Is There An Eruv Near You?

I was in LA to visit my mom one Saturday, and while driving through Westwood one afternoon, she asked if I noticed the wire running overhead at the intersection of Veteran and Wilshire. I said I had not noticed it, and had no idea what it was there for. She told me it was one of the boundaries for the Westwood Eruv. "What in the world is an Eruv?" I said. Mom proceeded to explain to me what she had recently learned about an eruv. I was intrigued to learn more about this ritual enclosure and what it's purpose is, so here's a little of what I found out.

An eruv is a ritual enclosure that some communities construct in their neighborhoods as a way to permit Jewish residents or visitors to carry certain objects outside their own homes on Sabbath and Yom Kippur. The eruv allows religious Jews to carry house keys, medicines, and use strollers and canes. The absence or presence of an eruv affects the lives of people with limited mobility or those with small children.

There are 39 categories of activity prohibited on Shabbat, including moving objects, using a cane or wheelchair, using medication, wearing jewelry, carrying keys, carrying prayer books. Demarcation of symbolic walls for an eruv could be telephone poles, street lights or streets. These boundaries must be complete and contiguous in every element, and are checked frequently.

Eruvs exist throughout the world, in countries and cities on all continents. In the US there are several ongoing disputes between various Orthodox groups, as to whether certain boundaries are valid. For example, in Manhattan (NY), some rabbis dispute the validity of the eruv because it borders an estuary that is connected to the Atlantic Ocean, and not a reinforced wall. In San Diego there are two eruvs. One is in the College Area, the other in La Jolla. Check reference data online for exact boundaries, if you're interested.

In Israel, almost every Jewish community is enclosed by an eruv. Outside Israel, there are thousands of private ones enclosing only a few homes or neighborhood. Most major cities in North America have at least one, often surrounding only the Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods rather than the entire city. None of the information I read explained how and why eruvs came to be. I suppose it was to make life easier for Orthodox Jews, who pretty much stop everything from Friday night until Sunday morning. Within the walls of the eruv, life can go on as usual for Jews, and they are not breaking with tradition, as the eruv protects them. It's a concept I don't fully understand, and if anyone out there does, please let me know. I'd never heard the word "eruv" until a few months ago, and didn't know that I'd been living within the walls of the Westwood eruv for years. If this interests you as it did me, find out where the boundaries are in La Jolla and look for the wires. They're there, and they mean that life goes on for Orthodox Jews on the Sabbath within these symbolic walls.