Commentary for Eruvin 85:19

תא שמע הריני נזיר ביום שבן דוד בא מותר לשתות יין בשבתות ובימים טובים

why [it may be asked]<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Since there can be no possible infringement of the law.');">²⁷</span> did they desire?<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' TO IMPOSE A RESTRICTION UPON THEMSELVES.');">²⁶</span> - As Raba explained below that the reference was to a ship that sailed in shallow waters<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Aliter: Moves in diluvial water (Jast.) .');">²⁸</span> so it may here also be explained that the reference is to a ship that sailed in shallow water.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Within ten handbreadths from the ground.');">²⁹</span> Come and hear: ONCE [ON A SABBATH] THEY DID NOT ENTER THE HARBOUR UNTIL DUSK etc. Now, if it be granted that the law of Sabbath limits is applicable<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' At a height above ten handbreadths from the ground.');">²⁵</span> [their action]<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' In remaining on board the ship until they had received R. Gamaliel's assurance (v. our Mishnah) .');">³⁰</span> was perfectly correct; but if it be contended that the law of Sabbath limits is inapplicable,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' At a height above ten handbreadths from the ground.');">²⁵</span> what [it may be asked]<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Since there can be no possible infringement of the law.');">²⁷</span> could it have mattered if [they had] not [been assured:] WE WERE ALREADY WITHIN THE SABBATH LIMIT? - Raba replied: That was a case where the ship sailed in shallow waters.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Cf. supra p. 298, nn. 11f.');">³¹</span> Come and hear: Who was it that delivered the seven traditional rulings on a Sabbath morning to R'Hisda at Sura and on the same Sabbath evening to Rabbah at Pumbeditha?<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Places that were too far from one another for a man to walk on the Sabbath from the former to the latter even by means of 'erub.');">³²</span> Was it not Elijah<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' The immortal prophet who could fly through the air and thus move above ten handbreadths from the ground.');">³³</span> who delivered them, which proves, does it not, that the law of Sabbath limits is inapplicable above ten handbreadths from the ground? - It is possible that the demon Joseph<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Who would break the Sabbath laws with impunity, v. Pes. 110b.');">³⁴</span> delivered them. Come and hear: [If a man said,] 'Let me be a nazirite on the day on which the son of David<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' The Messiah.');">³⁵</span> comes', he may drink wine on Sabbaths and festival days,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Since the Messiah would not come on such days.');">³⁶</span>

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