Questions About Carrying and the Crown Heights Eruv
The practical position in Crown Heights is straightforward: the Crown Heights Beis Din does not accept the promoted neighborhood eruv and has repeatedly ruled that carrying in the streets of Crown Heights and its vicinity is forbidden on Shabbos and Yom Kippur. The questions below give the short answer to the points that most often require clarification, with links to the pages where each subject is treated in full.
Crown Heights today
Is there an eruv in Crown Heights?
There is a physical boundary promoted publicly as a Crown Heights eruv, but it is not accepted by the Crown Heights Beis Din. For practical halacha in the neighborhood, the local Rabbonim have ruled that one may not rely on it for carrying.
See The Crown Heights Eruv and the Crown Heights rabbinic rulings.
May one carry in Crown Heights on Shabbos?
No. The Crown Heights Beis Din has repeatedly ruled that carrying in the neighborhood streets and transferring between domains is forbidden on Shabbos.
That includes ordinary carrying for convenience. Questions involving a child, asking another person to carry, or unusual circumstances have their own halachos and do not create a general permission to carry in the street.
See Practical Halachos of Carrying in Crown Heights.
Does the ruling also apply on Yom Kippur?
Yes. The local rulings expressly prohibit carrying in Crown Heights and its vicinity on both Shabbos and Yom Kippur.
See Carrying on Yom Kippur in Crown Heights.
What an eruv does
What does an eruv permit?
A valid eruv can permit carrying within an area that halacha recognizes as properly enclosed. The familiar city eruv actually involves more than one halachic component: a valid physical enclosure and, where required, eruv chatzeiros or shitufei mevo'os joining the residents' domains.
An eruv does not permit carrying merely because poles and wires have been installed. The status of the streets and the validity of the complete enclosure must first be established.
See What Makes an Eruv Valid and Eruv Chatzeiros.
If establishing an eruv is a mitzvah, why is carrying prohibited in Crown Heights?
The mitzvah of eruv does not remove the conditions that make an eruv valid. The Alter Rebbe's discussion of pursuing an eruv includes eruvei chatzeiros and shitufei mevo'os, which operate within an area that is halachically capable of being enclosed.
Where the local Rabbonim rule that a proposed city eruv may not be relied upon, the mitzvah of eruv cannot be used to declare that enclosure valid or to override their psak. Crown Heights therefore follows the local ruling prohibiting carrying.
See The Purpose and Mitzvah of Eruv and When an Eruv Is Valid.
What makes an eruv valid
What makes an eruv valid?
Validity depends on the halachic status of the area and on the complete construction and maintenance of the enclosure. Among the questions are whether any street is a reshus harabim, whether tzuras hapesach is sufficient, whether walls and gaps count as claimed, how wide street openings are treated, whether gates are required, and whether the communal eruv and sechiras reshus requirements have been fulfilled.
These are not interchangeable questions. A correct wire cannot cure a domain that requires actual walls and gates, and a correct general design can still fail if a necessary section is broken.
See What Makes an Eruv Valid and Physical Enclosure and Tzuras Hapesach.
Does a weekly inspection establish that an eruv is valid?
No. A weekly inspection is an important part of maintaining an eruv whose halachic basis and construction are already valid. It can establish the condition of the portions actually inspected at the time they were checked.
Inspection by itself does not decide the halachic status of the streets, prove that the original route satisfies all requirements, resolve disputed walls or openings, or supply the approval of the competent local Rabbonim. An enclosure can also be damaged after it was inspected.
See Weekly Eruv Inspection and Rabbinic Authority.
Reshus harabim and shishim ribo
What is reshus harabim?
A reshus harabim is a Torah-level public domain. Its definition involves the character and width of public streets, their openness and use, surrounding walls and gates, and, according to a major line of poskim, shishim ribo.
If a place is a true reshus harabim, an ordinary tzuras hapesach of poles and wires is not enough according to the Alter Rebbe's ruling. That is why classifying the streets comes before discussing the craftsmanship of the perimeter.
See Reshus Harabim in a Modern City and Definition of Reshus Harabim.
What does shishim ribo mean?
Shishim ribo means six hundred thousand. The major dispute is not over the number itself but over how it enters the definition of reshus harabim: whether the relevant count is tied to a street, to daily passage, to the population served by the public streets, or to another formulation found in the poskim.
Those differences matter greatly in a city such as New York, so the phrase should not be reduced to a single traffic statistic without first establishing the halachic definition being used.
See What Does Shishim Ribo Mean? and Population and Traffic.
Is there a position that no reshus harabim exists today?
Yes. The Alter Rebbe records the opinion that a place without shishim ribo is not a full reshus harabim and notes that the custom in his countries relied on that view. He also records the stringent position and says that a yerei shamayim should be stringent for himself.
The existence of the lenient position does not end the discussion. One must still determine what its shishim ribo condition means and whether a modern metropolis satisfies it.
See The Position That There Is No Reshus Harabim Today and The Alter Rebbe and Shishim Ribo.
The Rebbe
What did the Rebbe say about publicizing eruvin in large cities?
In his Manhattan correspondence, the Rebbe wrote that where an eruv is halachically feasible, the danger of later failure and ineffective public notification must be taken seriously. He therefore said that such an eruv, if made, should be kept in the utmost secrecy and should not induce Shabbos-observant Jews to begin carrying.
Other letters and responses apply that concern in different local settings. The Rebbe also repeatedly insisted that the place must first qualify according to halacha and that local conditions be investigated by competent Rabbonim.
See The Rebbe on Publicizing an Eruv in a Large City and The Rebbe on Local Knowledge and an Expert Rav.
What about Kfar Chabad and other communities with accepted eruvin?
An accepted eruv in another community shows that eruvin can and should be made where the local halachic conditions permit them. It does not establish that Crown Heights has the same streets, population, walls, openings, rabbinic authority, or other conditions.
The Rebbe's responses concerning different communities must therefore be read in their own settings rather than combined into one rule for every city.
See The Rebbe and Eruvin in Other Communities and The Rebbe and the Eruv in Kfar Chabad.
Rav Moshe and the Rabbonim
What did Rav Moshe Feinstein rule concerning Manhattan and Brooklyn?
Rav Moshe Feinstein repeatedly rejected the proposed Manhattan eruv and treated the city's reshus harabim questions as fundamental. In the later Brooklyn record, he wrote that it was forbidden to establish an eruv in Brooklyn, including in a part of Brooklyn such as Flatbush, and his ruling was incorporated into the broader rabbinic proclamations of 5739.
His responsa contain detailed reasoning and distinctions that should be read directly rather than reduced to one sentence.
See Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, Rav Moshe Feinstein on Manhattan, and Rav Moshe Feinstein's Brooklyn Rulings.
Medical and mobility needs
How should medical or mobility needs be handled on Shabbos?
Medical, safety, and mobility needs have their own halachos. They are not resolved by assuming that the promoted Crown Heights eruv is accepted. Where pikuach nefesh applies, saving life overrides Shabbos; other recurring medical or mobility needs may require arrangements made before Shabbos or a specific halachic solution for the individual situation.
See Medical and Mobility Needs on Shabbos in Crown Heights and Preparing for Shabbos.