Audio of the Rebbe's Farbrengen of Yud Shevat 5743 Containing the Reported Miami Eruv Discussion
The Yud Shevat 5743 farbrengen is preserved in six audio tracks. Rabbi Shmuel Zajac relates that Rabbi Shmuel Tuvia Stern told the Rebbe about the Miami eruv at this farbrengen and was asked whether Miami had shishim ribo.
The exchange reported by Rabbi Zajac
Rabbi Zajac relates that Rabbi Stern told the Rebbe he had made an eruv in Miami. The Rebbe's response was to ask whether Miami had shishim ribo.
The question goes to the possible status of Miami as a reshus harabim. It treats the population and public use of the city as a condition to be investigated before the constructed route can be accepted.
A Rav who had established a city eruv
Rabbi Stern was not asking an abstract question. According to the account, he was reporting an eruv he had actually made in a major American city.
The Rebbe's immediate focus on shishim ribo places the large-city facts before the details of the boundary and shows that those facts could not be assumed away.
The complete farbrengen
All six tracks of the farbrengen have been preserved. The brief exchange has not yet been isolated to a dependable timestamp, so Rabbi Zajac's report remains the source for its wording.
No machine-generated passage is substituted for the Rebbe's words. When a reliable location is established, the relevant audio can be presented with its surrounding conversation.