Yesterday a missile fell on Bnei Braq. There is actually some dispute as to whether it was Bnei Braq or Ramat Gan as it fell right around the border. Bnei Braq people will never admit to anything falling in Bnei Braq because that contradicts a supposed promise of the Chazon Ish, a promise that was strengthened by Rav Chaim Kanievsky, that bad things wont happen in Bnei Braq (and it has been used to say that rockets will never fall in Bnei Braq).

there is an old joke that everyone uses every time someone talks about an eruv being built - great, now I can drive to shul on shabbos, or something siilar.

I need some explanation of this story..

As Achad Ha'Am said, More than Jews have kept Shabbat, Shabbat has kept the Jews.

According to this report in Kipa, Just a few days ago an IDF rabbi, Rav Eitan Shinrev, was out with the unit he is attached to on patrol in an area of the Shomron near Har Bracha. Rav Shinrev went out to check the eruv around the complex the unit was stationed in. While checking the eruv, the rabbi noticed two suspicious looking people hiding on the sloped perimeter of the complex, so he called in the emergency response team. The invaders were apprehended and a gun and knife were found on their bodies.

The rabbi received a award for his efforts and alertness and the rabbinical division was praised in general for their mesirut nefesh, their dedication even under danger, for the mitzva of Shabbos.

What Achad Ha'Am said is so very brought out in such an incident.

A town in northern New Jersey called Mahwah is fighting against the influx of new Jewish residents by fighting the eruv. They assume that if they can get the eruv removed, the Jews won't want to live there.

We will see if they are right or not. They did successfully get the eruv banned and removed. 1200 signatures on a petition made the township force its removal. The eruv builders had received permission to attach plastic tubes to utility poles, and the city is considering these tubes and pipes to be signage that must be removed.

According to INN:

Many of the dozens of comments accompanying the petition, titled “Protect the Quality of our Community in Mahwah,” refer to “these people” and express concerns about falling property values. Most of them are anonymous.
“I don’t want these rude, nasty, dirty people who think they can do what they want in our nice town,” one of the comments reads.
Another says: “I do not want the town of Mahwah to turn into an undesirable place to live. These people do not assimilate with other people outside their community. I do not want them controlling our school board and siphoning funds for their yeshivas. Also, they buy houses which they claim is for religious purposes and do not pay taxes. They should stay where they are and leave our town alone.”

Notwithstanding individual people, Jews in general are not dirty and they are not ruder or nastier than anyone else - even East Coast Jews relative to East Coast EveryoneElse. When Jews move in, real estate prices generally go up, not down. And nobody knows who else is paying or not paying taxes - at least not until people get arrested for it. Basically this is all just anti-semitism, or a convenient cover for trying to prevent your hometown lifestyle from changing.

I have no problem with them trying and find it totally understandable, as long as real anti-semitism isn't involved, but it is unlikely to work, as at the end of the day market forces will win the day. If they organize, the way some other groups do, and refuse to sell homes, they might succeed. If they do not, individuals will take the higher prices offered by a few buyers to start, and then a  trickle will become a flood.

What is more interesting is the idea that the presence of the eruv means Jews will move in and its removal means Jews will stay away. Let us not forget that the communities with an eruv in the USA were rare until recently. Now people are used to having an eruv, but it is still a relatively recent phenomenon. I think people will still move in even without an eruv, unless they find a better town to take over, and when they achieve critical mass they will get their eruv approved.

MK Michael Malkieli (Shas) has proposed a law that would obligate kablanim building homes on the outskirts of the city to repair eruv wires and poles that they destroy, whether intentionally or inadvertently. According to the law proposal, any building permits requested would only be granted with a condition that the kablanim accept this responsibility and perform repairs to the eruv as necessary.

According to Malkieli, the expense of all the repairs ends up falling on the Ministry of Religious Affairs and on local religious councils around the country - to the tune of tens of thousands of shekels each year. Sometimes they don't have the necessary funds available and it causes delays in the repairs, and it sometimes means people carry outside on Shabbos without realizing there is no functioning eruv.

The Ministerial Legislative Committee has approved the proposal.
source: Kol Hai News

Perhaps I do not understand how this works, but it seems to me a law should not be required for this. A kablan damaging eruv poles and strings should be obligated to pay for the repairs just like any damages caused to anybody's private property or municipal property. I am unclear as to why damage caused by kablanim requires a special law to be passed. The Ministry of Religious Affairs and local municipalities should force kablanim to pay up, sue them, take legal action and recoup all that money. Maybe freeze assets, rescind building permits and other similar actions should be taken when necessary.

What might need to be dealt with in law would be damage caused to private eruvin. Besides for municipal eruvin, in many areas private eruvin are built, sometimes with permits and/or permission from City Hall and sometimes without. If a kablan causes damage to a private eruv pole or string, the private eruvin can also sue, but they do have less methods of recourse available to them than City Hall has. Suing might even be a problem for them if they installed an eruv pole without permission or permits. I don't know that they should be protected in law - maybe they should need to get permits as well - but they should be able to recoup the damages they incur caused by kablanim or others.

Rabbi Heller: Crown Heights Eruv Is Reform Judaism

  -- CrownHeights.info

Now, I have no problem with a good, old fashioned, halachic argument. Some say the eruv is good, some say it is not good. Every eruv in the world has people in it that refuse to rely on it. Every halachic topic in the book has opinions arguing with each other. I also understand that Lubavitchers in Crown Heights never had an eruv before because the Rebbe was supposedly against it, and many in the community want that to be the status quo in the area.

What I do not get is how an eruv can be considered Reform Judaism. There is an entire masechta in Shas about the laws of eruvin. There is a section in shulchan aruch about it. Eruv is not Reform Judaism, and modern-day rabbonim putting up an eruv is not Reform Judaism. Nobody is forcing any specific person to rely on it.

Have a halachic debate. Call on your followers to continue in the fine Lubavitch tradition of not relying on an eruv n Crown Heights. Comparing an eruv to Reform Judaism is ridiculous.

I actually liked, in particular, the following line from the article:

I am talking for myself and my children. I want to be an “old-fashioned” Lubavitcher, in the ways of the Rebbeim and the Baal Shem Tov.

I wonder if he has ever attacked other things happening in Crown Heights with that same argument...

IDF eiruv for Shabbos in the field.... the tanks all look ready to go!

The Orthodox community in the Hamptons is a bit closer to getting their eiruv approved..

The best part of this is the guy opposing the eiruv because he is worried that if it goes up it will make the community more like Lawrence or Cedarhurst..

 

Chag Sameach to everybody.

Don't forget to make your Eruv Tavshilin. Here in Israel it is a rare occurrence that it is needed, so it is easy to forget.... Don't forget! Go do it right now, before you forget again!

My daughters kindergarten has been the subject of some debate between (some of) the parents and the administration. The parents want certain issues addressed, such as covering the sandbox at night so the cats do not sleep and poop where the kids will be playing and extra cover for more shade in the play area, along with some other issues. One more of those issues was the security of the grounds of the kindergarten. The gates are kept unlocked and open at nights.

The parents put together some sort of petition to be presented to the administration with a list of requests and concerns.

On Friday the school sent home with the kids a letter addressing the issues raised by the parents.

Much of the administrators resonse was reasonable and showed he is dealing with the concerns of the parents.

There was one response of his I take issue with. Regarding the issue of locking the gates at night and over the weekends. Now personally, I do not care if it is open or not. The gate is not one that would keep anybody out who is trying to get in and we live in a fairly sleepy neighborhood. I am not paranoid and while basic security measures must be adhered to, I am not someone who insists on extra in this realm.

However, his response to the concerns of the parents (many of whom do care about this issue I guess) irked me a bit.

He wrote (I do not have the paper in front of me so I am quoting (and translating to English) from memory): The front and back gate to the school grounds have been locked in the past. A number of times the lock was broken and replaced. One time the gate was broken in a way that could not be fixed (my comment: without having to replace the whole gate). It was then explained to me that this gate must be kept open in order for the eruv to be kosher for shabbos.

In other words the guys who check, fix and construct the eruv in the neighborhood (and it is referring to the "eruv mehudar", not the city mandated eruv) vandalised the gate and destroyed private property.

I do not know why this gate needs to be open for the eruv to work. I might even ask one of those guys. I would not care if they left it open. As a matter of fact, I personally gain from it being open, because I use those grounds as a shortcut to shul on Motzei Shabbat. But that is not the point.

These guys are vandals. They could just as easily have approached the administrator of the school and requested he keep the fence open. They could have worked with him to find a solution that would allow the gates to be closed and secure and still find a way to work in the eruv, maybe altering the route slightly. A solution could have been found. Or they could have not found a solution but asked/requested that the gate stay open. I am sure the administrator would have been more than willing to work with them to find a solution (I know he would, because he is not someone who would take a stand against the rabbi who heads that eruv).

Instead they preferred to take the initiative and do irreparable damage to private property so they would not be inconvenienced. And this is what they call the "Eruv Mehudar" that meets the strictest and highest standards of halacha.
I guess destroying private property is not one of the criteria to meet when deciding the standards of mehudar.