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See also the Eruv wire that encircles Manhattan: > This thread conceptually turns public space into private domain, and allows observers of the Sabbath to carr
by eddyg 5y ago
See also the Eruv wire that encircles Manhattan:
> This thread conceptually turns public space into private domain, and allows observers of the Sabbath to carry their essential belongings with them.
https://99percentinvisible.org/article/inside-lines-eruv-wires-symbolically-extend-homes-encompass-cities/ https://99percentinvisible.org/article/inside-lines-eruv-wir...
- pmiller2 5y agoHoly shit. I knew about eruvin, but I didn't know there was one all the way around Manhattan! How would anybody know if a distant part of the line was down? That would put them in violation, wouldn't it?
- josh_fyi 5y agoIt is inspected weekly before the Sabbath and fixed, or if it can't be, an announcement is made.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- _hijk 5y agoSomeone checks the eruv every week before Shabbat[1] and they have a weekly announcement if it is operational [2]. [1] https://www.npr.org/2019/05/13/721551785/a-fishing-line-encircles-manhattan-protecting-sanctity-of-sabbath https://www.npr.org/2019/05/13/721551785/a-fishing-line-enci... [2] https://twitter.com/ManhattanEruv/status/1388202630048993281 https://twitter.com/ManhattanEruv/status/1388202630048993281
- david-gpu 5y agoWhy not make it conductive and test if any section is down by seeing that the circuit is broken?
- Kipters 5y agoWouldn't that mean operating an electric device?
- reissbaker 5y agoYou could check the connection before the Sabbath, similar to how you check the eruv integrity before the Sabbath. So it'd be fine. It's an interesting idea!
- TchoBeer 5y agoThis is a fascinating idea and not something I've ever heard brought up. Do you think the authorities would allow a length of wire with a current passing through it to be erected in their city?
- david-gpu 5y agoAren't there millions of cables throughout Manhattan already, whether to carry power, telephone signals, etc.? The wire could be insulated and low-voltage, you know.
- Kipters 5y agoIf I recall my electronics/telecommunications classes correctly, you would only need very little current. You could also send short pulses and wait for the "echo" back to have a rough estimate of where the cable is broken. The biggest issue I see is about the cable length: you would need to use high voltages to make up for the losses and fault location would become way more difficult. Another option would be break up the cable in smaller sections and monitor each of these independently, but I don't know if that's a valid option for this use case since the entire point of the eruv is that it must be continuous (maybe the sections could be tied together using non-conductive materials?)
- adrianN 5y agoIf you're allowed to step on an automatic elevator, you probably also are allowed to look at an LED and take action when it's off.
- steviedotboston 5y agoI created a service to people can find out if their eruv is up/down http://eruvstat.us http://eruvstat.us
- tdeck 5y agoThere are also two in San Francisco. I lived inside one for six years and never knew it.
- thamer 5y agoThe video linked in the parent post explains that the Manhattan eruv has never been down. A rabbi goes all around on Thursday and repairs are made on Friday if needed. Even when the Thanksgiving parade knocked down some wires or after hurricane Sandy, they managed to get it repaired in time for Shabbat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccfDo7yTHr8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccfDo7yTHr8
- andrepd 5y agoIt's absolutely bonkers what some people believe in x)
- TchoBeer 5y agoAnything will sound dumb if you dumb it down enough. In actuality A) the eruv only works on a specific case. A public domain needs to have a very wide street with 600,000 people who pass through it every day, which places with an eruv don't have. Technically as per biblical law you can carry even without an eruv, it's only as per rabbinic prohibition that you're not allowed to carry unless you have an eruv. In addition B) the eruv used in most modern communities is the weakest possible form of eruv and not everyone holds by it. My rabbi would only carry in a walled community. Here a great english language article explaining the laws is the following: https://www.halachipedia.com/index.php?title=Introduction_to_the_Modern_Eruv https://www.halachipedia.com/index.php?title=Introduction_to...
- andrepd 5y agoWell all these convoluted rules and workarounds are “dumb” from an objective point of view, in that there is no objective reason for their existence. Then again people are free to live by whatever self-imposed rules they desire, as silly as it looks to someone else.
- boublepop 5y agoSome people are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars every year on maintaining a fishing line around Manhatten. This isn’t “dumbing it down”, it’s just literally the facts of what is going on. Explaining that there are tons more you could dig into about these peoples beliefs around the holy powers of this fishing line and exactly when they do and do not work doesn’t escape the fact that it is dumb. If someone is wearing a tinfoil hat, his lengthy explanations about the capabilities of American and Russian intelligence agencies capabilities doesn’t make it sound less dumb.
- viciousvoxel 5y agoWhile I agree with you that it does seem particularly wasteful and silly, I think you would benefit from some introspection into your own "dumb" culturally-motivated behaviors, or those of "normal" secular society. As just one instance, aren't engagement and weddings rings expensive and dumb by your measure?