Does anybody live in an eruv?

[namechange655]

How religiously observant/sociable do you have to be to fit in? What is the ratio of J:NJ in yours? Or alternatively, have you moved out of one and if so, why?
Thanks

Isn’t most of North London in one? Not Jewish and it makes no difference to us day to day 😀

Thank you. Did you live in the area prior to the eruv being set up? Have more J families moved in since the eruv was established?

I think it was already there. No idea about population changes - there’s always been a relatively high Jewish population round here.

This is such a strange question. Which area do you specifically want to live in? Are you Jewish? The eruv is irrelevant. Why on earth would you need to be sociable in an area with an eruv. It's an invisible wire designed to help orthodox families use pushchairs and the like. The North West London eruv is 6.5 square miles wide.

I used to live in an area of North London that has one (which may well have been part of the large area described by a PP above), there was a very large hassidic Jewish population. Didn't affect me one little bit other than I found it quite interesting once I understood what it was. Surely day to day the only people affected by it are the people for whom it matters in terms of their religion?

Specifically, a house has come out for sale on the edge of the eruv. Dh is non observant and would want to freely enter and leave the eruv. However, this would make him really conspicuous and while he is not bothered, I suppose that I am.

I don't think, if you are not Jewish, living in an eruv will affect your life at all- it is not intended to. It's a means of allowing Jews to move things around within an area when they would be prohibited from doing so by the rules of Shabbat. Nothing to do with you if you aren't Jewish. You can't see it, you don't have to follow any rules.

I would add that he has Hasidic ancestry so that is why I think it would offend some.

Again what do you mean he would ' be conspicuous leaving and entering'. Am eruv isn't a walled city (anymore). It's usually a near invisible wire. He can come and go as he pleases. Do you understand what an eruv is?

It’s just an area delineated by aerial wires that makes life easier for some Orthodox Jews (apologies for non-technical wording and any inaccuracy!). You could be going in and out of them every day without a clue. Literally 100,000s people would pass through the NW London one every week. I really don’t think you have anything to worry about.

Yes, I know. but the occupiers of the immediately neighbouring houses will observe him doing this openly and find it disrespectful due to their common ancestry. I think I am going to discount the house because it is so close to the boundary.

Observe him doing what? It's got nothing to do with an eruv. If he feels uncomfortable living next to Orthodox Jews and driving on a Saturday it makes literally no difference if that's in or out of an eruv.

Your comments about common ancestry are also a little offensive I'm afraid. How would they even know he's Jewish? Jewish people don't automatically judge people who don't do as they do. I would imagine the neighbours couldn't care less. An eruv is not a ghetto btw.

Rabbi Hillel’s one sentence summary of Judaism was “What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour; the rest is commentary” (Shabbat 31a). This is maybe toe most quoted précis of Jewish teaching because it rightly puts the emphasis on one’s relationships with other people. Behaving badly towards others is as much a denial of God as blaspheming against God directly.

Any neighbours who blamed your non observant husband for not following their way of life, and treated him badly, would be falling short of Jewish standards (Orthodox, Reform, Liberal, whatever) in a biblical sense as well as a social sense. Your husband is not an observant Orthodox or Hasidic Jew. he is not bound by an eruv any more than any non-Jew.

And what do you mean about being "close to the boundary"? Seriously PLEASE look up what an eruv is. Your comments are dangerously misleading to other people and imply that Jews live in some kind of closed ghetto with edges beyond which the real world exists.

@LondonMummer

Your comments are dangerously misleading to other people and imply that Jews live in some kind of closed ghetto

I can see this thread having a fairly short life...

How would he be more 'conspicuous' than a Catholic, Muslim, Buddhist, Sikh, Jane, Ba'hai, Methodist, Quaker, or atheist walking up that street? I'm worried that you are hinting that your alleged husband is 'Jewish looking', which would put a definite certain complexion on this thread that you started.

We are non-observant and live in an eruv in North West London. It had honestly never occurred to me that people would be judging me. The population is mixed and some people probably don’t even know the eruv exists. To them it is just another wire, if they notice it all.

Oh, is THAT's what this is about? I was geniunely wondering whether the OP somehow thought the eruv was some kind of wall...

@Annipeck

Oh, is THAT's what this is about?

I am getting a definite whiff of that.

A Jewish man is driving his cart on the Sabbath. He sees the rabbi walking to shul. “I’m sorry for driving on the Sabbath, rabbi, but I am very poor and my children are hungry”.

“Tell me” says the rabbi “do you ever give people rides to work on your cart, perhaps on credit or even for free?”

“Yes rabbi! I do that almost every day!”

“Then you do not need to worry about driving on the Sabbath”.

Huge apologies for ignorance, but I've never heard the word Eric before so I've just googled it.

I understand it's to enable e.g. wheelchair users or mums with prams to still attend synagogue, but it sounds just like one massive dodge of the rules?

Isn't a better answer that the rules are no longer fir for purpose in modern society?

I know this is a can of worms, and no wish to derail, but I was curious so I've been looking and it's what occurs to me.

Huge apologies for ignorance, but I've never heard the word Eric before so I've just googled it.

I understand it's to enable e.g. wheelchair users or mums with prams to still attend synagogue, but it sounds just like one massive dodge of the rules?

Isn't a better answer that the rules are no longer fir for purpose in modern society?

I know this is a can of worms, and no wish to derail, but I was curious so I've been looking and it's what occurs to me.

With thanks to autocorrect for introducing Eric and mn for posting it twice 🤦‍♀️

@HJ40

I've never heard the word Eric before so I've just googled it.

Haven't you heard of Eric Idle? Sheesh. Young people today.