May these words of Torah serve as a merit le’iluy nishmat Menachem Mendel ben Harav Yoel David Balk, a”h.

This week we learned Bava Basra 7. Here are some highlights.

Bava Basra 7: The Importance of An Open Door Policy

Our daf teaches that neighbors must each contribute for the communal needs. Therefore, if some in the courtyard would like to build a guard booth in front of the courtyard where the watchman will sit and shoo away individuals who are peering into the yard, they can force all the members of the courtyard to pay toward the costs. The Gemara finds this example troubling. It sounds like building a guard booth is a good thing. It is so good that all can be forced to pay for it. But, asks the Gemara, there was a story with a chasid who would be visited by Elijah the prophet—he made a guard booth in front of his home, the poor could no longer appeal to him for his help and Eliyahu stopped coming to visit him. If so, why would we force members of the courtyard to pay for that which stops Eliyahu?

The Gemara gives many answers. Perhaps, an internal guard booth is bad, for it causes the residents not to hear the cries of the poor, while a booth outside the courtyard without there being a door in the courtyard gate is a positive. Alternatively, all the booths discussed were external, but Elijah stopped coming when the booth was set up in a courtyard that had a door in its gate. All should contribute to a guard booth for a courtyard that does not have a door and will not harm the appeals of the poor. The Gemara suggests two other possible resolutions to the contradiction. A guard booth is good if the courtyard has a door in which there is a key, and it is not good for a courtyard with a door that has no key, or it is good for a courtyard in which the key is on the outside of the door and it is bad for a courtyard that has a door and key on the inside of the courtyard.

Chazon Ish found this Gemara troubling. Why did the Gemara say that a courtyard should not have a booth because a booth caused Eliyahu Hanavi to stop appearing? The Gemara should have said that since a guard booth will harm the appeals of the poor, there should not be a law mandating contributing to the construction of guard houses. Why quote a story about Elijah?

Chazon Ish derives from this Gemara an interesting law. Strangers walking into a courtyard and looking around creates damage. Residents are inhibited from doing what they want because of the gawking of others. Hezek re’iyah (damage incurred by visual prying) is real. Neighbors can insist on putting up a guard booth even though it will keep the poor away. The obligation of charity does not mean that a person should accept to suffer the loss of hezek re’iyah. When the neighbors wanted a guard booth and a door to the gate with an internal lock, the pious man paid his share. Basic morality states that I need not suffer the harm of loss of privacy because a friend seeks charity. Elijah taught that while all had followed the letter of the law, they had not fulfilled the moral ideal. The moral ideal would demand that people accept hezek re’iyah in order to give gifts to the poor. Elijah the Prophet stopped visited the pious man who had helped pay for the guard booth that kept the alms seekers out. A new principle emerges. If a neighbor does not want to join in paying for something because he wishes to live according to a higher level, he can force all to live at that higher level and no guard booth is to be built.

Our father Avraham would welcome all the poor that he could. Iyov, as well, built doors in each wall of his home so that the poor would not even need to walk around to get to the entrance. Iyov (31:32) said about himself, “Bachutz lo yalin ger, dlatai la’orach eftach, The stranger will not sleep outside, I will open my doors to the guest.”

It is related about the great Maharsha that his home was like the home of our father Avraham. He gave generously to the poor. He would welcome guests for meals. Travelers were welcomed to sleep in his home. On top of his door, in the stone atop the entrance, a sentence was engraved: “Bachutz lo yalin ger, dlatai la’orach eftach, The stranger will not sleep outside, I will open my doors to the guest.”

It was also related about the great Rav Chaim of Brisk that he made his home and possessions open to all. Anyone bitter or needy in Brisk knew that he could always enter the home of the Rav, take something to eat and drink or sleep in any place there. Many times, homeless individuals would sleep in Reb Chaim’s own bed. His son related that his father once came home from teaching exhausted, and he collapsed on his bed for a rest. Later that evening, a vagabond came and roused the rabbi: “Hey, I had this bed last night, wake up and move out,” he said. Reb Chaim left his own bed and allowed the homeless man to take it (Mesivta).

By Rabbi Zev Reichman

 Rabbi Zev Reichman teaches Daf Yomi in his shul, East Hill Synagogue.