whole Eruv is no good.

He says in the Aleph (first letter) at the bottom, the Beit Yosef holds that if the baker is using someone else to make this acquisition—he's not doing it himself—then it will work for the guy who's giving the money because he's included in the B'nei Chatzer (members of my courtyard). Maran only holds it's no good if the baker himself is doing this on his own and he's being mezakeh (acquiring on everyone's behalf) to everybody; then it's no good. But if he's having someone else acquire on everyone's behalf, including you, then it will work.

Now Maran continues: “But if instead of saying, when you gave the money, you said arev li, meaning get it done no matter what it takes, I want to be part of the Eruv, then it will work. And if the money doesn't work, then give it to me, give it to me for free like everybody else.”

In the Bet (second letter) at the bottom, according to Maran—that is, according to Maran, like we said—it only doesn't work when he's using his own bread and being mezakeh to you and everybody else. And when you say, however, or I should say, however, then you're not buying a share in the bread. When you say, you're telling him to give it to you like everybody else. So if you say the word zakeh li, meaning I want to buy a share in the bread, and arev li means just make me an Eruv, and here's, like, your fee—I'm giving you money as a fee to do it—but you're not buying a share in the bread. That is how Maran holds.

Further in the Shulchan Aruch, even if he said—and there are cases even when you say that—it could work if you gave him a vessel as an acquisition instead of money. You gave him an object. It says that only money doesn't work, but if you give him one vessel in exchange for another, it's called chalifin (exchange acquisition). That does work once he picks up the vessel, and you will acquire the Eruv.

Further in the Shulchan Aruch, or if it's given to you through a third party, here is where he's telling you that Maran holds that it always works. So how is the Mishnah Berurah going to learn here? It sounds like it works no matter what now. The Mishnah Berurah says this means if he mentions your name; he doesn't just say it's for everyone. Therefore, even though money didn't work, now you have a chalek in the Eruv because—and this is how he says, “I answer the contradiction”—because at the beginning of the se'if I learned it was through, and there it didn't work, and here it is working. What's the difference? Here, by name; there, not by name. According to the Beit Yosef, however—Maran's own opinion—the difference is that before, it wasn't through zechiyah; before, it was the actual baker making the Eruv. But here, when you have a third party acquiring it on behalf of everybody, it'll work no matter what.

Or another way that it'll work: you give the guy money and say to buy bread from the market. Not, “I'm not buying your bread,” but you're not buying from him. You give some money and say, “Buy bread from the market.” He becomes your shaliach (messenger), and when he buys the bread, then it's on your behalf. And when he takes the bread, he's also making Meshichah (pulling the bread) on it, and now you will have a chalek in the Eruv. So if you bought it from him, it's only the money that's acquiring; that's not good. But if you gave him money to buy you bread, then when he pulls the bread, he's pulling it for you. And if you give him money to buy it, then he'll buy it. Or if you give money to a homeowner, not a baker, and you tell him the same words, you're going to get the Eruv, even though you use the same expression. By the baker it doesn't work because by the baker it means you're buying a share in the bread, but a homeowner doesn't bake bread. He's going to buy the bread. So when you say this and give it to a homeowner, it means go buy bread and have me included, says the Mishnah Berurah, gam kan meyari (also here it is discussed).

Now before we read the Mishnah Berurah, the Sephardi note says that according to the way we're learning, zakeh li works because he made him a shaliach to buy, because it's not the derech to buy to sell his own bread, and he's buying the Eruv on your behalf, and that's why it's good. The Mishnah Berurah, however, learns gam kan meyari, and that's why over here he's saying that the Baal HaBayit (homeowner) is including you with everyone else. And the reason why it works, he says, is the same reason the Baal HaBayit doesn't sell his own bread. What he means with this money is, “Buy me bread.” I'm just asking you to buy for me. It's as if he's saying, “Make the Eruv for me,” and you're going to be my shaliach. Therefore, even if he used his own bread and was mezakeh with everybody else, it'll work because you're not buying a share in the bread with the money. So again, the Mishnah Berurah is adding that it'll work even if the Baal HaBayit is giving his own bread because it's not the derech to buy his bread. Rather, we'll look at this also as a fee, but the Baal HaBayit is being mezakeh for you and everybody else together. And the next Siman (section) Shin Ayin begins on this page and goes on to the next. Be'ezrat Hashem will do next time.