The Rebbe's Response Concerning an Eruv in Doncaster, Circa 5745

Around 5745, Rabbi Mordechai Zev HaKohen Gutnick asked the Rebbe whether he should build an eruv in Doncaster, the Melbourne suburb where he was then serving as Rav. The surviving response is brief, but its wording and its transmission history are both important.

The Rebbe's response reads:

The complicated discussion concerning this is known. What compels him to enter into it?

ידוע השקו"ט המסובכת בזה ומה מכריחו להכנס לזה?

The answer does not attempt to decide every halachic question involved in an eruv through a one-line general rule. It points instead to the known complexity of the subject and asks what was compelling Rabbi Gutnick to enter into it. In its own setting, it is a direct response to a Rav asking whether to undertake an eruv project in his community.

What survives of the response

The published source identifies Rabbi Gutnick by name, says that the question was asked approximately in 5745, and states that he was then Rav in Doncaster. It also identifies the artifact being reproduced: "a photograph of the handwriting of the secretary, Rabbi Binyomin HaLevi Klein."

That description establishes the transmission chain. The page is not a photograph of the Rebbe's original handwritten answer. It is a photograph of Rabbi Binyomin Klein's handwritten copy of the response. The wording can therefore be cited as the transmitted response, while the image should not be described as the Rebbe's autograph manuscript.

Doncaster belongs to the Melbourne record, but it is a separate exchange from Rabbi Yitzchok Dovid Groner's Melbourne questions. The first Melbourne response discusses publicity, failure, and habituation; the later Melbourne response assigns the immediate decision to the local Rabbonim. The Doncaster response addresses Rabbi Gutnick personally and emphasizes the complexity of entering the matter at all.