Last Friday, notices were posted in the streets of the Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Nof, informing residents that the local eiruv had been damaged and therefore, it was not permitted to carry items beyond one’s home for the duration of Shabbat until the eiruv was fixed.
The notices were printed by the Beit Din of the Eidah Haharedit, after they learned that unknown vandals had deliberately cut the wires of the eiruv around the haredi neighborhood and that insufficient time remained before Shabbat began to fix them.
“We hereby announce that since malicious vandals have destroyed the eiruv of the Eidah Haharedit around Har Nof, and there was not enough time to fix it before Shabbat, this coming Shabbat the eiruv is not operative in the Har Nof neighborhood,” the notices read.
An eiruv is a halakhic device that permits Jews to carry objects beyond their private residences on Shabbat. In most cases, it is constructed using wires strung between poles to demarcate the area included within its boundaries.