Home and the question of ownership: A journey between the private and public domain

Source: From the sources: On the boundaries of domains

A story is told of a certain man who was clearing stones from his property into the public domain. A pious man found him and said to him: 'Fool! Why are you clearing stones from a domain that is not yours into a domain that is yours?!' The man scoffed at him. Sometime later, he needed to sell his field, and while walking in that same public domain, he stumbled over those very stones. He said: 'How right that pious man was when he said to me, "Why are you clearing stones from a domain that is not yours into a domain that is yours."'

(Babylonian Talmud, Bava Kamma 50b)

Explanation: Making sense of the story: Between the wisdom of the pious man and human error

A man is clearing stones from his courtyard and tossing them into the public domain, when a pious man makes a philosophical remark: 'Fool! Why are you clearing stones from a domain that is not yours into a domain that is yours?!' The man naturally ignored him, since the pious man’s words sounded completely nonsensical. In time, the man lost his home and ended up living on the street, and only then did he understand what had been said to him.

Perspective: A closer look: Beyond utilitarianism—on the sanctity of shared space

The story before us can be misleading, tempting the reader to assume it is simply about utilitarianism: it doesn't pay to throw household trash into the street, because one day you might trip over that very debris and get hurt. But is that what the pious man meant? Did the homeless man come to realize that this was not about mere utility, but a profound principle demanding respect for every space, regardless of property rights and legal protections? Private property is always conditional—someone might buy it, seize it, steal it, or take it for the public good—whereas the street is the place that will always be yours; no one can ever take it from you.

Going Deeper: Broadening the view: From Rousseau to today—on ownership, freedom, and justice

The opening paragraph of Part Two of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Discourse on Inequality depicts the first person who enclosed a plot of land and took it into his head to say 'This is mine' as the ancestor of countless crimes, wars, murders, and horrors endured by humanity and all living things since that fateful, reckless moment when private property was invented. To be sure, Rousseau never imagined we could turn back the clock and undo that declaration of 'This is mine,' and he even agreed that the right to property is a fundamental right, the very foundation of liberty; yet he wrote The Social Contract precisely to remedy that state of cutthroat competition and the pursuit of wealth. Private property requires social sanction, and the fruits of private land belong to everyone.

Culture: In contemporary culture: From Utopia to Nutopia—the dream of a world without borders

In April 1973, John Lennon and Yoko Ono announced the establishment of 'Nutopia,' a nation that has 'no land, no boundaries, no passports, only people... no laws other than cosmic.' This nation, which anyone can join, even has an anthem: 'Imagine.' In contrast to the pursuit of a utopia—described by Thomas More in the sixteenth century as an ideal, perfect society with a flawless social order, which is really nothing more than an unrealistic longing—Lennon posits a realistic, anarchic society that needs no laws or borders, only goodwill and total trust. Many thousands followed this vision. Did they succeed? Is it even possible?