RESPONSE TO IRA LEVINE
Reader comment on item: Islamic Law in the United States?
in response to reader comment: don't forget eruvs

Submitted by DANIEL REDMOND (United States), Oct 29, 2007 at 20:23

I read with interest your comment regarding the placement of eruvs in public areas. For those not familiar with this somewhat comical expression of religious ..., an eruv is, in essence, a calculated attempt by members of the Jewish faith to circumvent a totally unnecessary and silly religious edict regarding leaving their homes on certain days of the week. Here's how it works. If you are an Orthodox Jew you are forbidden to leave your domicile on certain days---every Saturday, I believe, but there may be other days as well---or presumably some punishment will fall upon you.

Now, needless to say, this is a pointless inconvenience that should have been dispensed with by rational people years ago. But since when was religious belief based upon reason? So, finding this inconvenience cumbersome when, let's say, one has run out of groceries and needs a trip to the corner store, the faithful decided to devise a means of avoiding the inconvenience. Enter the eruv. It is nothing but a thin wire that is strung from the home to one utility pole (or other stationary object) after another until it connects with the desired location---let's say, the supermarket where the food is. I know, you're scratching your head and wondering, 'huh'? And this is where it gets really weird. The pretense is that the eruv has now connected the home to the supermarket and that therefore when one leaves the home and walks around the block to buy food, or whatever, that they aren't really leaving their domicile as long as they walk under the wire. Only religion could cause otherwise rational people to create a silly rule and then an even more ridiculous means of getting around it.

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