More Discussions for this daf
1. What are they being Mevatel 2. Becoming friendly with a gentile 3. Moreh Halachah in front of one's Rebbi
4. Siman 5. B'nei Nevi'im 6. Only A Problem of Using a Tree?
7. Contradiction in Rebbi Eliezer 8. המורה הלכה בפני רבו
DAF DISCUSSIONS - ERUVIN 63

Sidney Dubin asked:

Daf 63 Rava says if a goy does not want to relinquish his rights to the courtyard or mavoi you should get freindly with him and gain the use of his property as if you are his hired worker and then you have the authority to make an eruv with the others. My question is, we learned that the Rerason we are machmere in a situation we are normally maykel is because we want to discourage a person from living with and becoming friendly with a goy, so how can Rava suggest to become friendly?

The Kollel replies:

Even though the Chachamim did not want Jews living near gentiles, we see that the Chachamim did not outright forbid living near a gentile. The reason is because the Chachamim realized that sometimes a person does not have a choice where to live (see Daf Insights 62:1). The intent of the Chachamim in their Gezeirah was to make it difficult for a Jew to live near a gentile, so that someone who does have a choice will opt not to live near him.

The case of the Gemara here is referring to someone who has no choice where to live. It is in such a case that Rava gives his advice, that in order to be permitted to carry in the Chatzer, one must expend effort to make the gentile like him (this is not necessarily an easy task). This does not affect whether the Jew will learn from the ways of the gentile, because whether the gentile likes him or not, they are still living in the same Chatzer and the Jew is still able to observe his ways.

You might ask that we should be concerned with the general idea of the Jew becoming friendly with the gentile, lest it lead to intermarriage. It must be that the Chachamim did not require a Jew to be hated by the gentile, and the other decrees that they made (Pas Nachri, Bishul Nachri, Stam Yeynam) will certainly help to prevent intermarriage.