(Prepared for parshas Vayigash) Neighborhood rabbis and the Religious Council in Jerusalem are protesting deliberate actions by the municipality to furtively take down dozens of eruv posts in the southern part of the city.
The recent incident — the worst of four recent incidents — caused extensive damage to costly, mehudar posts, leaving thousands of residents in south Jerusalem without a suitable eruv for Shabbos. City rabbonim say that if the posts are not returned and erected immediately, they will consult with gedolei Yisroel regarding a forceful response.
HaRav Eliyohu Schlesinger, the rov posek of the Jerusalem Religious Council and the rov of Gilo, was deeply upset by the removal of the eruv posts.
"This is chutzpah and terrible impudence to come along like thieves in the night and take down eruv posts without notifying us and consulting with us, since the Jerusalem Religious Council is vested with the authority to decide on eruv matters in the city," he said.
"We're constantly being preached to about working in cooperation and through understanding, and then they wind up coming along like burglars, taking down one post after the next. We put a lot of time and money into this. We reached a level of hiddur that has never been achieved in Jerusalem, and instead of kedushoh, the Soton is dancing away, Rachmono litzlan. As if the eruv posts bother them and now they have to map out the posts. It's none of their business! They should be working on Jaffa Road, making it passable, but all of a sudden the eruv posts vex them."
HaRav Avraham Moshe Katzenelebogen, the rov in charge of Jerusalem's eruvin, riled against city hall's intervention, after 60 years of leaving the matter in the hands of the Rabbinate, the Religious Council and the organization responsible for installing eruv posts. This situation, in which a building license is now needed for eruv posts, is totally absurd and, he says, part of various plots against eruv posts in the city.
"Following the peculiar licensing requirement we decided that from now on we will install a new eruv only where a license has been granted, and during the past six months no new eruv activity has been undertaken. Then all of a sudden, an old eruv that has been standing for decades needs a license, and the matter has to go through committees, which will reach a decision on it and establish a ranking regarding its halachic stringency. What's that supposed to mean?! The situation has become very grim."
