created 2025-06-30, & modified, =this.modified
rel: Islands
A ritual enclosure made for the purpose of allowing activities normally prohibited, such as “carrying objects from a private to semi-public domain, transporting objects four cubits or more within a semi-public domain”.
An eruv accomplishes this by symbolically integrating a number of private properties and spaces such as streets and sidewalks into one larger “private domain” by surrounding it with partitions.
The term eruv is a shortening of eruv chatzerot (עירוב חצרות), literally a “merger of [different] domains” (into a single domain). This makes carrying within the area enclosed by the eruv no different from carrying within a single private domain (such as a house owned by an individual), which is permitted.
A Fishing Line Encircles Manhattan, Protecting Sanctity Of Sabbath
This fishing line, barely visible between Manhattan buildings, is an eruv, used by observant Jews to create a symbolic domestic perimeter for the Sabbath.
Manhattan’s costs $125-150K to maintain
Every Thursday before dawn, a rabbi drives the perimeter, checking to see if wind or a fallen branch has broken the line. There are usually a few breaks, so a construction company is called and the rabbi gets in a cherry picker with fishing line in hand to repair the eruv. That’s the part that costs so much.