The Alter Rebbe and the Requirement of Shishim Ribo

The requirement of shishim ribo, six hundred thousand people, is one of the best-known parts of the discussion of reshus harabim. In the Alter Rebbe's Shulchan Aruch, however, it does not stand by itself. It appears after the physical definition of reshus harabim, and it is introduced as an additional requirement according to one major group of Poskim.

That structure matters. It shows both the strength of the shishim ribo position and its limits. The Alter Rebbe records a widespread minhag that relied on it, but he also preserves the opinion that a Torah-level reshus harabim does not require six hundred thousand people.

The Alter Rebbe begins with the street itself

In Shulchan Aruch HaRav 345:11, the Alter Rebbe first defines the physical form of a reshus harabim. He speaks of streets and marketplaces sixteen amos wide, not roofed, and not enclosed in a manner that removes their public-domain status. He also discusses a road running through a walled city from gate to gate, intercity roads sixteen amos wide, and connecting streets of the required width.

Only after setting out those conditions does he add:

וְיֵשׁ אוֹמְרִים שֶׁכֹּל שֶׁאֵין שִׁשִּׁים רִבּוֹא עוֹבְרִים בּוֹ בְּכָל יוֹם כְּדִגְלֵי מִדְבָּר, אֵינוֹ רְשׁוּת הָרַבִּים אֶלָּא כַּרְמְלִית.

According to these authorities, a place through which six hundred thousand do not pass each day, corresponding to the encampment in the Midbar, is not a full reshus harabim but a karmelis.

The words ויש אומרים, "and there are those who say," are essential. The Alter Rebbe has not erased the definition that precedes them. He has recorded a second position that adds another condition.

He then states the practical minhag that developed from this view:

וְעַל פִּי דִבְרֵיהֶם נִתְפַּשֵּׁט הַמִּנְהָג בִּמְדִינוֹת אֵלּוּ לְהָקֵל וְלוֹמַר שֶׁאֵין לָנוּ עַכְשָׁו רְשׁוּת הָרַבִּים גְּמוּרָה, וְאֵין לִמְחוֹת בְּיָדָם, שֶׁיֵּשׁ לָהֶם עַל מִי שֶׁיִּסְמְכוּ (וְכָל יְרֵא שָׁמַיִם יַחְמִיר לְעַצְמוֹ).

The wording is carefully qualified. The minhag in "these countries" was based על פי דבריהם, on the words of those authorities. Those who followed it were not to be protested because they had substantial Poskim on whom to rely. At the same time, the Alter Rebbe adds that a yerei shamayim should be stringent for himself.

This is the textual setting for the familiar statement that "we do not have a full reshus harabim now." It is a practical reliance on the shishim ribo opinion in a particular factual setting, not a separate rule that a Torah-level reshus harabim can never exist in a later city.

What does "six hundred thousand pass through it" mean?

A separate question is what must actually be counted. The Alter Rebbe writes:

שִׁשִּׁים רִבּוֹא עוֹבְרִים בּוֹ בְּכָל יוֹם

On a straightforward reading, בו, "through it," can refer to the particular public area under discussion. Another passage strengthens that reading. In 363:42, when discussing a sloping entrance to a mavoi, the Alter Rebbe says that according to the authorities who require shishim ribo, the large amount of public traffic would not have the relevant effect unless six hundred thousand pass through the area daily.

That language cannot simply be ignored. Rabbi Sholom Dovber Levin, in his detailed study of city eruvin, explicitly notes that 345:11 and 363:42 appear at first to support a reading in which the six hundred thousand must pass through the particular street or area.

But the earlier sources from which this requirement comes use more than one formulation. Rashi in Eruvin 6a describes a public domain as a place where six hundred thousand are found, ומצויין בה ששים רבוא. In Eruvin 59a, explaining an "individual's city," Rashi writes:

שלא היו נכנסין בה תמיד ס' רבוא של בני אדם

The city lacked the regular entrance of six hundred thousand people. That is language about a city and the public movement into it, rather than an explicit demand that six hundred thousand cross one fixed point of one street each day.

The Alter Rebbe himself also discusses the number in a city-wide setting in 392:1. There, while treating the laws of an eruv for an entire city, he says that according to the shishim ribo authorities, the special shiur required for a city of many residents is unnecessary unless six hundred thousand pass through it each day. The pronoun there refers within a discussion of the city as a whole.

For this reason, the exact unit of the count has been read in different ways. The question is treated more fully on City Population, Street Traffic, and Daily Passage and How Six Hundred Thousand Is Calculated.

Rabbi Levin's reading of the Alter Rebbe

Rabbi Levin does not conceal the apparent difficulty in the Alter Rebbe's wording. He begins by acknowledging that "six hundred thousand pass through it every day" appears to mean that they pass through the particular street itself. He then compares that wording with the formulations of Rashi and other early authorities, as well as with the Alter Rebbe's treatment of streets, marketplaces and public ways elsewhere.

His conclusion is that the count should not be understood as six hundred thousand people physically crossing every individual street. Rather, the requirement concerns a city whose public thoroughfares carry the movement of a public numbering six hundred thousand. On this reading, the streets form the city's public network, and the count is not reset independently at every block or intersection.

That is a reasoned reading of the Alter Rebbe, not a phrase that the Alter Rebbe himself states in those exact words. The narrower reading of עוברים בו בכל יום has textual support as well. Any application to a particular modern city therefore has to state which reading it is using rather than treating "600,000" as though there were only one possible calculation.

Shishim ribo does not replace the other conditions

Even according to the opinion that requires six hundred thousand, the number does not replace the physical halachos of reshus harabim. The Alter Rebbe begins with width, roofing and enclosure. He discusses the effect of walls and gates, roads from city to city, and streets that connect public roads. A place does not become a Torah-level reshus harabim merely because a population figure is large.

Conversely, according to the earlier authorities who do not require shishim ribo, a public way may be a Torah-level reshus harabim even with far fewer than six hundred thousand people. The marginal source note printed with the Alter Rebbe's Shulchan Aruch points to major Rishonim on this side, including the Ramban and Rivash, whose objection is precisely that the number of six hundred thousand is not stated in the Gemara as a condition of reshus harabim.

The Alter Rebbe therefore leaves two questions that must not be merged. First, does the halacha require shishim ribo at all? Second, for the authorities who do require it, what exactly is the object of the count?

Those questions explain why the Alter Rebbe's wording cannot fairly be reduced either to "600,000 are always required on one street" or to "600,000 are irrelevant." His text preserves both the longstanding dispute among the Poskim and the minhag that relied on the lenient side, while retaining the stringent side as a serious halachic position.