Why There's a Secret Tiny Wire Above Manhattan

The City that never sleepsPhoto by Monika Kozub on Unsplash

I've lived outside New York City for 20 years. I had my first kiss in the city, my first beer, and many eidetic memories I’ll never forget. 

All that time, however, I never knew an 18-mile translucent wire hung above my head and encircled the entire Manhattan isle. If you squint really really hard, you won’t find it. But if you know the right places to look — you probably still won’t find it.

It’s called an eruv (ay-roov) and it’s that secretive. 

The Manhattan eruv costs $100,000 a year to maintain and without it, thousands of Jews wouldn’t be able to live in the city.

Let’s Talk a Little Bit About Jewish Law

In order to understand the importance of the eruv, you need to know a little bit about Jewish law. 

Friday night into Saturday is considered the Sabbath by Jewish people. The Sabbath is a day of rest and means observant Jewish people can not do “Melachah” which means work.

This rule is listed in the Jewish code of law, called the Talmud, but stems all the way back from when Moses received the Ten Commandments:

“Six days shall work be done; but on the seventh day is a sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the LORD; whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel for ever; for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He ceased from work and rested.”— Exodus 31:12–17

Breaking the rule doesn’t lead to death, anymore, but it can get you kicked out of your synagogue. Furthermore, following these rules is what makes the Jewish community so tight-knit in the first place.

When I was working as a reporter I’d never seen anything like the comradery of Jewish communities in New Jersey. Once when a fire broke out in a densely populated Jewish area, the whole town converged to support the family whose house burnt down and gave firefighters snacks and water bottles. 

It was awesome stuff to watch. But this leads us to an important question regarding the Sabbath:

What Constitutes Work?

Good question. Interestingly enough, many things constitute work that might not seem obvious to non-Jewish people. 

According to the Talmud, here are a few of the 39 things you cannot do:

• Planting flowers;
• Filtering undrinkable water to make it drinkable;
• Picking small bones from fish;
• Cooking or baking;
• Carrying anything, including groceries, books, keys, and even children.

If that last rule seems impossible it’s because it is. Jewish law, however, allows you to bypass this part of the rule by allowing Jewish people to carry items inside of private places like their homes. 

This amendment would later extend to small towns as well. It was agreed upon in the Jewish community that building a wall around a town — called an eruv — would transform it into a private sector.

The Evolution of the Eruv

Walls aren’t easy things to manage. Just ask Pink Floyd or Berlin.

So the head Rabbis decided it was time to evolve the eruv. They decided a symbolic wall was good enough to turn an area into a private domain. A symbol as simple as a translucent wire. 

The largest and most expensive eruv in the world is in New York City. It’s been in place since 1999 and is hotly debated in the Jewish community. 

Many argue that considering the entire island of Manhattan as a private area is ridiculous. It’s possible for more than 600,000 people to pass through certain roads in New York City in a single day. Any NYC native will tell you Manhattan is a nightmare to navigate if you hate crowds.

But the eruv stands regardless, making the Sabbath much easier to adhere to for the hundreds of thousands of Jewish people that live there.

Meanwhile, every Thursday before dawn a Rabbi drives the entire island of Manhattan inspecting the eruv. The eruv has survived Macy Day’s Thanksgiving Parades and even 2012’s hurricane Sandy. But there are times when it breaks.

Most notably, in 2011 a wire broke near the United Nations building, which caused a problem when repair crews couldn’t get past security to fix it. It was eventually resolved, but not before a load of panic set in. 

Final Thoughts

New York isn’t the only metropolis with an eruv. You can find them in New Jersey, Atlanta, St. Louis, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Dallas, and numerous other cities and suburbs across the U.S. In fact, there are more than 200 across North America.

In Manhattan, there’s even a community-run website with a status indicator that displays if the eruv is intact. As of this article, the eruv was last checked on May 13 and is up and roaring.

For six days of the week, the eruv is pretty much useless. But during the Sabbath, it’s a symbol for one of the most important rules in Judaism. And this respect for the rules is one of the reasons why the Jewish community excels so much today.

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