AZ Central
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Chabad to Build Eruv in Phoenix Neighborhood

Yaffa Lvova has been confined to her Chandler home one day a week since her twins were born nine months ago. Although the boys are a wonderful blessing, Lvova said, “I was a big part of the community before I had them, and now, since I’ve had them, I’m at home.”

The isolation stems from Jewish law that bars Jews from certain activities, such as carrying things, including infants, outside their homes on the Sabbath.

That will change if the Chabad of the East Valley is successful in creating something known in Hebrew as an eruv, a continuous, though symbolic, physical boundary that allows Jews within it to act as they would in their own homes on the Sabbath.

Eruvin (plural) are a long-standing tradition in Judaism. There are hundreds throughout the world.

Some entire cities once were surrounded by walls. Today, the modern eruv often takes advantage of existing power lines or other infrastructure to define boundaries.

Two other eruvin exist in the Valley, but passers-by likely never notice the nylon lines strung from poles or the small pieces of wood attached to power poles.

Jews who most strictly observe the Sabbath, which runs from Friday evening through Saturday evening, follow many restrictions. They do not work, watch television, spend money or use cellphones.

“It leaves you no other option but to focus on family, on sharing, on education, on prayer, on reflection,” said Rabbi David Rebibo of Beth Joseph Congregation in Phoenix.

However, the restriction against carrying things in public on the Sabbath also means Jews can’t carry a prayer book or a bottle of water on a hot summer day, or push a wheelchair.

The eruv would essentially allow all those activities within the boundaries.

About 15 percent of the Chabad of the East Valley’s 350-member congregation follows the law of the Sabbath strictly enough to benefit from the eruv, Rabbi Mendy Deitsch said.

The Chandler Eruv Project would run along the approximately 20-mile boundary formed by Interstate 10, U.S. 60, Loop 101 and Loop 202.

“It’s freeing people, allowing them to enjoy the Sabbath even more,” said Deitsch, of the Chabad of the East Valley.

Organizers are taking advantage of freeway walls to form the bulk of the eruv boundary in the Southeast Valley. Where the walls break for on-ramps or off-ramps, “doorways” are created. The Chandler Eruv Project proposes installing 20-foot poles at these intersections, with fishing line on top to connect the walls.

“It’s strong enough to survive blowing winds,” but weak enough to not cause damage if it breaks, said John Christakis, project manager for the Chandler Eruv Project. “You just don’t see it, even if you were looking up.”

The Southeast Valley eruv would be the third in the Valley. One was installed in north-central Phoenix about nine years ago. Another went up in Scottsdale last year.

Creating an eruv is an exacting process that requires coordination among several groups. Representatives from the Chabad of the East Valley must get permission from the Arizona Department of Transportation and Union Pacific Railroad to install poles and lines.

ADOT evaluates plans based on safety and impact on travel, spokesman Doug Nintzel said. Previous eruv projects were determined to not cause major issues, he said.

After the project obtains permits, a rabbi who is an expert on eruvin must examine the route to ensure it meets Jewish law.

If all this goes smoothly, installation of the Chandler eruv could begin in as few as three months, Christakis said.

The Scottsdale project took about five years to complete, including years of fundraising, said Dan Zupnick, executive director of the Valley Eruv Project.

At least once a week, Zupnick spends about two hours driving the 32-mile perimeter to inspect the Scottsdale eruv and ensure that none of the lines is damaged. Jews can call a hotline or even check the @PhoenixEruv Twitter account to ensure it is in place.

The Chandler Eruv Project will be funded by donations, said Deitsch, who expects it to cost about $60,000.

Valley eruv projects have not faced opposition, and permitting agencies have expressed willingness to work with the group.

Some have concerns with the eruv concept because it involves government entities and public property. Government cannot prefer, promote or advance religion, and that includes formal recognition of an eruv or attaching it on public property, said Patrick Elliott, staff attorney with the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation.

“There is no secular purpose behind the creation of an eruv that would justify government involvement,” Elliott said in an e-mail.

Three federal lawsuits were filed over a New York synagogue’s efforts to create an eruv in a beach community there. There are about 50 eruvin in New York, according to an online directory at eruv.org.

Chandler’s Yaffa Lvova is part of the group working to create the southeast Valley eruv and one of several new moms in the congregation who are confined during the Sabbath. Without an eruv, that isolation could last for years because she would be prohibited from carrying home a toddler who gets tired or has a tantrum.

22 Comments

  • befuddled

    can someone explain to me the growing custom of chabad entities putting up eruvs in clear contrast to the Rebbe’s clearly and unequivocally stated opinion on this matter? I cannot understand it. Am I missing a key point here? Is chabad going to start serving Chalav “stam” at the parties now too, because what the Rebbe thought on matters doesn’t really apply now if that’s what the people want? I’m really confused about this. Is there an explanation? There must be..

    • source

      where is the source that the Rebbe said?
      how come in kfar chabad and in many others israeli cities there is an eruv in the chabad schuna??

    • Milhouse

      Kfar Chabad is different because it’s a small village where if the eruv is down everyone can be notified quickly.

      The Rebbe’s position on urban eruvin in general was that they should be made, but not publicised. The problem is that this is impossible; nobody is going to donate the money for a secret eruv.

      The Rebbe’s concern about people not finding out if it’s down seems to be addressed by modern communications that didn’t exist back then. In the 1950s many people didn’t have a phone, and few shuls had the capacity to put up a recorded message; not to speak of email, web pages, texts, tweets, or apps, none of which existed at all.

  • Make your home a mikdash me'at

    Baruch Hashem, we don’t need an eruv in Crown Heights, the Rebbe never wanted people carrying in Crown Heights, and the Rabbonim never allowed one.
    Invite for friends to join you if you can’t go out. If your friends all have infant, make new friends. How about inviting that elderly widower from next door? Or the single mom from around the corner? Or move in with your parents or in-laws or a dear aunt and uncle for the day.
    Focus on your spouse and children, and relish the together time you have on Shabbos.
    Swap babysitting if you need to go to a shabbos simcha.
    We, the Chabad women of Crown Heights, have done this for generations, and we don’t feel trapped on shabbos.
    Talk to your baby about your family history, play pat-a-cake with him, show her pictures from your photo album, and from Jewish story books. There’s just not enough hours during shabbos to do truly focus on the ones you love. Be grateful for the time you do have, and thank Hashem for your precious baby (who you were just kvetching about, that because you were blessed, now you feel trapped!!!), and that you don’t have to run to your friends to feel fulfilled.
    Remember, above all, Shabbos is a day of REST where we can reconnect to Hashem, to who we really are, and to our families.

  • K

    Oh oh, now everyone will say how Chabad must respect Reb Moshe and not have an eriv. They will also claim the Rebbe was against having an eruv. Oh well, that is what happens when people are not guided by rabbonim.

    • Milhouse

      Chabad rabbonim follow the Rebbe’s directives.

      R Moshe had no objection to eruvin in Arizona, or in most places. And his opposition to one in Brooklyn was explicitly based on misinformation that someone gave him. But the Rebbe’s position was completely different; he wrote that an eruv should be made even in Manhattan, let alone Brooklyn, but that it should be secret.

    • K

      Reb Moshe ZA”L was “misinformed”?! Is thatthe “standard” asnswer Chabad gives. like, the GRA was misinformed about chassidim??

      Remember Reb Moshe was THE posek hador (certainly in America), AND he lived in…New York, AND he had access to any info he required!

      Would you believe for a minute that the Rebbe based one of HIS opinions (like “Land for Peace” or “Soviet Jewery Protests”) on “misinformation”?! That would be pure silliness!

  • constitution

    “Government cannot prefer, promote or advance religion, and that includes formal recognition of an eruv or attaching it on public property,” said Patrick Elliott, staff attorney with the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation. “There is no secular purpose behind the creation of an eruv that would justify government involvement,” Elliott said in an e-mail. THIS IS NOT TRUE.
    The First Amendment’s Establishment Clause prohibits the government from making any law “respecting an establishment of religion , or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;.” This clause not only forbids the government from establishing an official religion, but also prohibits government actions that unduly favor one religion over another. It also prohibits the government from unduly preferring religion over non-religion, or non-religion over religion. An eruv does not involve the government unduly favoring one religion over another since no other religions have eruvim. It does not unduly preferring religion over non-religion since there are no eruvim for those who do not practice a religion and an eruv does not have an effect on those who do not practice religion unless they are Jewish. The constitution does not sanction government interference with people’s religious expression. The intent of the founding fathers was not to do away with religion since many of the people coming to the U.S., including the families of the constitution’s founders, fled from religious persecution.

  • Eruv or Amira Lakum

    As the community in crown heights changed, the question Rabomin must aske themselves, what is more preferable an Eruv or Amira Lakum. I have seen people asking their Goya to carry a child or push a stroller on for them on Shabbos.

    There need it be a serious conversation of the reality of our community.

    • to #13

      The same people who ask a goy to carry their baby on shabbos (which is assur), will probably carry their own baby (which is also assur) if the eruv fails, because they will be so used to carrying on shabbos.
      Please don’t lower the standards of the entire community for the benefit of those who don’t truly care about halacha.

    • Lamden

      Pushing a baby in a stroller – I remember the din of “chai nossay ess atzmo” (a living person “carries” himself) – so you are not “really carrying”…

      plus the streets are “Karmelis” (not a true reshus harabim)…

      and if the pushing of stroller is done “kilachar yad” (not the “normal way” – backhanded), t

      hen it is a TRIPLE drabobon, which is fully allowed if it is “l’tzorech mitzvah” – like going to shul or oneg shabbos!

      You may do a “double d’rabbonon”, certainly a “triple drabonon” when it is for a mitzvah or for the need of a small child who has a din of a choleh sh’ain bo sakana!!

    • K

      Lamden, which yeshiva did you learn in? The Jewish Theological Seminary?
      You are a Conservative apikores who is novol brshus hatorah! You are worse than Milhouse!

      Next you will tell us that driving a car on shabbos is muttar (the burning of gas is a dovor sh’aino miskaven and a psik raisha d’lo nicha lay)!

      Did you put on tefillin today or do you only wear tefillin on Yom Kippur (before breakfast)?

    • Kop Mentch

      Wow, K! You say that Lamden is “worse than Milhouse”, that is really nasty.

  • A Chosid of the Rebbe or of yourself?

    I agree with 13. Look don’t TRY to act like such a big chosid who does what the Rebbe always asks when 1. you don’t even know what the Rebbe said or in what context. 2. You follow the Rebbe’s directives only if they agree with what I hold already. e.g. I like learning Rambam the Rebbe just said to learn Rambam yomi lets do that. I heard the Rebbe does not “like college” good thing I don’t like college either.
    Lets see how many things the Rebbe said that people totally ignore. The Rebbe said many times that he wishes bochurim would get married younger, totally ignored. The Rebbe said in Hayom yom its brought down in many other places how chasidim should have a shiur yomi in Tanach totally ignored. The Rebbe’s view on vacccinations was clear to follow a dr’s orders every one of which will tell you to 100% vaccinate your child. Of course many choose to ignore that as well. People bottom line stop fooling yourself. Really learn what the Rebbe says and follow it and stop spreading false information and hearsay, get a mashpiah and become a real chosid not a self serving Ferd!

  • Grandmama

    Don’t assume that all people who push children in strollers in CH has not had a psak from a rav. There are exceptions

    • K

      You are right. Never assume. A rov might have paskened that they should be michallel shabbos because they aren’t really Jewish.

    • Kop Mentch

      Hey K, if there is an eruv but the goy doesn’t hold of the eruv, when he carries, is he an Akum she’shovas (a goy who kept shabbos)?

      Think about it!