Eruv Wars On Long Island

The eruv is either one of the most clever or ridiculous halakhic maneuvers ever devised.  It all depends upon your point of view.  Even some Orthodox Jews don’t “hold by it” (as they say).

But let’s face it, the thing is invisible.  No one can see it in a place where there are already electric poles.  So I’ve always been a little irritated with my fellow secular Jews when they make such a fuss about putting one up.  We’ve got one where I live and it’s completely harmless and costs the taxpayers nothing.  This is what secular Jews are going to the barricades about?  (I know, I know…it’s really about keeping the black coats out…but they do have the right to live where they like as long as they leave the rest of us alone.)

Here is an absolutely hysterical piece from The Daily Show’s Wyatt Cenac about a Long Island community’s Jewish “civil war” over the eruv.