How far am I allowed to walk on Shabbat?

A. Because driving, biking, blading, skateboarding or other device-driven means of transportation are prohibited on Shabbat, we walk rather than commute to synagogue. However, even walking on Shabbat has its limits.

B. Negative Mitzvah #321 sets the maximum walking range from one’s city to 2,000 cubits (3,049.5 feet, 0.596 miles (960 meters). [However, this measurement starts 70 2/3 cubits (112.24 ft.) from the city limits.] Practically speaking, this means that you may not walk a straight line more than .598 miles (3161.74 ft.) in any direction in the wilds outside your city limits.

C. "City limits" are not defined by the map you carry in your glove compartment. Halachah considers all contiguous housing to be part of the same city. Therefore it would be permitted to walk hundreds of miles, from city to city, as long as the whole way is populated.

D. Therefore, this Mitzvah is usually not practicable if you live in the suburbs, and certainly if you live in any big city. Why? Because when G-d gave the Torah thousands of years ago, almost all of civilization lived in walled cities, with nothing but wilderness surrounding them. Today, you can walk for miles on end without seeing a single field or forest. Houses are everywhere, and cities just blend into each other with no spaces between, so you can’t really set where civilization ends and wilderness begins. However, if you live in Montana, Vermont or other place with lots of raw country, the techum , or perimeter, rule is very much in force and one needs to be be careful.