CHICAGO — An ancient tradition has been kept alive atop many of the city's power lines.
Chicago is home to three eruvs, a perimeter of wires that allows observant Jews to leave their homes and carry items and push babies in strollers to synagogue on Sabbath and Yom Kippur, but not the current Passover holiday.
The eruvs (pronounced A-ruvs), created by King Solomon almost 3,000 years ago, are boundaries that transform public areas into private ones, essentially making a large private community area.
Many Jews are not allowed to carry or push items outside their homes on the Sabbath — from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday — unless the boundaries have been extended by the eruvs.
Senior Editor Justin Breen explains why eruvs are important to observant Jews:
Ancient eruvs were literal walls, like the one in Jerusalem. Now they are constructed with separate wires atop power lines, like the three in Chicago.
"It's amazing how we could use our resources and have the city be so giving and helpful to our communities," said Rabbi Dovid Kotlarsky, director of Chabad of Lakeview. "We're not allowed to carry from a private to a public place, unless you have eruv."
The three eruvs within Chicago are: the West Rogers Park Eruv; the Lincolnwood-Peterson Park Eruv, which extends south from suburban Lincolnwood into North Park; and the Jack Strulowitz Lakefront Eruv, which includes Lakeview, Uptown and Lincoln Park. Kotlarsky said the West Rogers Park Eruv was built in 1993. The Lakefront eruv was made in 1998, and he was unsure when the Peterson Park eruv was created.
Kotlarsky said wires from the city are used for most of the neighborhood eruvs, with Lake Michigan also part of the Lakefront eruv's boundary. The city grants permission for either eruv experts — for example, Kotlarsky's brother helps build eruvs in Florida — to make the eruvs, or local Jewish leaders hire workers to construct them. Strings could be used as well, Kotlarsky said. The wires or strings need to be on top of poles to simulate a doorway, Kotlarsky said.
The eruvs are monitored weekly by either a rabbi or another Jewish leader to make sure the wires remain intact. Each of the Chicago eruvs also has a telephone hotline for people to use in case they see a downed wire, which are not live with power.
The wires must be reinstalled by sundown Friday, or observant Jews must remain in their homes if they plan to carry and push anything outside them. That could include a piece of paper or keys, Kotlarsky said. Wires occasionally fall due to weather or other factors, Kotlarsky said.
Kotlarsky said eruvs have been critical in allowing Jewish children and babies to get to temple and just enjoy a day in a city park.
"It's a beautiful, beautiful tradition," Kotlarsky said. "The idea of the eruv represents the beautiful concept of Jewish unity — how a community can become like one home, bringing thousands together. This is a message Judaism finds as a focal point: It doesn't matter who and what you are. We are one."
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