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magidI had a visitor from Worcester staying for Shabbat, so there was more impetus than had I been alone to get a bunch of stuff cooked. The dinner menu: challah, grape juice, roasted eggplant and red and yellow tomatoes, delicata squash baked with maple syrup, tomato salad, beets, and turkey thighs baked with rice and turnip greens (another tray had beet greens, but we didn't get there). Sorbet to follow. All the veggies came from the farm: I was pleased that I managed to get almost to the end of this week's share (though there is a bit left. I suppose I'll cook that tonight.) before the next wave of veggies arrives.
Shabbat morning I went to shul, for the first time in far too long.
The rabbi gave a talk before kiddush about the eruv that will soon be completed (I found out later that the construction is pretty much done, but there were a few fixes that were needed before it could be considered finished). Actually, it was a talk about the idea of an eruv, and I was impressed at how well he spoke. Not that he doesn't know his stuff, ever, but that his delivery seems to have improved from the last time I remember hearing him speak. Or perhaps it's just that I've adjusted, somehow.
Anyway. He had a couple of interesting points.
First, he pointed out that Biblically, the prohibition of carrying on Shabbat is (a) in a "public place," which is defined as somewhere 600,000 people pass through (in a day, I think, but don't cite me on it. Short amount of time, in any case.), or (b) between a public and a private place, private meaning an enclosed place owned by a person/entity. This leaves a lot of leeway, since there's a lot of spaces that are neither public nor private. The rabbis decided to expand the prohibition of a public space by including any non-enclosed space (pretty much; there are some small exceptions, not worth dealing with in this level talk), also prohibiting carrying between private domains (his example was between a condo unit and the communal areas of the building). At the same time, they also legislated a way of enclosing a space so that it is one domain, by making a wall around an area, a wall that is mostly doorways. In other words, the eruv idea that is now used, which is basically a string with some posts holding it up. Really, I suppose, I should think of it as a very long series of doorways, with the posts and lintels there... His point was that at the same time one set of stringencies was enacted, so was another set of leniencies. Why do this at all? His brief answer was so that the idea of a Biblical "public space" not be lost. Not sure I'm so convinced by this reasoning. Anyway.
Point the second. The Rambam (aka Maimonides, a major medieval Spanish rabbi) had a stringency that the posts of an eruv had to be, maximally, some smaller-than-most-eruvim-use distance apart, so if someone follows the opinions of the Rambam consistently and does not use the eruv, that is fine; it should not end up with anyone feeling frummer-than-thou. I was really glad to hear this addressed so explicitly.
Point the third. The eruv is not up unless you have found out that week that it is up. There is no presumption that it is up. (Later, we found out that there is a web site, a phone # to call, an email list, and an announcement in shul Friday night; plenty of ways of finding out whether the eruv is up or not.)
Point the fourth. The eruv should not be another way of ignoring Shabbat or letting it become less important. There are still things that one may not carry (muktzah: things which have no purpose on Shabbat. Example: a pen, since one doesn't write on Shabbat.), and things that are not appropriate to do. The community should take this opportunity to think about Shabbat, and ways that having the eruv will enhance the Shabbat experience (he mentioned house-bound parents of infants now being liberated), rather than it being less there.
It was a good talk.
Then some people who are currently working on the eruv got up and gave some other details. So JFK park is inside the eruv, but Mem Drive is out (well, parts of Mem Drive are out. The eruv goes back and forth, so as a rule of thumb, it's out. Mt. Auburn Cemetery is out. The walk around Fresh Pond is partly out, so perambulating the pond is no go unless not carrying. OTOH, the eruv goes from Fresh Pond in to Third St (near the Cambridgeside Galleria area), from Mem Drive up to Powderhouse Square. Actual maps (and other info) are at nceruv dot org (or dot com, both work, apparently).
We davened across the courtyard from our usual space, due to a bat mitzvah in another minyan. It was crowded by the end. I found out about people moving, people having babies, people's engagements, a flood of social information. I started thinking about meals for the upcoming holidays, too.
I had lunch out at friends' (and had contributed challah, a yellow watermelon, three kinds of sorbet, and a rice-chickpea-pine nut dish that turned out a bit strangely colored since I'd added za'atar and a bit too much sumak... think of magenta rice, without a hint of beet nearby... I think people were slightly freaked by the color....), which ended up being an afternoon of chatting and (later) some games. A round of Guillotine followed by my first two games of Up for Grabs, a word-forming game using hexagonal letter pieces, making words grow through anagrams. I am not particularly good at this, but it was fun.
Shabbat morning I went to shul, for the first time in far too long.
The rabbi gave a talk before kiddush about the eruv that will soon be completed (I found out later that the construction is pretty much done, but there were a few fixes that were needed before it could be considered finished). Actually, it was a talk about the idea of an eruv, and I was impressed at how well he spoke. Not that he doesn't know his stuff, ever, but that his delivery seems to have improved from the last time I remember hearing him speak. Or perhaps it's just that I've adjusted, somehow.
Anyway. He had a couple of interesting points.
First, he pointed out that Biblically, the prohibition of carrying on Shabbat is (a) in a "public place," which is defined as somewhere 600,000 people pass through (in a day, I think, but don't cite me on it. Short amount of time, in any case.), or (b) between a public and a private place, private meaning an enclosed place owned by a person/entity. This leaves a lot of leeway, since there's a lot of spaces that are neither public nor private. The rabbis decided to expand the prohibition of a public space by including any non-enclosed space (pretty much; there are some small exceptions, not worth dealing with in this level talk), also prohibiting carrying between private domains (his example was between a condo unit and the communal areas of the building). At the same time, they also legislated a way of enclosing a space so that it is one domain, by making a wall around an area, a wall that is mostly doorways. In other words, the eruv idea that is now used, which is basically a string with some posts holding it up. Really, I suppose, I should think of it as a very long series of doorways, with the posts and lintels there... His point was that at the same time one set of stringencies was enacted, so was another set of leniencies. Why do this at all? His brief answer was so that the idea of a Biblical "public space" not be lost. Not sure I'm so convinced by this reasoning. Anyway.
Point the second. The Rambam (aka Maimonides, a major medieval Spanish rabbi) had a stringency that the posts of an eruv had to be, maximally, some smaller-than-most-eruvim-use distance apart, so if someone follows the opinions of the Rambam consistently and does not use the eruv, that is fine; it should not end up with anyone feeling frummer-than-thou. I was really glad to hear this addressed so explicitly.
Point the third. The eruv is not up unless you have found out that week that it is up. There is no presumption that it is up. (Later, we found out that there is a web site, a phone # to call, an email list, and an announcement in shul Friday night; plenty of ways of finding out whether the eruv is up or not.)
Point the fourth. The eruv should not be another way of ignoring Shabbat or letting it become less important. There are still things that one may not carry (muktzah: things which have no purpose on Shabbat. Example: a pen, since one doesn't write on Shabbat.), and things that are not appropriate to do. The community should take this opportunity to think about Shabbat, and ways that having the eruv will enhance the Shabbat experience (he mentioned house-bound parents of infants now being liberated), rather than it being less there.
It was a good talk.
Then some people who are currently working on the eruv got up and gave some other details. So JFK park is inside the eruv, but Mem Drive is out (well, parts of Mem Drive are out. The eruv goes back and forth, so as a rule of thumb, it's out. Mt. Auburn Cemetery is out. The walk around Fresh Pond is partly out, so perambulating the pond is no go unless not carrying. OTOH, the eruv goes from Fresh Pond in to Third St (near the Cambridgeside Galleria area), from Mem Drive up to Powderhouse Square. Actual maps (and other info) are at nceruv dot org (or dot com, both work, apparently).
We davened across the courtyard from our usual space, due to a bat mitzvah in another minyan. It was crowded by the end. I found out about people moving, people having babies, people's engagements, a flood of social information. I started thinking about meals for the upcoming holidays, too.
I had lunch out at friends' (and had contributed challah, a yellow watermelon, three kinds of sorbet, and a rice-chickpea-pine nut dish that turned out a bit strangely colored since I'd added za'atar and a bit too much sumak... think of magenta rice, without a hint of beet nearby... I think people were slightly freaked by the color....), which ended up being an afternoon of chatting and (later) some games. A round of Guillotine followed by my first two games of Up for Grabs, a word-forming game using hexagonal letter pieces, making words grow through anagrams. I am not particularly good at this, but it was fun.