Erev Shabbat Jewish Blogging
Feb. 3rd, 2006 12:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gnomiThis week (on recommendation of mabfan), Eiruvin!
Not the masechet, but the actual item.
In the book of Shmot (Exodus), we read that b'nei yisrael (the Children of Israel) are very enthusiastic in bringing items to the Mishkan (tabernacle), and eventually they are instructed to stop bringing items to the encampment of the Levi'im:
According to the Gemara (Shabbat, 96b), this announcement came during Shabbat, and from this we learn that we are not allowed to carry from the private domain into the public domain on Shabbat. This has come to mean that while we can carry inside our houses all we want (as one of my teachers once put it, "You can carry an elephant around your house on shabbat,"), we cannot carry from our house to the public domain (namely, outside on the street).
However, since one can carry within a private domain, there exists a method by which we transform the public domain into a private domain. The method is called Eiruv Chatzerot (usually clipped to just "eiruv"), literally, the mingling of courtyards. A series of wires and ropes, traditionally, are erected around an area to designate it as all one domain, and thus one can carry within the eiruv. This allows, for example, one to carry one's keys, one's siddur (prayer book) and talit (prayer shawl) to shul, food for a meal to someone's house, and one is permitted to push a baby carriage within an eiruv (while one cannot push one on Shabbat outside an eiruv).
When I was younger, Boston did not have an eiruv. In fact, I was in college before the Greater Boston Eiruv Corporation's eiruv was completed. In the 13 years since its inception, this eiruv has grown to include a number of communities in Greater Boston that have large Jewish populations. There are also eiruvs ("eiruvin" is the plural) in Cambridge and Sharon. As more eiruvin have gone up, it has become more and more possible for observant Jews to interact with their friends on shabbat, especially if they are families with small children.
I've already called the Eiruv hotline for the Greater Boston eiruv, and the eiruv is reported as Up.
Shabbat shalom!
mabfan), Eiruvin!Not the masechet, but the actual item.
In the book of Shmot (Exodus), we read that b'nei yisrael (the Children of Israel) are very enthusiastic in bringing items to the Mishkan (tabernacle), and eventually they are instructed to stop bringing items to the encampment of the Levi'im:
“And the call was broadcast in the camp, saying, no man or woman should do any more workmanship for the sanctified donations; then the people stopped bringing.” (Shemot 36:6.)
According to the Gemara (Shabbat, 96b), this announcement came during Shabbat, and from this we learn that we are not allowed to carry from the private domain into the public domain on Shabbat. This has come to mean that while we can carry inside our houses all we want (as one of my teachers once put it, "You can carry an elephant around your house on shabbat,"), we cannot carry from our house to the public domain (namely, outside on the street).
However, since one can carry within a private domain, there exists a method by which we transform the public domain into a private domain. The method is called Eiruv Chatzerot (usually clipped to just "eiruv"), literally, the mingling of courtyards. A series of wires and ropes, traditionally, are erected around an area to designate it as all one domain, and thus one can carry within the eiruv. This allows, for example, one to carry one's keys, one's siddur (prayer book) and talit (prayer shawl) to shul, food for a meal to someone's house, and one is permitted to push a baby carriage within an eiruv (while one cannot push one on Shabbat outside an eiruv).
When I was younger, Boston did not have an eiruv. In fact, I was in college before the Greater Boston Eiruv Corporation's eiruv was completed. In the 13 years since its inception, this eiruv has grown to include a number of communities in Greater Boston that have large Jewish populations. There are also eiruvs ("eiruvin" is the plural) in Cambridge and Sharon. As more eiruvin have gone up, it has become more and more possible for observant Jews to interact with their friends on shabbat, especially if they are families with small children.
I've already called the Eiruv hotline for the Greater Boston eiruv, and the eiruv is reported as Up.
Shabbat shalom!
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Date: 2006-02-03 07:41 pm (UTC)