Thursday, December 23, 2010

Eruvin in the News: Far Rockaway/Lawrence, NY 2

The Five Towns Eiruv: The Inside Story

By Menachem Kagan

Neither rain nor snow nor sleet nor hail . . . This article is not about the U.S. Postal Service, but about the Five Towns eiruv. Like mail carriers, the individuals who make sure the eiruv is up each week work through all kinds of weather—sometimes with a cooler full of drinks, other times with raincoats and layers of warm clothes—ensuring that any problems with the eiruv are fixed in time for Shabbos. Maintaining the eiruv involves two steps: carefully checking the eiruv every week, and hours of maintenance to fix the myriad of problems that arise. The checkers are mostly volunteers from the Yeshiva Gedolah of the Five Towns. “I feel fortunate to have the z’chus to enhance so many peoples’ oneg Shabbos. It must be that the others feel this way as well, because no one ever complains—even when the weather is particularly bad and we’re sloshing through the snow in our boots while most people are warm and dry inside,” said one of the kollel members. The checking involves many of the bachurim and kollel members. “If you happen to be at the Yeshiva Gedolah’s parking lot at the right time you can see them all pile into cars and drive off in all directions!” said another kollel member. The checkers are organized and overseen by the maintenance crew, who are constantly conferred with regarding different changes and problems. Read on...

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PART 3: THE TRUTH REGARDING THE STAMFORD HILL ERUV

Their argument: But the Mishnah Berurah argues that most poskim uphold asu rabbim u’mevatlei mechitzta , so according to most poskim the...