Carrying in a shared driveway on Shabbos
Question:
We rent a first floor of a house, our Jewish landlord lives upstairs, we share a drive way and a shared garage with non Jewish neighbors, each one has one side of it but the same drive way leads to it. no fence between each side.
Can we carry over there on Shabbos?
Important to mention that there is an arch made of bricks between the two houses at the beginning of the driveway and the garage has fences all around.
Answer:
It wasn’t absolutely clear in your question, but it seems that the entire area is properly enclosed as a Reshus Hayachid, and your question is only concerned about the presence of the non-Jews. This answer is therefore given with the assumption that the entire area is properly enclosed as a Reshus Hayachid:
- An Eruv is required to carry from a privately-owned property to a commonly-owned property or vice-versa. However, one may carry from one part of the commonly-owned property to another part of the same commonly-owned property even without an Eruv. Therefore, it is not an issue to carry in the shared areas even without an Eruv, as long as the objects in question have remained in the commonly-owned property the entire Shabbos.
[However, where a privately-owned area and a commonly-owned area are side by side without a partition in between, an Eruv Chatzeros would need to be arranged in order to carry in the entire area, as per the instructions below.]
- However, in order to carry from the homes and privately-owned areas to the shared areas or vice-versa, you would be required to make an Eruv Chatzeros with your Jewish landlord, and in addition, one of you would need to lease the property of your neighbour. It is acceptable for this to be done for a nominal amount such as one dollar, for any duration of time, and it is also acceptable if your neighbour perceives this as a non-legally binding transaction done just for the purposes of the Eruv.
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