Study Eruvin folio 48A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
an iron partition to divide it into two separate areas, so that the residents of both places may draw water from it. R' Yosei, son of R' Ḥanina, would laugh at this teaching, as he deemed it unnecessary.
The Talmud asks: Why did R' Yosei, son of R' Ḥanina, laugh? If you say that it is because R' Ḥiyya taught the baraita stringently, in accordance with the opinion of R' Yoḥanan ben Nuri, saying that ownerless objects acquire a place of residence, and R' Yosei, son of R' Ḥanina holds leniently, in ac
Rather, he must have laughed for a different reason, as it was taught in a baraita: Flowing rivers and streaming springs are like the feet of all people, as the water did not acquire residence in any particular spot. Consequently, one who draws water from rivers and springs may carry it wherever h
The Talmud rejects this argument: No proof can be brought from this ruling concerning rivers and springs, as perhaps we are dealing here with a ditch of still, collected water that belongs exclusively to the residents of that particular place.
Rather, R' Yosei, son of R' Ḥanina, must have laughed for a different reason, because R' Ḥiyya taught in his baraita that the ditch requires an iron partition to divide it into two separate sections. R' Yosei, son of R' Ḥanina, argued: Why is a partition of reeds different, that we should say it is