{"id":405,"date":"2011-03-24T12:05:28","date_gmt":"2011-03-24T16:05:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beliefbeat\/?p=405"},"modified":"2011-03-24T15:47:10","modified_gmt":"2011-03-24T19:47:10","slug":"eruvs-god-loves-a-loophole-but-does-your-town","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2011\/03\/eruvs-god-loves-a-loophole-but-does-your-town.html","title":{"rendered":"Eruvs: God Loves a Loophole, But Does Your Town?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Covering religion requires an open mind. I’ve written about all sorts of faith traditions in the 10 years, and not much raises my eyebrows anymore, but some things do require me to suspend disbelief more than others: celibacy-with-exceptions for Catholic priests<\/a>, ultra-Orthodox Jewish\u00a0slaughtering rituals<\/a>, Shabbos goys<\/a>, Young Earth creationism campaigns, the Westboro Baptist Church’s highly educated members<\/a>, the extent to which people of faith will shelter and defend criminals in their midst,\u00a0etc.<\/p>\n

Eruvs, however, fall into\u00a0a “really?!” category all their own, at least for me.<\/p>\n

In a nutshell<\/a>, Jews traditionally believe that observing the Sabbath means not doing any work on that\u00a0 day, which\u00a0in modern times prohibits plenty: driving, riding elevators, flipping light\u00a0switches, walking the dog, pushing a wheelchair, pushing a stroller, even carrying your house keys or\u00a0baby. For some activities, Jews can get a Christian to oblige them — see “Shabbos Goy” above. But since pushing\/carrying activities are permitted within your home, an\u00a0eruv (pronounced AY-roov)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Manhattan's eruv, among power lines.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0lets you wheel Bubbe and the kids to synagogue by symbolically extending your property boundaries, using existing fences and running a wire or string continuously around\u00a0the desired\u00a0neighborhood\/city.\u00a0Jewish officials have to inspect it\u00a0before every Sabbath to make sure it’s still kosher.<\/p>\n

Apparently, God loves a loophole. (I have several Jewish friends who shrug when I ask about this, and say, “That’s why we make good lawyers.”)<\/p>\n

But towns rarely applaud a proposed eruv, though it more or less blends into existing telephone wires and power lines, because of fears that it may prompt an influx of ultra-Orthodox Jews, which could change the character of a community — perhaps only cosmetically, perhaps in more serious ways, such as in public school funding disputes<\/a>. Eruv supporters, in turn, say it’s a matter of religious freedom, and reiterate that most people don’t even know it’s there. (There are eruvin — the proper plural of eruv — all over the world, including dozens of American cities<\/a>\u00a0and suburbs.)<\/p>\n

Anyway, last night’s Daily Show With Jon Stewart did a bit about the controversy <\/a>over the proposed Westhampton eruv<\/a>. Check it out:<\/p>\n

\n
\n

The Daily Show<\/a><\/strong>
\nTags: Daily Show Full Episodes<\/a>,Political Humor & Satire Blog<\/a>,The Daily Show on Facebook<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

What do you think? Share your thoughts in the Comments section below.<\/p>\n

*Click here to\u00a0subscribe to Belief Beat\u00a0<\/strong><\/a>and\u00a0click here to\u00a0follow Belief Beat on Twitter<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Covering religion requires an open mind. I’ve written about all sorts of faith traditions in the 10 years, and not much raises my eyebrows anymore, but some things do require me to suspend disbelief more than others: celibacy-with-exceptions for Catholic priests, ultra-Orthodox Jewish\u00a0slaughtering rituals, Shabbos goys, Young Earth creationism campaigns, the Westboro Baptist Church’s highly…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nEruvs: God Loves a Loophole, But Does Your Town? - Belief Beat<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2011\/03\/eruvs-god-loves-a-loophole-but-does-your-town.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Eruvs: God Loves a Loophole, But Does Your Town? - Belief Beat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Covering religion requires an open mind. I’ve written about all sorts of faith traditions in the 10 years, and not much raises my eyebrows anymore, but some things do require me to suspend disbelief more than others: celibacy-with-exceptions for Catholic priests, ultra-Orthodox Jewish\u00a0slaughtering rituals, Shabbos goys, Young Earth creationism campaigns, the Westboro Baptist Church’s highly…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2011\/03\/eruvs-god-loves-a-loophole-but-does-your-town.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Belief Beat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-03-24T16:05:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-03-24T19:47:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beliefbeat\/files\/2011\/03\/336198701_09cd3717e3.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nicole Neroulias\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Eruvs: God Loves a Loophole, But Does Your Town? - Belief Beat","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2011\/03\/eruvs-god-loves-a-loophole-but-does-your-town.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Eruvs: God Loves a Loophole, But Does Your Town? - Belief Beat","og_description":"Covering religion requires an open mind. 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