Rabbinic Rulings on Carrying in Crown Heights, 2015–2026
The practical ruling of the Crown Heights Rabbonim is that there is no accepted eruv in Crown Heights and that carrying in the neighborhood streets is prohibited. This was stated publicly before the eruv now advertised for the neighborhood was established, stated again when the issue became public in 2016, and repeated in later rulings.
The documents do not all have the same form. Some are signed psakim or letters of the Crown Heights Beis Din. Rabbi Avrohom Osdoba also issued a signed clarification on his own letterhead, and Rabbis Avrohom Osdoba and Shlomo Yehuda Halevi Segal issued a separate signed notice. The Beis Din's Tishrei guides are institutional halachic guides rather than individually signed psak letters. Later rulings also refer to the positions of earlier Rabbonim who are not signers of those later pages. Those distinctions matter when tracing who said what, but the practical instruction itself is stated repeatedly and directly.
Carrying in Crown Heights is prohibited
An official Crown Heights Beis Din Tishrei guide published in 5776, before the public events of 2016, gives visitors a short practical instruction:
כאן בשכונה אין עירוב, ואסור לטלטל בשבת וביו״כ.
Here in the neighborhood there is no eruv, and it is forbidden to carry on Shabbos and Yom Kippur.
The same paragraph immediately distinguishes Yom Tov, when carrying may be permitted for a Yom Tov need. Its statement about Shabbos and Yom Kippur is therefore a specific practical instruction. The notice appears in two parts of the 5776 Tishrei guide. The Crown Heights chronology places that visitor guidance alongside the signed rulings that followed.
When the question became public again in Iyar 5776, the Beis Din issued a signed ruling dated 2 Iyar. Rabbis Aharon Yaakov Schwei and Yosef Yeshaya Braun wrote:
למעשה: בשבת אסור בהחלט לטלטל ברחובות השכונה ו״העירוב״ כהנ״ל כמאן דליתא.
In practice: on Shabbos it is absolutely forbidden to carry in the streets of the neighborhood, and the above-mentioned “eruv” is treated as nonexistent.
The surviving photograph shows handwritten autographs above the printed names of Rabbi Schwei and Rabbi Braun. Read the 2 Iyar 5776 Beis Din letter in full.
A few days later, Rabbi Avrohom Osdoba issued a signed clarification dated 8 Iyar 5776. He wrote:
הרי פשוט ומובן שאין אחר דבר המלך כלום, ואסור לאף אחד לסייע או לתמוך באיזה אופן שיהיה בבניית עירוב בשכונתנו.
He states that it is forbidden for anyone to assist or support the construction of an eruv in the neighborhood in any manner. In the postscript he addresses the way an earlier letter of his had been publicized and understood, adding:
לא עלה על דעתי להסכים לבנות עירוב בשכונתנו.
He had not contemplated agreeing to the construction of an eruv in Crown Heights. Read Rabbi Osdoba's 8 Iyar clarification in full.
The following month, Rabbis Avrohom Osdoba and Shlomo Yehuda Halevi Segal issued a joint notice. Its opening is unusually direct:
בשכונה זו, קראון הייטס ... אין ״עירוב״ כשר כהלכה בכל גבולות השכונה. ובמילא אסור על כל אחד ואחת ובני ביתם וכו׳ להוציא או להכניס ולטלטל מרשות לרשות. הטלטול אסור בשבת קודש וביום הכיפורים, כדת תורתינו הקדושה.
The free English translation supplied with the document renders the substance this way:
In this community there is no kosher eruv. It is therefore forbidden for anyone to carry outdoors, both on Shabbos and Yom Kippur as the Torah instructs.
The Hebrew page bears the handwritten signatures of Rabbi Osdoba and Rabbi Segal. The second page is expressly headed “Free Translation,” so it is a supplied translation rather than a second signed ruling. Read the Sivan 5776 Osdoba-Segal ruling in full.
The Beis Din's Tishrei 5777 guides then repeated the same concise visitor instruction: כאן בשכונה אין עירוב, ואסור לטלטל בשבת וביו״כ.
A fuller treatment of the practical language appears on Carrying in Crown Heights Is Prohibited.
The eruv is treated as nonexistent
Several of the rulings go beyond saying that the Rabbonim do not recommend using the eruv. They define its practical status with the expression כמאן דליתא, literally, as though it does not exist.
The 2 Iyar 5776 ruling uses that expression in its final practical line. The signed Erev Sukkos 5782 ruling of Rabbis Osdoba and Braun repeats it:
למעשה: בשבת אסור בהחלט לטלטל ברחובות השכונה, ו״העירוב״ זה כמאן דליתא.
A free translation published with that ruling gives the meaning plainly: “It is absolutely prohibited to carry on Shabbos in the streets of Crown Heights, and the ‘eruv’ is as nonexistent.” Read the Erev Sukkos 5782 ruling in full.
The 20 Teves 5783 ruling says the same thing again after addressing a new argument concerning supposed exterior walls:
אסור בהחלט לטלטל ברחובות השכונה בשבת ו״עירוב״ זה כמאן דליתא.
That formulation gives the practical status stated by the Beis Din: the advertised eruv is not relied upon for carrying in Crown Heights. The complete technical questions concerning the physical boundary, its wires and structures, and its continuing maintenance belong to the separate treatment of the physical boundary used for the Crown Heights eruv. The fuller treatment of this part of the psak appears on The Advertised Eruv Is Treated as Nonexistent.
The ruling includes Shabbos and Yom Kippur
The explicit reference to Yom Kippur is not a late addition. It already appears in the Badatz Tishrei 5776 notice, appears again in the Osdoba-Segal ruling of Sivan 5776, and was restated in the ruling of 4 Tishrei 5786.
The 4 Tishrei 5786 letter, signed by Rabbis Osdoba and Braun, states:
בשכונת קראון הייטס וסביבותיה אסור לטלטל ברה״ר ולהוציא מרשות לרשות בשום אופן בש״ק ויום הכיפורים.
The publisher's accompanying image is explicitly marked “FREE TRANSLATION” and renders the line:
On Shabbos Kodesh and Yom Kippur, it is absolutely and categorically forbidden to carry in the streets of Crown Heights and its vicinity.
The Hebrew is somewhat more specific. It prohibits carrying in a reshus harabim and transferring from one domain to another in Crown Heights and its vicinity “in any manner” on Shabbos Kodesh and Yom Kippur. Read the 4 Tishrei 5786 ruling in full.
This distinction also explains why the Tishrei guides separately discuss Yom Tov. A permission to carry for a Yom Tov need does not create an eruv for Shabbos or Yom Kippur. See The Ruling Applies on Shabbos and Yom Kippur and the practical halachos of carrying on Yom Kippur in Crown Heights.
Exterior walls did not change the ruling
By 5783, a further basis had been publicized for the advertised eruv: claimed mechitzos, or walls, outside the neighborhood. The signed letter of 20 Teves 5783 addresses that point directly. Rabbis Osdoba and Braun first restate the earlier position of the local Beis Din as בשלילה מוחלטת, an absolute rejection, and then write:
מובן ופשוט שאין כל שינוי בשלילה מוחלטת הנ״ל, גם לאחר הפירסום ע״ד התקנת ״מחיצות״ כביכול מחוץ לשכונתנו.
The publicized claim of exterior “walls,” they state, did not alter the Beis Din's existing ruling. The letter then returns to the practical instruction that carrying in the neighborhood streets on Shabbos remains absolutely prohibited and that the eruv is treated as nonexistent. Read the 20 Teves 5783 ruling in full.
The letter does not supply, in that paragraph, a complete analysis of every wall, opening, highway, building line, embankment, or other feature used in the proposed enclosure. Those physical and halachic questions are treated on Exterior Walls and Omed Merube in Crown Heights. The ruling's own treatment is developed separately on Exterior Walls Do Not Change the Crown Heights Ruling.
The decision belongs to the local Rabbonim
A second theme appears repeatedly in the Crown Heights rulings: an eruv for a particular place cannot be separated from the Rabbonim responsible for that place and familiar with its conditions.
The 2 Iyar 5776 Beis Din letter quotes the Rebbe's formulation:
על הרבנים היודעים תנאי המקום להחליט מה מכריע במקום פלוני, לעשות או לא.
The free translation published with the letter renders this: “The rabbonim who know the local conditions are to decide ... in a certain place, to make [an eruv] or not.” The letter then states that an attempt to arrange an eruv without the consent of the local Rabbonim borders on the destruction of Yiddishkeit.
The Beis Din returned to local authority in two signed letters dated 20 and 23 Sivan 5776. The 20 Sivan letter states simply:
כאן בשכונתנו יש רק בד״צ אחד.
The 23 Sivan letter again quotes the principle that Rabbonim who know the conditions of the place must decide whether an eruv is to be made there, and adds a ruling attributed to the Shevet Halevi that the matter cannot be decided from a distance, but is in the hands of the Rabbonim of the community. The surviving photographs of both letters show the autographs of Rabbis Schwei and Braun. Read the 20 Sivan 5776 letter and the 23 Sivan 5776 letter.
The 5782 ruling again places this principle before its practical conclusion. It says that arranging an eruv without the agreement of the local Rabbonim is not made acceptable by seeking approval elsewhere. The ruling-specific discussion appears on The Authority of the Crown Heights Rabbonim. The broader halachic roles of expertise, local knowledge, construction, inspection, repair, and continuing supervision are treated on Supervision, Expertise, and Local Rabbinic Authority for a Crown Heights Eruv.
Continuity in the position of the Beis Din
The document chain involves different Rabbonim because the composition of the Beis Din changed over time and because not every statement was issued by the same body or in the same format. Continuity therefore has to be stated with the names and document forms kept straight.
The 2015 visitor notice was issued in the name of the Crown Heights Badatz. The guide says it was prepared from shiurim of Rabbi Yosef Yeshaya Braun, but the eruv paragraph is not an individually signed psak. In 2016, the 2 Iyar ruling and the two Sivan authority letters were visibly signed by Rabbis Aharon Yaakov Schwei and Yosef Yeshaya Braun. Rabbi Avrohom Osdoba's 8 Iyar clarification is a separate signed letter. The Sivan notice concerning carrying is signed by Rabbis Avrohom Osdoba and Shlomo Yehuda Halevi Segal.
The 5782 ruling is especially explicit about continuity. Rabbis Osdoba and Braun write that the position of the local Rabbonim and members of the Beis Din had already been publicized, naming themselves, Rabbi Schwei, and, earlier, Rabbi Zalman Shimon Dworkin. They characterize that position as:
בשלילה מוחלטת.
An absolute rejection.
The 5783 letter repeats the same description. These later letters state the position attributed to the earlier Beis Din, but Rabbi Schwei and Rabbi Dworkin are not signers of the 5782 or 5783 pages. The Sivan 5776 Osdoba-Segal ruling likewise states that Rabbi Dworkin had issued a clear psak in Kislev 5739 together with other poskim in the United States and Canada. That historical material is treated separately rather than turning later references into earlier autographs.
The latest signed eruv ruling in this sequence is the letter of 4 Tishrei 5786, September 26, 2025. It again instructs residents and visitors not to carry on Shabbos or Yom Kippur. As of August 2026, it remains the latest public Crown Heights Beis Din ruling specifically addressing the eruv, while the Beis Din continues to function under Rabbis Avrohom Osdoba and Yosef Yeshaya Braun.
The individual roles of Rabbi Zalman Shimon Dworkin, Rabbi Aharon Yaakov Schwei, Rabbi Avrohom Osdoba, Rabbi Yosef Yeshaya Braun, and Rabbi Shlomo Yehuda Halevi Segal are treated on their respective pages. The continuity question is developed on Continuity in the Position of the Crown Heights Beis Din.
Chronology of the rulings
The chronology supports the substance above. It also shows why the documents should not all be described simply as “signed rulings.”
| Date | Issuer or signers | What it states | Documentary form | Full document |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tishrei 5776, September 2015 | Crown Heights Badatz | “Here in the neighborhood there is no eruv,” and carrying is forbidden on Shabbos and Yom Kippur. | Official Badatz halachic guide and visitor notice. The guide was prepared from shiurim of Rabbi Yosef Yeshaya Braun. | Crown Heights chronology |
| 2 Iyar 5776, May 10, 2016 | Rabbis Aharon Yaakov Schwei and Yosef Yeshaya Braun | Carrying in the neighborhood streets on Shabbos is absolutely forbidden; the eruv is כמאן דליתא. It also places the decision in the hands of Rabbonim who know local conditions. |
Complete photographed Beis Din letter with visible handwritten autographs above both printed names. | Read in full |
| 4 Iyar 5776, May 12, 2016 | Rabbi Avrohom Osdoba | A contemporary report quotes a letter requiring a highly qualified Rav with eruv experience and the endorsement of the mara d'asra, and warning that otherwise the eruv's kashrus is highly questionable. | The contemporary report and its quotations survive, but the letter image itself has not been recovered. Four days later Rabbi Osdoba issued the signed clarification below after the first letter had been interpreted as support. | No complete primary scan established |
| 8 Iyar 5776, May 16, 2016 | Rabbi Avrohom Osdoba | Forbids assisting or supporting construction of an eruv in Crown Heights and states that he had never contemplated agreeing to its construction. | Complete photographed clarification on Rabbi Osdoba's letterhead with visible autograph. | Read in full |
| Sivan 5776 | Rabbis Avrohom Osdoba and Shlomo Yehuda Halevi Segal | States that there is no kosher eruv throughout Crown Heights and that carrying is prohibited on Shabbos and Yom Kippur. | Two-page PDF. Page one is the Hebrew notice with visible signatures; page two is explicitly a “Free Translation.” | Read in full |
| 20 Sivan 5776 | Rabbis Aharon Yaakov Schwei and Yosef Yeshaya Braun | Addresses the authority of the local Beis Din and outside involvement in communal matters. | Complete photographed Beis Din letter with visible handwritten autographs. | Read in full |
| 23 Sivan 5776 | Rabbis Aharon Yaakov Schwei and Yosef Yeshaya Braun | Applies the principle of local rabbinic authority directly to the eruv question and repeats that Rabbonim who know local conditions decide whether an eruv is to be made in that place. | Complete photographed Beis Din letter with visible handwritten autographs. | Read in full |
| Tishrei 5777 | Crown Heights Badatz | Repeats the visitor instruction that there is no eruv in the neighborhood and carrying is forbidden on Shabbos and Yom Kippur. | Institutional Badatz guides. The Hebrew visitor notice appears in Parts One, Two, and Three; the English guide PDFs do not themselves supply an English version of that appendix. | Part One, Part Two, Part Three |
| Erev Sukkos 5782, September 20, 2021 | Rabbis Avrohom Osdoba and Yosef Yeshaya Braun | Describes the local position as an “absolute rejection,” says an eruv cannot be arranged without local rabbinic agreement, and concludes that carrying on Shabbos is absolutely prohibited and the eruv is nonexistent. | Complete Beis Din notice with visible handwritten autographs. The document names Rabbis Schwei and Dworkin retrospectively; they are not signers of this page. | Read in full |
| 20 Teves 5783, January 13, 2023 | Rabbis Avrohom Osdoba and Yosef Yeshaya Braun | Says publicized exterior “walls” do not change the prior absolute rejection and repeats that carrying on Shabbos is forbidden and the eruv is nonexistent. | Complete photographed Beis Din letter with visible handwritten autographs; the available public photograph has reflections and a publisher watermark. | Read in full |
| 4 Tishrei 5786, September 26, 2025 | Rabbis Avrohom Osdoba and Yosef Yeshaya Braun | Prohibits carrying in Crown Heights and its vicinity on Shabbos and Yom Kippur and restates the authority of the local psak. | Hebrew Beis Din notice with visible handwritten autographs above both printed names. A separate publisher image is expressly marked “FREE TRANSLATION.” | Read in full |
Across these different forms, the practical instruction remains consistent: Crown Heights does not have an eruv accepted by its Rabbonim for carrying, and the advertised eruv is not to be relied upon on Shabbos or Yom Kippur.
For the broader sequence before and around these rulings, see The History of Eruvin and Carrying in Crown Heights. For ordinary objects, strollers, keys, food, and advance preparation, see Practical Halachos of Carrying in Crown Heights.