Ithaca, NY – Observant Jews in the Cornell community can finally enjoy extended freedom during the Sabbath, thanks to the official establishment of the Rabbi Morris Goldfarb Memorial Ehruv.
Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
An ehruv — a physical structure enclosing a larger area into a single domain — enables Jews to carry items such as food, books, medicines and coats without violating the Sabbath. According to Aaron Sarna ’11, president of the Center for Jewish Living, it is forbidden in the Jewish tradition to physically carry anything between a public and private domain during the Sabbath, which begins every Friday at sundown and ends after sundown every Sunday.
The religious ruling that necessitates the use of the ehruv is a rabbinical interpretation of a Biblical verse, according to Rabbi Jason Leib, Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus director, O.U. and rabbinic supervisor of the ehruv.
Dean Robinson, grad and leader of the Cornell Ehruv Committee, estimated that more than 70 Jewish community members benefit from the ehruv.
Sarna explained the positive impact the ehruv has had on the Jewish community. “[The ehruv] means that I can carry my books if I want to go study in the library,” he said. “I can go have a football game on the Arts Quad or bring water with me if I want to go on a walk in The Plantations. [The ehruv] makes things more mobile and simplifies things.”
Before the construction of the ehruv, Robinson said, “I could’ve worn a coat, but I couldn’t have taken it off.”
Leib, father of three young children, said, “My life has benefitted tremendously. [The ehruv] means that we can push a stroller.”
“It makes [the Sabbath] more festive,” he added.
The new ehruv is essentially a long boundary consisting of pre-existing utility poles connected by wires, Sarna explained. The Cornell ehruv website states that the ehruv encloses the entire Cornell campus, the majority of Collegetown and significant portions of downtown Ithaca and Cayuga Heights.
To construct the ehruv, Leib said that the Ithaca community contracted a utility company to put the requisite ehruv moldings on existing utility poles. The Cornell Ehruv Committee sought civil permission for the ehruv which was ultimately granted by the sheriff of Tompkins County.
Local rabbinical supervision for the ehruv is provided by Rabbi Leib as well as by the Rav HaMachshir Rabbi Barry Freundel. Sarna said that Freundel inspected the construction and granted his approval in December.
Last week Leib performed the ceremony establishing the Rabbi Morris Goldfarb Memorial Ehruv as an ehruv and, “not a bunch of wires and poles,” Sarna said. Last weekend was the first Sabbath that the ehruv was usable.
“Going forward,” Sarna explained, “[the ehruv] still has to be checked every week to make sure that the structure is intact.”
Robinson said that the Cornell Ehruv Committee is currently in the process of organizing a rotation of students to drive around the entire 8.5-mile route every week to make sure that nothing has been knocked down. This process requires several hours every week.
However, these efforts are well worth it for many in the Ithaca Jewish community. “The whole point [of the ehruv] is that it makes observance of the Sabbath more pleasant and easier,” Robinson said. “I’m looking forward to making use of it.”
According to the Cornell Ehruv website, the ehruv project was made possible through donations from Robert and Sarah Steinberg ’78, the Welsbach Electric Corp. and others.
Someone needs to tell Cornell that Shabbos ends on Saturday night, not Sunday
Any amount of Jewish tradition on an ivy league campus is a good thing.
mi kiamcha yisroel! lets hear it for the true outreach of these intrepid young rabbonim who do the best kind of avodas hakodesh instead of staying in their insular daled amos like so many others!
Saturday night is Sunday. So now whoever can play football on Shabbos. Yay!
there are 2, maybe 3 ehrliche yidden up there that this will benefit- possible bizayon here
“I can go have a football game on the Arts Quad” thats gevaldig we should have in boro park a football game so the belzees should go to
It is a busha to the fools who make fun of Eruvvs
It is important to have an eruv for those that live there and for mothers with little children to be able to attend shul on shabbos. Plus there are thousands of jews on campus that are not shomer shabbos, and this eruv, would save them without knowing of the chillul shabbos taking place. Plus, there are many young people who would have moved to Ithaca to attend graduate programs in Cornell University and Ithaca College, but did not move there since there was no eruv, and young children and their mothers would not be able to attend shul.
This is a wonderful community in an area in New York State that virtually has 0% unemployment, with a year round minyan kept up by devoted local families even when the universities are not in session, as well as having a chabad center led by a virtual tzadik and tzadeikis. They have a mikva, as well as a OU certified kosher dining hall open to the public in Cornell, an a Chabad certified kosher dining hall in Ithaca College.
Anyone who mocks peoples observance of shabbos and mitzvos in this outpost of yiddishkeit, should be ashamed of himself.
I puzzled by some of the comments. There thousands of jewish neshomos on that campus. Isn’t it worth it to ensure that they do one aveira less??!! Keyodua the story with the Brisker rov.
the chabad rabbi there is a choshuva guy, yesoid oilam. and the other frum rav is also. but to say that there is more than perhaps a minyan of shomrei shabbos is for sure pushing it.
there was a maiseh that ithaca is a spiritual shoah, said by a prominent rosh yeshiva when asked by a talmid if he should attend cornell. that talmid went on to be a great talmid chacham, solely because he did not attend that dearth of yiddishkeit that is Cornell.
Nu Please, you new yorkers need to lighten up. They’re all good places!
The errors of fact on this comment board are appalling and shameful. As someone who has visited the Cornell community on several occasions, I can assure you that there is a small but burgeoning Orthodox Shomer torah u’mitzvot community of Cornell students and faculty (far more than a mere minyan). R’ Eli is phenomenal. As is R’ Lieb. As is R’ Nachum Turkish. As is Yochanan ben Shammai. As are the Yitzchak Peretzes. There was a new sefer torah dedication last year. Learning occurs regularly, and Cornell students advocate strongly for eretz hakoidesh on this secular campus. “Spiritual Shoah?” chas v’shalom! over 10 naeh sukkos are built every year, mashgichim and rabbonim fly in from Eretz Yisroel three times a year, avreichim and rabbonim from NY come for various shabbosim, and orthodox students are mekarev the thousands of secular/unaffiliated yids on campus. The eruv is probably too large but that is the only valid criticism. This will atrract more chasuva yids to Cornell and will enable the orthodox ones currently there to have more meaningful shabbosim. Kol HaKavod to the students and community members!! Great Work!! The community should be zoiche to grow despite the location.!