Eruv

[magid]

I'd gotten the email that the eruv would be down for Y"K. Not great, but knowing in advance is good.

I just got another email:

Rabbi Klapper has determined the following: "The North Charles Community
Eruv can be presumed up for tonight, (the night of Yom Kippur), but must
be presumed down as of 6 am tomorrow morning, (Yom Kippur day)".

Eeeenteresting. It's good for the nursing moms, if they want to make it to Kol Nidrei.

Comments

[frobzwiththingz.livejournal.com]

I've always found the whole Eruv concept to be a *fascinating* example of "spirit vs letter of the law". I just read some of the Boston Eruv Corporations' web page. the following explanation is given on it:

It is certainly impractical to consider erecting a solid, continuous, metal, stone, or wooden wall around portions of a city, crossing streets, sidewalks, etc. There is, in fact, a straightforward alternative. The conceptual basis for this alternative begins with the definition of a "doorway". A common doorway is comprised of two parts, the two doorposts on each side (the vertical members) and the lintel (the horizontal member). If one considers a wall separating two rooms in a house, it is certainly reasonable to say that even though a doorway opening exists in a wall (say between a living room and dining room), that the solid portion extending on each side of the opening is still a wall. Now, if additional doorway openings are placed in the wall, one may still maintain that the wall is still a wall, it merely has a lot of open space in it. In the limiting case, which is the case critical to the construction of an Eruv in a modern city, the "wall" can be thought of as being comprised of a wall containing many doorway openings and having very little of the solid wall remaining. In this case, the door post function can be fulfilled by telephone (utility) poles (the vertical members) and the lintel requirement can be met (generally) by existing cables strung between the poles. Thus, if the enclosure necessary for the Eruv can utilize existing utility (telephone/electric/cable) poles and their associated wires, and, in addition, existing natural boundaries and fences, then an appropriate perimeter may already be definable and may serve as a basis for the erection of an Eruv boundary

This makes me want to write a Shaggy Dog story about an Eruv, ending in some horrible pun involving the Cantor Set (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantor_set).
(It's target audience, unfortunately would consist solely of Jewish Mathematicians)

[(Anonymous)]

Wow, I hadn't gotten to the last paragraph, hadn't even gotten through the long quoted portion, when I began to think how this sounded like a mathematical proof to me, perhaps combinatorial. Then I get past the quoted portion and to the last paragraph! Heh!

Thank for sharing that. I never got why what didn't seem to be a wall could be a wall. I don't think I've ever seen such mathematical halachic reasoning. That was cool.

[fairdice.livejournal.com]

Ow ow ow. (Erm, yes, audience member here...)

[magid.livejournal.com]

The two big workarounds that I can think of are an eruv, and selling one's chametz (leavened foods) for the duration of Passover.

I know a couple of people in the target audience for your shaggy dog story (though I've already groaned at your punniness).

[fj.livejournal.com]

Kol Nidrei

Allright, now you're just making stuff up to sound like a Bene Gesserit.







(Yes, I know I could Google it.)

[pinkfish.livejournal.com]

Actually, when I googled it, I got some sites about how controversial the meaning of this service is.

So - what is it?

[magid.livejournal.com]

(See reply to FJ!!!)

It's controversial because we're nullifying in advance, which is a bit tricky.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Bene Gesserit? Sounds Ethiopian, but otherwise I don't have a clue.

(Yes, I know I could Google it :-).


Kol Nidrei is the very beginning of the evening service starting Yom Kippur. The chazan (person leading prayers) repeats a paragraph that starts with the words "kol nidrei" ("all vows") three times (to give it more force, I believe). The paragraph says that all vows, oaths, and (there are other words of vowing in Hebrew, and they're all different, but in English, it's not as distinctive, and I can't think of other words, so put something here) we may swear (lots of similar words again) from this Yom Kippur until the next are hereby null and void (more language repeating this idea). Taking a vow is a very serious business, and what one says as a promise must be kept, so this is a preemptive strike on keeping people from breaking their word. Some religious people always tack "bli neder" (without a promise) when they say they'll do something in the future, to avoid the possibility of breaking their word.

OK, it's not quite the beginning of the service. Before that there's a statement that with the approval of the Omnipresent and of the congregation, we sanction prayer with the transgressors. Which would be all of us, I believe...

Er, enough information?

[fetteredwolf.livejournal.com]

Bene Gesserit? Read Dune. It's too complicated to explain.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I did, sometime not too long ago (within the last two years, anyway), for the first time. Obviously didn't stick with me much...