Translation:Shulchan Aruch/Choshen Mishpat/162

Paragraph 1- Residents of an alleyway can force each to create poles and beams for the alleyway. If they come to erect doors, however, even one resident has the right to object and say I want to enter with my package until my door. Even if all the residents want to erect doors, the public has the right to stop them. Even if the residents of the alleyway sold the alleyway in order to erect doors and they announced that anyone who does not object has lost his rights, and no one from the public objected, they still have the right to object. The public can object even if they want to build the doors far inside because at times the public domain is crowded and they push inside the alleyway. Residents of small alleyways that are open to the alleyways that are open to the public domain or an abscess, however, are permitted to create doors. There are those who say that even if the alleyway was open to the public domain, if a type of entrance was visible at the head of the alleyway in that it had poles, they may erect doors. If residents of an alleyway had an area in one courtyard with a synagogue or mikvah and the courtyard was closed with doors and the alleyway was open to the property of gentiles, and Jews who have a path through this alleyway to go into the courtyard to pray or dip live in another area, and the residents of the alleyway wanted to erect doors in order to guard from gentiles entering, the other Jews have the right to object, even if the residents want to remove the door from the courtyard and erect it at the head of the alleyway. This all strict law. If the king gave them permission to erect doors in their alleyway, however, the law of the land is the law because the markets and streets belong to the government and they can do whatever they want with it.

Paragraph 2- Similarly, in a case of alleyways open to a road to another city where the members of the alleyway want to close it up, the residents of that city can stop them, even if they have a different road they can use.

Paragraph 3- If one wants to open an entrance into a closed alleyway, the residents of the alleyway may stop him because he is increasing the amount they will need to walk. If the alleyway was open to the public domain, he may open whatever entrance he wants. If the alleyway has doors that close at night, the alleyway has the status of a closed alleyway because one opening entrances will increase the amount they need to walk at night. Similarly, residents of the alleyway can stop each other from using the alleyway for anything that is not generally done in an alleyway

Paragraph 4- There are those who say that if one wants to open an entrance into another alleyway, the residents of the first alleyway may object because there will be more people from the other alleyway coming through his entrance, thereby increasing the amount they need to walk.

Paragraph 5- If one had a closed-up entrance in a closed alleyway, he can open it whenever he wants. Once he as removed the frames, the residents of the alleyway may stop him.

Paragraph 6- If one of the residents of the alleyway wants to close up his entrance and turn it to another alleyway, the residents of the alleyway may stop him because a tax may be imposed on them and he will now be removed from those paying the tax. Thus, in a place where is no set tax on the residents of the alleyway, he may close up his entrance at any time that he wants so long as he removes the frames he has in this alleyway.

Paragraph 7- If five courtyards are open to a closed alleyway, they all have use with the outer courtyard. The outer courtyard can only use its own. The second courtyard can use its own and along with the outer courtyard, but not with the rest. Thus, the inner courtyard can use with everyone and by itself. Thus, if the owner of the second courtyard built a narrow platform opposite his entrance and closed it off, the outer courtyard cannot stop him, but all of the inner courtyards can, because they are increasing the amount they will walk since they must walk around the platform. There are those who say that the claim of having to walk more is not a valid claim and the inner courtyard cannot object to the outer courtyards unless the inner courtyard had the power to close up the alleyway there had he wanted to. In all other cases, such as where the outer courtyard has the right to use the inner courtyard, however, the claim of increased walking is not a valid claim. The same rules that apply to an alleyway apply to a synagogue. Thus, if a wealthy individual has many seats in the synagogue, and the members of the synagogue want to add benches in empty areas in order to benefit the charity or for more people to come to pray or if individuals want to sit in the middle of the path, the wealthy individual may object with the claim that his path is now narrow or he will have to walk more. If there a city custom, however, we would follow it. The members of the synagogue may implement that anyone who has a seat he does not need must rent it out at a price that seems appropriate to them. If they want to build them another synagogue or if individuals come to build a synagogue for them, others have no right to object. Anyone who does object is fit to be rebuked. A synagogue can only be used for matters which are customarily done in the synagogue. Therefore, if those individuals sitting on the western side want to raise their seats above the others, the others may object. To raise a little in a way where it will not look like they are higher, however, is not objectionable because it is a case where one benefits and the other does not lose. See later 171:1. Similarly, if the owner of the second courtyard opened a second entrance to his courtyard between him and the outer courtyard, the outer courtyard cannot object because he can only use the area from his entrance to the outside. If the second courtyard owner opened an entrance between him and the third courtyard, however, the inner courtyard can stop him because he has no right to use the alleyway other than from the entrance of his courtyard to the outside. The same rule applies to all of them. There are those who say that a person has right to open opposite his courtyard, regardless of whether it is towards the outside or the inside. Therefore, one also has the right to object if someone comes to close off the area opposite his courtyard, even if it towards the inside from the entrance of his courtyard.