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One of the listeners at Rabbi Heller’s Shiur sent in to chabadinfo.com his notes. The notes are points he picked up, and were not edited for the article.

Part 1: Using an Eruv anywhere

1.

The usage of an Eruv in general is something which needs an explanation, definitely when talking about Chassidishe Yiden which want not only to do the right thing, but to understand what that is.

If we would understand it, then we may also be able to explain it to others.

2.

Many Yungerlait ask: We are going away for Shabbos, over there exists an Eruv, may I carry there? Or may I not carry? Does Lubavitch hold of an Eruv or do we not use an Eruv? And if I may not, may my wife or kids carry within it? May I ask a Goy to use it for me?

3.

An Eruv was made by the Chazal. Someone who does not ‘hold of an Eruv’ is an Apikores. There is no such a thing that one does not hold of an Eruv. One may say, that he does not hold of this specific Eruv. but the idea, is Chazal’s.

4.

Only very few people know how to make an Eruv properly in a city. One has to be a very big expert. It is harder than making a heart surgery. To make a heart surgery, one needs to be a special expert, a regular doctor cannot make it.

There are only very few individuals in this generation that know how to make an Eruv in a city. Singular people. Yechidim. (Eruvin is one of the hardest Mesechtes). One has to be a very big expert to make an Eruv.

5.

One has to know who made the Eruv. 

“Men Hot Gemacht” “IT WAS MADE”

The first thing I answer to a Yungerman who is traveling to a place, First you have to know if there is even an Eruv. Before you ask if you may carry, you have to know who made it: a name and an address. But this is not enough (If one made an Eruv ten years ago) – Who is Mashgiach on the Eruv today? An Eruv can be broken or rip on its own. There has to be the same type of expert who is responsible for the Eruv every week.

So we need to know two things: Who built the Eruv, and who is the responsible for the Eruv.

6.

The same thing is in regards to a Mikvah.

In order to build a Mikvah, one has to be able to be a בעל הוראה. It is not enough that he built the Mikvah ten years ago, one has to know who is responsible for the Mikvah today.

7.

Someone told me a story:

He went to a Mikvah in a  city in Italy, and saw that there was no rainwater. So he asks the Rabbi of the city: what was going on there? So the Rabbi answers, what do you mean, the great Rabbi, Reb Avrohom Sofer (the one who printed the Mei’iri) built this Mikvah. Very nice, then there was rainwater, today there is no rainwater, the rainwater was let out.

One has to know who is Mashgiach on the Mikvah as of today.

8.

Afterwards one has to ask the person who is a בר סמכא who made the Eruv, and is responsible for the Eruv,  tell me, what type of Eruv did you make? Did you make an Eruv which is kosher LeMehadrin Min Hamehadrin, without any questions? Or did you make an Eruv which is only good in extraneous cases, kosher BeShaas HaDechak,

What type of Eruv was made here?

9

In Toronto there is an Eruv. It was made by a great Godol BeTorah a yid by the name of Shlomo Miller.

I Myself asked R’ Sholomo Miller about an Eruv he made and he told me it is one of the most best Eruvin in America, but Bnei Torah shouldn’t use it. Bnei Torah means those who are Mehader BeMitzvos.

He made the Eruv, and by him it is Poshut, that a Mehader BeMitzvos should not use the Eruv.

10.

After one knows who made it, and who is responsible, and that it is an Eruv that is kosher for Mehadrin according to all Shitois and specifically according to the Alter Rebbe, then in such a case one may carry.

 – There is also a personal Chumra that some individual Chasidim have, and that is not to use an Eruv that is made with strings, there are those that are made with metal. And those with string, therefore, there are some who are  חושש  that the Eruv may rip on Shabbos. Even if it was made to be Mehadrim Min HaMehadrim. But this is just a Chumra of individuals. (This wouldn’t apply in a bungalow where you can always see the whole time if it broke or not, only in a  big city) – 

Part 2: The Eruv in Crown Heights

1.

They say that an Eruv was made here (in crown heights).

To explain the idea, I want to be Makdim:

One time someone had a kid and didn’t make a Pidyon HaBen. When he was asked why he didn’t make a Pidyon HaBen he answered, 1) My wife is a Bas Levi. 2) There was a miscarriage before 3) the baby is a girl.

It’s understood that the first two factors are redundant when the third factor is present. So too about the Eruv here in Crown Heights. There are 3 problems with it.

1) No one knows who made it.

People speak, Yungelait made it, people made it….If someone came from  new jersey, and opened up a butcher shop and we had no idea who the Shchochtim are, who the Mashgiach is, who’s Rav HaMachshir, Menakrim, Bodkim etc. No one would think of eating from the meat.

So too the Eruv in crown heights, not one person knows who actually made the Eruv and who is responsible for its building.

2) Even if we would know who built the Eruv, however There is no one taking responsibility for the continued Kashrus of the Eruv after it was built. It could be that by the next Shabbos it was broken, by Bochurim, by weather, etc. Maybe a big truck had to go through, and ripped down the eruv?

3) You can’t make an Eruv in crown Heights. You can’t. Period.

It is a Reshus Harabim De’Oiraiso. Eastern Parkway and Empire Blvd is Mufulash and open.

Over here, In Crown Heights, one cannot make an Eruv.

3.

It is not like Borugh Park, where there big Rabbonim made the Eruv, where even there is a Machlokes if you can make an Eruv or not. Some Rabonim say you could make an Eruv, and others disagree, there was always a Machlokes.  I personally know who are the Rabbonim for every side. The Rabbonim who made it, and those who oppose it.

However, there is not one reliable Rov who says that is possible to make an Eruv in Crown Heights. There is not one Rov, who has עפעס א שייכות to הוראה and says that it is even possible in Metzius to make an Eruv here.

4.

Therefore, there is no Eruv here.

One should explain to the people, that there is no Eruv.

The Eruv is not posul, there is no Eruv. The same way A Mikvah without rainwater is not a Posul Mikvah, it is not a Mikvah in the first place. It may be a beautiful Mikvah, a Boir with a shower, and all the good things, but if it is missing rainwater. It is not posul, rather it is not even a Mikvah. The Eruv is not Posul, rather it is “Gornishit Mit Gornisht”. This has to be explained to people.

5.

And even if one will teach himself how to make an Eruv,  he will take lessons, learn how to make an Eruv and his Parnosso is that he is travelling all over America making Eruvin: it does not work.

A heart surgeon can’t just start and learn about making a surgery on the heart. He has to first be a general doctor, and he first has to learn about all the limbs and how the body works, and only then when he knows it well,  can he become a specialist in this field.

An Am Ho’oretz Gomur can’t teach  himself how to make an Eruv or Mikvah. A Mikvah must be made by a בעל הוראה, not  by a Choshuve Askan who taught himself how to make a Mikvah. We may have to respect him but  if he is not a בעל הוראה and he does not learn גמ’ מיט תוס’ מיט מלחמות און בעל המאור , and this is not his Inyan, which he learns his whole life, then he has no שייכות to making a Mikvah. And one can’t ask him Sha’alois, or rely on him to be responsible for a Mikvah.

6.

Even if he was in Yeshiva the best Bochur,  but hasn’t learned anything in 30 years, he cannot be relied upon. Having learned once upon a time is not enough.

With regards to the defense policy in Eretz Yisroel the Rebbe said that you have to ask those in the army. They answered the Rebbe that the politicians were once in the Army. To which the Rebbe said that those politicians are not currently in the army, but are in politics and therefore mix politics into everything so you can’t rely on their opinion about defense.

If he is someone who learnt once upon a time, but today he sits and involves himself only in building Eruvin, He’s Gornisht and is not שייך to this.

7.

Even if one would say he learns, here we are talking about a case where a guy without a name made it, and a guy without a name is responsible for it, and everybody admits that an Eruv can’t be made here.Not one reliable person (Bar Samcha) has said that you are able to make an Eruv in Crown Heights.

Even if there would be a Machlokes, and one reliable person who said it is possible and another reliable person said it isn’t, it would still be a Sofek Deorisa of Chilul Shabbos. In actuality there isn’t even one reliable person who said it is doable. (Ed. Note: And this was repeated). But even if there was, and another disagreed (it was half and half and not a רוב and מיעוט), also in such a case it is a Sofeik DeOiraiso.

So how can one carry? How can one carry?

This is  aside from the fact, that this is going against the Rebbe and the Alter Rebbe,

This is a very very dangerous thing.

8.

I think, that if one explains this to people who … I think that good amount will accept this.

It all depends on how it is explained.

Part 3: Our obligation in the current situation:

1.

If one goes in the street and sees someone carrying one Shabbos, and one does not say anything, he is giving them his Hoskoma. One must say something. One must not let it go, Otherwise, you are giving a Haskomo.

It must be BeDarchei Noam UbDarchei Sholom, but you must say something. One has to make it clear to the עולם.

2.

If someone who grew up somewhere else and yesterday he came here from the ,ערי חושך, and doesn’t know anything about Rabonim etc. he is a Poshite person, and hears there is an Eruv here so therefore carries. Such a person is considered a Mechalel Shabbos BeShogeg.

However, If someone who grew up in our Mosdos, he knows everything, he knows what all the Rabonim say and still uses the Eruv, he is considered a Mechalel Shabbos BeMeizid.

(He probably carried before there was an Eruv also, when no one was looking).

He is a Mechalel Shabbos BeMeizid.

I do not want to say, but it is a רחמנות גדול

Of course there is a Mitzvah of Ahavas Yisroel, and one has to be bring him closer and be Mekarev him, but it is a רחמנות גדול א גרויסע רחמות מיט אלע גדרים.

We have to explain to the Oilam what this all is:

The Eruv is non-existent (Gor Nit Mit Gor Nit).

3.

When a Bochur gets married, he has to make sure there are no questions on the AId Kidushin, if he is called a Mechalel Shabbos.

When someone goes to eat in a restaurant or from another’s house he has to make sure the bread is considered Pas Yisroel, and the wine isn’t considered Yayin Nesach.

He has to make sure to be Mevarer this, so there is no Shaalo, it should not be that the guy is Cholilo a Meizid.

4.

I hope there aren’t such people, one has to be very much careful in such things. This is a very serious matter. Cholilo if one plays with the Shabbos!

There are enough other things that have been played with, but now are we going to play with the Shabbos? This is a great danger if one plays with the Shabbos.

To play with the Alter Rebbe and the Rebbe in his daled amos is a gread Pachad, a great Pachad.

We have to see that one person makes it clear to the other, and explain this to the people BeDarchei Noam Vdarchei Sholom.

Hashem should help that there should be Sholom Al Yisroel.

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