Rabbi Shimon Eider's Tzuras HaPesach in Camp
At Camp Romimu, the bunks' bathrooms were open to the rest of the room, so brachos could not be said there. Rabbi Shimon Eider found a creative solution.
In Camp Romimu, the first summer it opened, Rabbi Shimon Eider, zt”l, was the mara d’asra. The camp was renting campgrounds in Livingston Manor. It wasn’t financially feasible to improve the property, as it was only a one-year rental. However, there was a problem. The back sections of the bunks which contained cubbies and sinks also contained the commodes. Boys wanted to eat nosh, take drinks, and recite al netilas yadayim in the backs of the bunkhouses. What separated the commodes from the rest of the back section of the bunk were partitions that did not come all the way to the ground. Hence, Rav Eider said that these floating walls did not qualify as a halachic separation. Rav Eider therefore ruled that one should not recite brachos in the entire back section of the bunk, since the entire area may halachically be considered a bathroom.
“Rabbi Eider had a novel solution. They would construct a tzuras ha’pesach, a halachic doorframe, to separate the commodes from the rest of the bunk. These halachic doorframes would partition off the commodes. A tzuras ha’pesach is what most eiruvin are composed of: two side posts with a string on top connecting the two. Rav Eider reasoned that if a tzuras ha’pesach can halachically create a private domain on Shabbos to permit carrying, why can’t it wall off a bathroom?