What Is This Mysterious Thin Wire That Besieged Manhattan?

Judaism has a day called the Sabbath, on which people are prohibited from doing any physical work. According to this belief, people can only do work at home, for example, they can cook and eat, but they are not allowed to work outside. This belief has caused Manhattan and many other regions to be surrounded by fishing lines today. How Does? Let’s explain.

According to Judaism, Saturday is the Sabbath day and there is no work on that day. The reason for this belief is that the Earth was created in 6 days. Jehovah, the god who created the world (there are also forms such as YHVH, Yahveh), rested on Saturday, the 7th day. For this reason, while Jews celebrate this day, Orthodox Jews do not do any work that day.

What is the limit of doing nothing?

The job description in the Jewish faith and the job description in physics are quite similar here.

The no-work rule, which is the basis of the Sabbath belief, is written as follows:

“Six days of work will be done, but the seventh day is a holy Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord; whoever does any work on the Sabbath will certainly be punished by death. The Sabbath is a sign between me and the Israelites forever. For the Lord will bring heaven and earth in six days.” created, and on the seventh day he left work and rested.”- Exodus 31:12-17

There are 39 prohibitions on the Sabbath day, and these prohibitions include writing more than 2 letters, carrying an item from one place to another, carrying your baby in your arms or for a ride in the car, taking your keys or cell phone when leaving the house. You know, we haven’t even come to things like planting and knitting. Even the Sabbath meal has to be prepared in advance, you cannot cook that day. It is also forbidden to light a fire. On that day, you can only get together with your family, go to the Synagogue and read the Torah and commemorate God.

So what is this Eruv?

The courtyards of the houses are also included in the houses on the Sabbath. Sabbath rules in the home are more flexible. For example, you can carry glasses and dishes in the house, and you can take your child for a walk. Or if you are old, you can travel with your walking stick. In order for you to do this on the street, common areas called Erüv have been created.

Technically, the Eruv is a communal area made up of combined private ones, indicating that the Jews living in the area considered it their home. It is used as an abbreviation of the term Eruv Chatzerot, meaning to unite different regions, to create a single region. For example, the island of Manhattan was surrounded by a single wire and turned into a giant courtyard, an Erüv.

Do you need to pull the fishing line? Couldn’t they have chosen the street?

Natural borders can be used for eruv. For example, if there is a river, that river can be considered as a border of Erüv. The parts that do not close naturally are marked with columns and thresholds. The method they use for this is to mark the Erüv region with fishing lines. The reason why they do not use the existing electrical wires is the requirement that “the beam passes over the columns”. Although the wires do not pass over the poles, the fishing line can be passed.

In fact, not only the fishing line, but also the poles themselves need to be sewn specially for Erüv. Where this is not possible, for example in Manhattan, the Jews solve this problem by adding their own small Eruv pillars on top of the pillars.

What if that line is broken, then what happens?

So that this line is not disrupted, every Friday, the rabbis and religious officials, together with a construction company, visit the entire Eruv line to check that the line is intact, and if there is a problem along the 29-kilometer line, they repair the line accordingly. The annual cost of this job for Manhattan Jews is 150 thousand dollars. They meet this through donations they collect and sponsors.

Manhattan is not the only Eruv district in the world. Many regions in the USA and Europe are separated as the Eruv region by similar methods. It is stated that the total number of Eruvians in the world is over 200.