Is one allowed to wheel around something in a wheelbarrow in reshut harabim (or in a Karmelit) on Shabbat? The wheelbarrow is more than 4x4 amot so is a rashut hayachid, and because it is always moving, is there a hanacha or is it like the kane which one end is lifted and then falls and then the other end is lifted and then falls, because a different part of the wheel touches the ground at every point in time?
Does it depend on the height of the wheelbarrow? (over or under 10 amot)
Daniel Moskovich, Kyoto, Japan
You are actually asking three questions.
We learned on Daf 8a, that someone who throws a beehive that is ten Tefachim tall (not Amos, as you keep referring to) and six in diameter, is Patur, and Rashi explains that this is because they did not throw domains in the Mishkan. Presumably, they did not carry Reshuyos either, in which case, one would be Patur for transporting a wheelbarrow that is four by four Tefachim and ten Tefachim tall (answering your first and third questions simultaneously).
Tosfos 8b DH 'Lo Mechayev' clearly distinguishes between a bundle of canes and a barrel which one transports without stopping, and which is therefore not subject to the leniency of the canes. It is obvious that the same will apply to a wheelbarrow (answering your second question).
Kol Tuv,
Eliezer Chrysler