11 Responses

1. I cannot imagine what valid reason there could be for all the opposition to constructing an eiruv.

2. where is Palo alto located

3. not everyone holds of the eruv busniess

4. remember the tenafly (and other) case, where the city council and the mayor, etc opposed the eruv because “we dont want ‘those jews’ to come to our town”, those jews = orthodox shomer shabat jews. (the mayor and many on the council are jews.)

   as for yzccjr, we are not talking about halachic eruv issues here (which are only a problem for litvishe jews who want it to be a problem), but political eruv issues as per my previous paragraph.

   in the alter heim (europe) every town (except litvishe towns, and i dont mean towns in lita, i mean towns that were “litvish”) had an eruv. my father tells me the rov in his town purposely carried his talis home from shul, even though the custom was to wear the talis for kiddush, to emphasize the point that the eruv was kosher, and since one wasn’t allowed to be more machmir than the rov (litvaks wont understand), no one was allowed to not hold of the eruv. i lknow, a foreign concept to yeshivish crowd.

5. Palo Alto is in Northern California (about 25 miles (40 km) southeast of San Francisco). I’ve davened at Emek Beracha many times while on business there. It is a very nice shul. They used to be in the basement of an office building, but moved to their own facility a few years ago.

6. I’m glad it worked out for the community.

7. MiMedinat HaYam,

   Do you have any sort of documented proof to your assertion about the “alter heim”. Please bring valid proof to BOTH of your claims.

   It is always very easy to re-write history when we desire some sort of emotional weight to challenge proper logic, and G-ds Will as revealed to us in Halacha.

8. YZCCJR – an Eruv is not a “business”. It is the halachic means under certain circumstances in which certain issurim of carrying are permitted. These eruvim exist and existed in thousands of Jewish communities throughtout history. Yes, as in most things in Jewish life, not everyone holds of it. We all have our pet mitzvos to be makpid on, and others not to be makpid on as much.

9. MiMedinat HaYam you make a good point but not a correct one.

10. AvenueM

    let me clarify my point . I did not mean business in its real term. I understand that it is not a money making end ever. I have work on the eruv in my own city . I meant to say that many would not use any eruv . They feel its not for them.

11. to YZCCJR

    as avenue m points out, eruvim existed throughout history. (almost) every town had an eruv in europe, every (heimish, and i wont get into details here) town in israel has an eruv, and in america today, every town that wants to encourage “young observant” jews to move into and / or stay has an eruv (even those whose rabbonim are too yeshivish (or lubavitch, which like litvaks, tend to oppose eruvim) to use the eruv, still will cooperate / assist / etc in putting up and maintaining the eruv.

    the anecdote about the rov in the town carrying his talis home from shul, instead of wearing it, is anecdotal from my father (my parents are hungarian nusach ashkenaz = chasam sofer minhagim, though the minchas elozor stayed in my grandparents home when he visited their shtot )

    the point is, eruvim were not only accepted, but di riguer in the alter heim, with the exception of litvish community, which has a different interpretation of a rambam that is not accepted by most (if not all poskim) regarding zurat hapetach, which detail is not appropriate for yw (but is also followed by lubavitch, talk about conflicts!!!).