North London Eruv

[sp1814]

What are your feelings on this?

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/plan-to-mark-out-jewish-eruv-in-camden-with-fishing-wire-a3260761.html

I had to look this up because even reading the report, I was a bit lost.

There's a ton of stuff that Orthodox Jews aren't allowed to do on the Sabbath, including carrying things (e.g.. keys) and pushing things (eg. prams and wheelchairs) outside the house.

But an eruv extends the boundaries of their properties, so technically, the fishing wire extends the boundary of their homes.

Literally never heard of this rule before, and to be honest, I don't understand how the fishing wire can act as a boundary for each home in the area.

[mikey4444]

This religious daft-ness, taken to silly extremes. Why can't these Jews just pretend the fishing wire exists ?

[Peter Pedant]

no big deal
there are other eruvs - eruvim I suppose - in London - Palmers Green I think

we were taught in religious education that on the sabbath you couldnt leave the house and so the houses were roped together - from pharisaic times.
Christian school and the master could have been wrong ....

Oh, and ropes were not specified so you could use a fish wire fifty feet up.

Obvious thing is to use telephone poles but I think in New York they were forced to put up and maintain their own poles - a break means you are back to square one ....

I mean god so what really
rituals are rituals ....

[New Judge]

There’s been an “eruv” or two in the Golders Green/Finchley area for decades.

I find the entire thing amusing. It just about sums up the idiocy of religious rules. If you are not allowed to do things on the Sabbath you’re not allowed to do them. Cordoning off an area to make these unacceptable practices acceptable is just plain daft. But then I always did find some of my Jewish friends highly amusing. They are the first to laugh at themselves and their beliefs (unlike some other religions). And after all, this particular practice causes nobody any harm and gives us (and probably them as well if the truth be told) a laugh.

[albaqwerty]

surely they would have had to pay more Pole Tax in days gone by?

What the hang has happened to integration into the community?

[jackthehat]

Seems a lit bit erm....odd to be a member of a religion which has a long list of DOs and DON'TS and then to spend a great deal of time trying to circumnavigate them to make life easier.

[mikey4444]

jackthehat....I agree but you are trying to use logic and rational, for a religious issue, and that seldom works !

After all, if these people were logical and rational, would they believe in all that guff in the first place ?

[ToraToraTora]

so it's an area where they are exempt from their own rules, F_F_S make the whole kin world an Eruv then they wont have to adhere to the Sabbath BS at all. I thought I heard it all as far as religious Bow locks goes!

[naomi24]

It's nothing new. Funny how the religious get around their own rules. Muslims may not lend money and charge interest on it but they have systems for getting around that too.

[mikey4444]

TTT...organised religion never ceases to amaze me !

[Mamyalynne]

Well you live and learn, never heard of these areas before.

Just been reading up on them, one in Manchester too, very interesting.

[mikey4444]

Mamy....didn't Rowan and Martin's Laugh in have a running gag about
"very interesting.....but stupid " ?

[naomi24]

I think the rules worked well enough when the religions were invented, but don't work so well in the modern world where its necessary to flick switches, etc., on the Sabbath Hence, to suit the rules religions have to move the goalposts.

[ToraToraTora]

Or, Naomi, they could just stop adhering to fairy tale pony and use a bit of common!

[Mamyalynne]

Don't know Mikey, never watched it.

[Peter Pedant]

yes mikey it was Rowan and Martins laugh in - sunday nights around 9 pm I think

Arte Johnson - see here
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arte_Johnson

often wearing a nazi helmet

[hc4361]

My electric cooker has a 'sabbath setting' so the Jewish can cook on Shabbat. It really does.
My friend lived in London when she was at university and made a mint doing chores for Jewish ladies on Saturdays.

[Peter Pedant]

yeah fridges are a bit of a problem

I think you can get self opening fridges - that open when you go near them
( opening on a clap still counts as work apparently )
o god they have to close by themselves too

anyway the problems have been solved ....

as for hospitals in Jerusalem I suppose you get unorthodox Jews or christians to man them at the relevant times

[New Judge]

“Mamy....didn't Rowan and Martin's Laugh in have a running gag about
"very interesting.....but stupid " ?”

Yes Mikey. It was Arty Johnson, dressed as a WW2 German soldier, who used to appear from behind some bushes to say it.

There are two types of Jews – those who are “Frum” and those who are not. The latter find all sorts of ways to circumvent their religious doctrines – many of them like a bacon sandwich or a prawn cocktail and so long as nobody is looking they tuck in to their favourites. I have a sneaky suspicion that the eruvs were a ruse developed by some of them so that they could go to the shops on Saturday without being struck down.

[New Judge]

Sorry Peter, didn't mean to trump your answer (which gave more info and the correct spelling). I was watching the French Open Tennis and got sidetracked halfway through typing.

[mikey4444]

Yes, Arte Johnson !

I thought about providing a clip of him doing his "Interesting but stupid" act, but the only ones I could find on Youtube, was him dressed like a Nazi soldier, and bearing in mind the subject of this thread, thought it best not to post it !