Tuesday, June 25, 2019

Part 13 - Lakewood Eruvin: The Truth


8 š

The Kuntres: The Outstanding Quality of Small Local Eiruvin
The problems of a large eiruv are specific to a large-scale undertaking. It should be noted that in almost all cases a small local eiruv in Lakewood can be constructed in a manner that is halachically tenable according to all opinions, and virtually problem free.
Rebuttal: I reiterate, the community wide eruv is not considered a large city eruv, and if, “a small local eiruv in Lakewood can be constructed in a manner that is halachically tenable according to all opinions, and virtually problem free,” then a community wide eruv can be virtually problem free, as well. 

The Kuntres: {Footnote 5 - Even a small eiruv that includes “thoroughfare streets" has the same issue as a large eiruv that includes such streets. However small local eiruvin can often be constructed in a manner that avoids thoroughfare streets. [A Rav should be contacted to verify the status of a given street].}
Rebuttal: Now the Baal Hakuntres is modeh al haemes, that small and large eruvin in Lakewood can share the same properties.  As mentioned above, even if we would accept that some roads in Lakewood are classified as sratyas, the overwhelming majority of poskim would require that they would need to fulfill the criterion of shishim ribo to be classified as a reshus harabbim.

The Kuntres: These eiruvin afford us with a commendable extra measure of oneg Shabbos, without lowering anyone's standards.
Rebuttal: How much more so would a community wide eruv afford us an extra measure of oneg Shabbos without lowering anyone's standards?  

The Kuntres: {Footnote 6 -  It is important to point out, that any eiruv large or small cannot be relied upon, unless it was constructed and is maintained under the guidance of a Rav Hamachshir, who is properly versed in the halochos of eiruvin and their practical application.}
Rebuttal: Correct. This is required for all hechsherim. However, it would be much easier to have one eruv under the guidance of one Rav Hamachshir.  

The Kuntres: The Problem of Inadvertently Carrying Past The Eiruv Boundaries of a Small Eiruv
As mentioned earlier, an argument has been put forth, that chilul Shabbos can easily occur when people inadvertently walk past the boundaries of their neighborhood eiruv.
This problem, is caused by the fact that people are supposed to find out about the boundaries of the eiruv from an "eiruv map", that is placed in shul, or given out to all families that live within the eiruv. This is highly inadequate because many people are not proficient at "reading" and memorizing maps. An effective way to familiarize people with the eiruv, is by having every head of household show his family where the tzuros hapesach of the eiruv are, and educate them minimally as to how the eiruv works. This "eiruv awareness" can be accomplished on one Shabbos walk and will certainly greatly reduce inadvertent" carrying" outside of the eiruv.
Based on all of the above, it seems clear, that there are tremendous halachic advantages to smaller eiruvin that avoid the abovementioned issues over larger eiruvin.
Rebuttal: A much simpler idea would be to establish a larger eruv, in which case there would be no danger that people would carry out of the boundaries. Furthermore, it would negate the issue of people, after having left the boundaries of their local eruv, realizing that they overlooked something in their pockets. Therefore, there are clear benefits and no downsides to a community wide eruv.

The Kuntres: As far as the possibility of maintaining both one large eiruv and many small ones, if families contribute to the maintenance of a large eiruv, they will often not contribute toward the construction of a local eiruv as well.
Rebuttal: No harm will be done if the small eruvin are discontinued. In any case, those who believe that a small eruv is more scrupulous would no doubt find a way to finance them.

The Kuntres: In summation: A) We mustn't lose sight of the fact that an act of ho'tza'ah is a full-fledged act of chilul Shabbos; a very severe issur. As mentioned earlier, carrying in a street that is not enclosed with a valid eiruv is an act that can very easily be ho'tza'ah de'oraysa.
Rebuttal: And regarding this issue, we gain nothing from a small eruv and only gain with a larger one. Moreover, according to the majority of poskim, once a tzuras hapesach is erected the matter is only d’rabbanan.

The Kuntres: B) There is certainly room to argue, that one may construct and carry in large eiruvin even today, based on the minhag. However, as we have demonstrated, there is clearly very good reason, based on sound halachic grounds, to avoid constructing and using them today, whenever possible.
Rebuttal: This Kuntres demonstrates that the author is grasping at straws. The same halachic grounds that allow the neighborhood eruvin would allow the community wide eruv. They are both small by large city eruv standards. 

The Kuntres: C) In Lakewood today, it is generally possible to construct small local eiruvin that will allow us to enjoy the outdoors on Shabbos in a halachically "mehudar" fashion, without having to compromise our standards in any way.
Rebuttal: The larger eruv would allow even greater oneg Shabbos without any compromise since there is no halachic differences between the large and small eruvin.

The Kuntres: D) When weighing the halachic advantages of smaller eiruvin over larger ones, it seems difficult to argue, that the halachic benefits of the larger eiruvin versus smaller ones, outweigh the severe halachic limitations that are inherent to the larger eiruvin.
Rebuttal: There is no halachic advantage of smaller eruvin over larger ones in Lakewood; even the larger eruv is small by large city eruv standards.  There are clear benefits to a larger eruv as outlined in Section One, 1.

The Kuntres: E) The clear directive of, the Shulchn.n Aruch Harav, Cluzyai Adam, Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, and Mishna Brura is that "a G-d fearing person should be stringent in this matter" [to consider a street a reshus horrabim even if it does not service 600,000 people]. As mentioned earlier, this directive was given even in Europe when this presented great difficulty. We can fairly assume, that the abovementioned Poskim would strongly encourage this attitude as much as possible, in our situation in Lakewood today. May we be   זוכהto be  מקיים the  mitzva of שבת  properly, and thereby be  זוכהto be mekabel .פני משיח צדקינו במהרה בימינו אמן
Rebuttal: I reiterate, the Shulchan Aruch Harav did not write these words, and these poskim would probably admit that since we now know that the overwhelming majority of Rishonim uphold the criterion of shishim ribo there is no doubt that we can rely on this fundament l’chatchilah. Moreover, these poskim would allow that we can rely on the criterion of mefulash u’mechavanim l’chatchilah. In any case, besides for establishing eruvin due to great difficulties, there are additional rationales (as I have mentioned in Section One, 1), and there are no halachic grounds to object to a community wide eruv.     
The Navi states v’karasa L’Shabbos oneg, and as the Perishah posits, the ability to utilize eruvin is a matter of oneg Shabbos.  May we be zocheh to fulfill the mitzva of oneg Shabbos properly.

No comments:

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...