Eruv (Hebrew: עירוב, also spelt Eiruv or Erub, plural: Eruvin) is a Hebrew word meaning "mixture", and refers to any of three procedures which allow certain activities in Jewish law which would otherwise be forbidden. In colloquial usage, it most often refers to the eruv for carrying (Hebrew: עירוב חצרות, eiruv chatzeirot), but it can also refer to the Eruv tavshilin for cooking (Hebrew: עירוב תבשילין) or the Eruv techumin for traveling (Hebrew: עירוב תחומין).
The Talmud devotes an entire tractate to the subject of eruv titled Eruvin which addresses the eruv chatzeirot, "mixed [ownership of] domains", and eruv techumin, "mixed borders" (discussed below). It does not address the eruv tavshilin, which is covered elsewhere in the Talmud.
In Judaism, an "eruv" unspecified normally refers to an eruv for carrying, which consists of a fence -- either real or symbolic -- that surrounds an area containing anything from a single private home and its yard, to an entire Jewish neighborhood, permitting carrying within its boundaries. This fence is technically a shituf mevo'ot (Hebrew: שיתוף מבואות, lit. Sharing [of the] alleyways), and this geographical sharing is required in order to effectively engage in the process of eruv hatzerot ("mixing [of] courtyards.") In contemporary Jewish discourse, "an eruv" frequently refers to this symbolic "fence," (actually "doorframe/s") rather than the eruv itself.
Eruv for carrying
There are 39 categories of activity prohibited on Shabbat. On Shabbat (the Jewish Sabbath), the Torah forbids moving an object from one domain to another, no matter its weight or purpose. According to Torah law as understood by the Talmud, this encompasses three actions:
- Moving an object from an enclosed area (such as a private home, public building, or fenced-in area) to a major thoroughfare,
- moving an object from a major thoroughfare to an enclosed area, or
- moving an object more than four cubits within a major thoroughfare.
To prevent confusion over exactly what constitutes a major thoroughfare, the rabbis expanded the ban to any area that was not fenced or walled in.
An additional, rabbinic prohibition, which Jewish tradition ascribes to the religious court of King Solomon, prohibits carrying in any area that was shared by the occupants of more than one dwelling, even if surrounded by fences or walls. But in this case of areas surrounded by walls, carrying was allowed through the use of an eruv. The eruv consists of a food item - generally bread - that is shared by all dwellers. By means of this shared meal, all the dwellers are considered as if they were living in a common dwelling, thus exempting them from the added prohibition.
Eruv chatzeirot
The eruv chatzeirot, or "mixed [ownership of] courtyards/domains", operates so that all the residents treat the entire area as their common "home". In other words, it is a religious-law mechanism that transforms an enclosed shared living area (e.g. a courtyard) into a common one. In order to be enclosed, the area must be surrounded by a wall, fence, or tzurot ha-petah, "doorframes". Otherwise carrying is still prohibited in accordance with the earlier prohibition, as above.
In many cases -- for example, within a hospital, nursing home, school campus, apartment complex, or a walled city, the demarcation of the shared area consists of real walls or fences.
These fences can also be made symbolically, using stakes and a rope or wire to demarcate doorframes. When an eruv is made to demarcate a contemporary Jewish neighborhood, a symbolic fence is typically constructed in this fashion, using utility poles and wires as well as any solid walls available. When seen along with the utility poles upon which it is usually strung, it appears like a series of doorframes, with the poles forming the doorposts (lehi or lehai'in)and the wire forming the lintel (korah) strung around a neighborhood or region that allows Jews observing Shabbat to treat the area as if it were their mutual "home." The string must form a continuous boundary and may be strung along telephone poles or buildings. A natural boundary such as a river bank or steep hill can also be used as part of the eruv, as can an actual wall of a building.
As mentioned above, the term "eruv" is used within Judaism to refer to this rope or string, but the term actually refers to the process of sharing ownership within the enclosed domain, which is conducted using the norms and procedures of Jewish law, which has a law of property ownership and transfer distinct from the law of the surrounding society. The property transfer needed to create a shared domain on Shabbat under Jewish law is formally effected today by having one resident give some "bread" (usually it is a box containing matzo which can last for an entire year) to another resident to keep, to create a joint ownership of food for the whole community. This is usually done by the rabbi of the community to ensure that it is done correctly, and the bread is usually matzo to ensure that it will be edible and usable for a long time. (It is usually replaced once each year.) In the Talmud and other classic rabbinic sources, the term eruv refers to the bread itself. Because the domains are enclosed and legal transferred to shared ownership, carrying objects within an eruv keeps them within a single domain, and hence does not break the prohibition of transferring objects from a private to a shared domain on Shabbat. Creating an eruv that involves public property requires the local government to permit a temporary transfer of its domain (in addition to government permissions for placing markers on government property that may be required as a matter of local government law.)
No rabbis dispute the concept of an eruv. However, in practice, some rabbis do disagree about the technical requirements of a valid eruv, and might therefore instruct their followers that certain eruvin are not valid and should not be used. The examples of an eruv considered in the Talmud involved the sharing of courtyards and other relatively small areas. The subsequent expansion of the concept to include entire neighborhoods and entire cities has been controversial ever since its inception in the Middle Ages,[citation needed] and there are disagreements within Rabbinic literature to this day about how large an eruv can be.
Even without an eruv, there is no problem with wearing clothing outside, provided that it is normal clothing and being worn in its normal manner, as it is considered secondary to, and "part of," the person himself. The same is true for most medical items which are attached to the body and can be considered secondary to it, such as a cast or bandage or eyeglasses. Rabbinic authorities differ about the use of a cane or wheelchair by the infirm: some allow their use even without an eruv and others do not. Most authorities also allow the wearing of jewelry by women. There are different customs about the wearing of watches by men.
In Israel almost every Jewish community is enclosed by an eruv. Outside Israel there are over 150 community eruvin, as well as thousands of private ones enclosing only a few homes. Most major cities in North America have at least one, often surrounding only the Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods rather than the entire city - Toronto, Phoenix, Memphis, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, Providence, Miami, Dallas, six eruvin in Baltimore, several in New York City and Washington, D.C. (there are actually eight different eruvin in the Greater Washington area, one of which includes the White House), to name but a few. Outside North America, there are eruvin in Johannesburg, Melbourne, Perth, Gibraltar, Antwerp and Strasbourg. The Strasbourg eruv includes the European Court of Human Rights. Borough Park and Kiryas Joel, New York have eruvin certified by Hasidic rebbes. As might be expected, every city in Israel, and many small towns and agricultural communities, is surrounded by an eruv.
Activities prohibited even within an eruv
The presence of a valid eruv enables people to carry or move virtually any item outdoors on Shabbat (in the absence of other restrictions). However, a variety of other prohibitions still apply, and otherwise prohibited items cannot be carried. Other prohibitions which are commonly applicable even within an eruv include:
The Rabbinic prohibition of muktza, against carrying objects whose use is prohibited. For example, since writing and lighting fires are prohibited on Shabbat, writing utensils and matches cannot be carried by the prohibition.
The Biblical prohibition of building. This prohibition is most commonly applied to umbrellas. Opening an umbrella is considered to be analogous to erecting a tent, a kind of building activity.[citation needed] Since umbrellas cannot be used, they are considered muktzah and cannot be carried.
The Rabbinic decree of uvdin d'chol, against performing typical weekday activities to protect the sanctity of Shabbat.
The Rabbinic decree of hachana, against carrying or moving items in preparation for post-Shabbat activity to protect the sanctity of Shabbat.
Controversies
The installation of eruvin has been a matter of contention in many neighbourhoods around the world, classic examples are Barnet, England; Outremont, Quebec; and Tenafly, New Jersey.
In the United States, the issue is often framed legally as whether the stringing of the eruv to public property violates the First Amendment's prohibition of a governmental establishment of religion, and popularly as whether it violates a "separation of church and state."
In Outremont, a locale in Montreal, Canada, the city adopted a policy of removing eruv wires. The Hasidic community obtained an injunction preventing such action by the city authorities.
Disagreements between Orthodox groups
There are instances where various Orthodox groups, headed by their rabbis, dispute both the validity of an eruv or if an eruv can in fact be built in a neighborhood.
Prohibtion by the Agudas Horabonim, 1962One of the oldest halakhic disputes in the United States revolves around the issue of an eruv in Manhattan (which is actually an island), in New York City. Some halakhic opinions refer to an island's reinforced walls against an ocean as contributing to and forming an eruv, and this view had been relied upon by some of the older rabbinate in the early part of the twentieth century. Other, more recent authorities, such as Rabbi Moshe Feinstein who lived in Manhattan, dispute that this is possible anywhere in New York City.
In June 2007, the East Side portion of the internal Manhattan Eruv was completed, offering an eruv within Manhattan to Orthodox Jews living on the East, Upper East, and Upper West Sides. There are also two Eruvs in Manhattan's Washington Heights, one covering the Yeshiva University area and another covering the Fort Washington area.
Another ongoing dispute is the status of two inter-connected eruvin in Brooklyn: The Flatbush eruv and the Boro Park eruv. The Boro Park eruv was built and accepted by much of the Hasidic community but rejected by some of the Hassidic and non-Hasidic "Lithuanian yeshiva" communities. The Flatbush eruv was originally built with the support of the Modern Orthodox community and was later enhanced with the support of some local non-Modern Orthodox yeshiva families and Hasidic rebbes. It was totally rejected by the many "Lithuanian yeshiva" communities led by the rosh yeshivas ("deans") of the large yeshivas Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin, Mir yeshiva, and Yeshiva Torah Vodaas that are based in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn.
