ArtBeat

[magid]

Shabbat afternoon I walked to Davis, later than I'd planned, for ArtBeat. It would be this weekend that the eruv was down... Ah, well.

There were a lot of booths with interesting things for sale, which I saw in passing, and I assume that the other end of the square had more community organization booths, as they did last year, but I didn't make it there.

I did run into a number of friends, LJ and non, including some I'd not seen in ages. I wished I'd made it to the square Friday and gotten a dog tag, so I could join the crowds at Snappy Dance and at some of the other performances, but I'd been rushed for time and disinclined to make another trip out during the thunderstorm. My bad. Next year...

This year's theme was places and spaces, and I was highly entertained to see that there were people giving rides using bikes that were pulling highly painted canoes. A bit hard to navigate, I'd imagine.

I saw Pheromone's labyrinth laid out practically in the middle of the square, with a lot of kids using it. Strangely (or perhaps not), most adults didn't seem to want to walk the labyrinth while the kids were there, so didn't walk it at all. I wonder why it becaome "kid space" rather than "people space" to ArtBeat attendees.

I spent most time hanging around the Art Cafe, watching the plates made by the artist chefs (including, but not limited to: Scholargipsy, Pheromone, Hawkegirl, and Gavin), admiring the panache with which Hauntmeister kept orders moving smoothly, while accepting the art made in payment. I was impressed with a lot of the art, both ordered and payment. The customers were pleased with their orders. There were some different kinds of art, collage and more 3-d things, but the more word-focused pieces weren't there this year. I ended up filling in as a greeter for a bit, feeling a bit useless with all I don't do on Shabbat (especially with the eruv down).

A much more mellow ArtBeat for me this year, followed by hanging out with Pheromone, Scholargipsy, Treacle_Well, and [not-yet-LJ-user], which included much bookish discussion. I think there are a lot of books I need to read... as if I didn't already know that!

Comments

[spwebdesign.livejournal.com]

Please forgive my ignorance...what does it mean that the eruv was down?

Eruv

[magid.livejournal.com]

This'll probably get a bit long...

Under Jewish law (aka "halacha", leading to the adj. "halachic"), on the Sabbath one doesn't carry anything out into a public domain. It doesn't matter the size of the carried thing; schlepping an overstuffed sofa has the same halachic "weight" as having keys in one's pocket.

However, there is a workaround: enclose the public space so it is considered private. Carrying stuff around one's house, for instance, is fine, and this would make the enclosed area into the equivalent of a walled courtyard, an extension of one's house. This is done by constructing a fence around the area. The fence is, however, of a technical fence than something easily recognizable as a fence. It uses things like telephone posts and wires strung between them to define the area. [I'm going to skip a whole lot more detail here. Ask if you really want to know....]

There is an eruv around much of Cambridge and Somerville, a relatively new one (less than a year old; I did some work on it.), which means that not only can I carry my keys, or a water bottle, or some tissues, etc., with me on Shabbat, but parents can wheel their not-yet-walking kids in strollers. With the eruv down, however, I do not carry anything outside, and those kids remain inside the house. For me, it's an inconvenience I can live with pretty easily (having lived for years without one), though I'd hoped I'd be able to bring water along for the walk to Davis.

Re: Eruv

[spwebdesign.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the explanation. So the eruv is this fence, and the eruv serves to make the area it encloses an extension of the home. Do I have this right?

Now, this may come across as mocking, but it's certainly not intended to, so please forgive me if it does. Where does one draw the line between something with halachic weight and something without? For example, wearing clothes can be interpreted as carrying clothes on one's body; obviously, this interpretation is extreme, though, and most likely devoid of theological merit. Yet one could also wear a key on a lanyard around one's neck; is this activity interpreted as carrying or as wearing, even though it is not far removed either from wearing a necktie or from carrying keys in one's pocket?

Re: Eruv

[magid.livejournal.com]

So the eruv is this fence, and the eruv serves to make the area it encloses an extension of the home.
Essentially, yes.

It's a good question, where the line is between wearing and carrying. There are a variety of answers/solutions (in Jewish law, there are usually a variety of answers in the mainstream, all of which are likely followed by some group or another; Jewish law is not so monolithic as some may think.); I don't know this area of law as well as I probably should, actually. Frequently, in areas where there are a variety of practices, what is relevant is what one's own community deems normative.

FYI, the most usual way of wearing a key is a special belt, where the key becomes part of the belt buckle, making it a necessary part of the belt, and therefore, worn, not carried. Some people have special jewelry with their key incorporated into it (nice jewelry, so 'good enough' to wear on Shabbat), while other people see this as carrying. Some people have a key on a plastic coil key chain they wear around their wrist (pretty much the equivalent of a lanyard), which other people think is carrying (it's not decorative, nor is it integral). Some people get around the whole question by figuring out where to leave their key just outside the house :-).
I made myself a watch with a band that uses the key as part of it, which felt appropriate for me (those belts just don't work well with female-type clothing).

I know there are some areas of halacha that seem really focused on what a lot of people think of as minutiae; as a whole, however, it doesn't have that feel, at least to me. Perhaps that's because I've internalized a lot of things that seem strange to others; it's just automatic by now.

[hauntmeister.livejournal.com]

I wonder why it becaome "kid space" rather than "people space" to ArtBeat attendees.

Hey, kids are people too!

That space was really the only kid-friendly area of the whole Artbeat. Parents could kick back and watch their tykes burn off energy while literally running in circles. With the kids doing their particle-accelerator laps, the labyrinth was markedly less friendly to walking and meditation.

But I don't see that as a problem. It happened to fill a niche in a very useful and appreciated way, and also worked perfectly within the Artbeat theme.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Yes, kids are people too (insert some "Free to Be, You and Me" music here :-). I just found it interesting that once a space became something used by kids, most adults didn't use it, even just for the fun of walking a labyrinth, even without the meditation part.

I hadn't gone to check out much of the rest of ArtBeat, and assumed that there were plenty of other kid-specific activities somewhere, I think.

I didn't have a problem with it, really. Just noticing.