Eiruvin 10:12 — Rabbinic leniencies in the Mikdash

The Lived Mishnah·A Zeman Nakat Project
Tisha B'Av Series
Mishnah 28 of 41
אִם אֶשְׁכָּחֵךְ יְרוּשָׁלָיִם
Audio · Listen with Ephraim Diamond
Listen with Ephraim Diamond · 4:26 0:00 / 4:26
0:00
4:26
Speed
Click any Hebrew phrase above to jump to where Ephraim reads it · Highlight holds while he discusses each phrase
MoedSederסדרמוֹעֵד
EiruvinMesechtaמסכתעירובין
10Perekפרקי׳
12Mishnahמשנהי״ב
נושא · Topicאֵין שְׁבוּת בַּמִּקְדָּשׁRabbinic leniencies in the Mikdash
This Mishnah is:a case · with a machlokeswhat does that mean?
Mishnah עירובין י׳:י״ב · Eiruvin 10:12
מַחֲזִירִין צִיר הַתַּחְתּוֹן בַּמִּקְדָּשׁ,
אֲבָל לֹא בַמְּדִינָה.
וְהָעֶלְיוֹן, כָּאן וְכָאן אָסוּר.
רַבִּי יְהוּדָה אוֹמֵר,
הָעֶלְיוֹן בַּמִּקְדָּשׁ,
וְהַתַּחְתּוֹן בַּמְּדִינָה.
One is permitted to restore the lower hinge in the Mikdash,
but not in the medinah.
And the upper [hinge] — in both the Mikdash and the medinah forbidden.
Rabbi Yehuda says:
the upper [hinge] in the Mikdash,
and the lower [hinge] in the medinah.
A reading aid, not an exact translation.

This English is a clause-by-clause rendering to help you follow the Hebrew. It is not word-for-word literal, and it is not a transcript of the recorded shiur — the audio carries explanation and context the translation deliberately leaves out.

case/objectrestrictive rulingpermissive rulingTanna
Structure
The Mishnah's Structure
עֵירוּבִין י:יא–י:יד
Four mishnayos answer one question — how close may you stand to a melacha in the Beis HaMikdash? This chart covers the whole run; the gold-marked row is this mishnah.
___ בַּמִּקְדָּשׁ, אֲבָל לֹא בַמְּדִינָה · וְאִם ___ — כָּאן וָכָאן אָסוּר
בַּמִּקְדָּשׁ — מֻתָּר
בַּמְּדִינָה — אָסוּר
וְאִם… — כָּאן וָכָאן אָסוּר
נֶגֶר הַנִּגְרָר
מֻתָּר
אָסוּר
וְהַמֻּנָּח
צִיר הַתַּחְתּוֹןthe lower hinge
מֻתָּר
אָסוּר
וְהָעֶלְיוֹן→ כָּאן וָכָאן אָסוּר
רְטִיָּה
מֻתָּר
אָסוּר
אִם בַּתְּחִלָּה
נִימָא
מֻתָּר
אָסוּר
אִם בַּתְּחִלָּה
יַבֶּלֶת
מֻתָּר
אָסוּר
וְאִם בִּכְלִי
גֶמִי עַל אֶצְבָּעוֹ
מֻתָּר
אָסוּר
אִם לְהוֹצִיא דָם
רַבִּי יְהוּדָה
אַף הָעֶלְיוֹן
even the upper — it is a keli, so no בּוֹנֶה at all — his dispute is WHERE the line sits, one step closer to the melacha
Summary Chart
Rabbinic leniencies in the Mikdash
CaseRulingReason
May one restore the lower hinge? (צִיר הַתַּחְתּוֹן)Tanna Kamma: Mikdash: permitted · medinah: forbidden
Rabbi Yehuda: Permitted even in the medinah
May one restore the upper hinge? (הָעֶלְיוֹן)Tanna Kamma: Forbidden in both places
Rabbi Yehuda: Permitted in the Mikdash
Transcript
A machine transcript of the recorded shiur.

This is the shiur as spoken, transcribed automatically and left unedited — the wording is Ephraim's, and occasional transcription errors remain. It follows the audio word by word.

All Meforshim
Mishnah Insights
An amalgam of commentaries, including original insights.

These insights draw on the commentaries to this Mishnah and on the recorded shiur. Those commentaries often rest on earlier sources — the Gemara, the Yerushalmi, the Rishonim, and one another — without always saying so; where they do, we generally cite the one we read. Every commentary consulted is kept, verbatim, with this card.

The hinge you may reset only in the Mikdash

A chest, not a building

The whole case turns on a detail easy to miss: the door is the door of a chest — a keli — not a room. That is why it is even a question. The Tosafos Yom Tov sharpens it: the entire machlokes rides on whether the melachah of boneh (building) applies to vessels at all.

Why the lower hinge yields and the upper one doesn't

Tanna Kamma: reset the lower hinge in the Mikdash — the upper one still holds the door, so it is an easy fix, not real boneh. The upper hinge is forbidden everywhere (kan v'kan asur): without it the door drops, so reseating it is boneh, or you would hammer it home — makeh b'patish, the finishing blow that completes a vessel. R' Yehuda goes a step further (upper in the Mikdash, lower anywhere) on the principle ein boneh b'keilim — no building applies to vessels — so the act is rabbinic at most, and ein shvus baMikdash; with the kohanim mezarzim, scrupulously careful, no decree is imposed there.

עוֹלָמוֹ שֶׁל הַמִּשְׁנָה
The hinge in its socket

A tzir was a pin turning in a socket bored top and bottom; the door pivoted on it. The lower pin sat under the door's weight and could be eased back once the upper one held; the upper pin, bearing the leaf, was the hard one to reseat — which is exactly the line the mishnah draws.

Series Insights
Series context

Where this sits: ein shvus b'Mikdash

This belongs to the series’ closing set on a single principle — ein shvus b’Mikdash: the rabbinic Shabbos restrictions (shvus) that bind everywhere yield inside the Beis HaMikdash. The reason the series draws out is trust — the Kohanim, serving before the Sanhedrin, are assumed zealous enough not to slip into a biblical violation. This mishnah sets the principle in place; the ones beside it press on how far it reaches.