Up Front

Setting

Boundaries

LYNNE MEREDITH COHN

Special to The Jewish News

T

Rabbi Eli Jundef
"encloses" two
square miles of
West Bloomfield
to allow
observant Jews
to carry on
Shabbat.

public domain under Halachah,
Jewish law.)
Rabbi Elimelech Silberberg,
founder of Bais Chabad of West
Bloomfield on Maple, east of Orchard
Lake Road, constructed an eruv years
ago. But that enclosure ends at
Orchard Lake Road. The two eruvim
will not connect.
An eruv is constructed from wires
that "enclose" a public area, making
the entire neighborhood private. The
wires must run along the top of poles,
said Jundef, to be considered kosher.
The rabbi must add a lechi to those
utility poles where wires run below the
top.
Jundef requested West Bloomfield's
permission to build the eruv.
"We walked the route with him, in
the woods, over the streams, through
the mud, between the houses," said
Supervisor Jeddy Hood. "The town-
ship wrote a letter introducing him
and what he was doing and that the
township was working with him,
encouraging residents to graciously
allow him access to their property."
It wasn't a matter of "allowing" an
eruv, said Hood, but rather "working
with the rabbi so we can accommodate
all of our concerns for the environ-
mental impact. For example, we did
not want to put a wire directly across a
wetland because of birds flying down
to land on the water. It was a real
working-together relationship. I think

he navy blue Ford Club
Wagon parked alongside
Maple Road is a likely sign
that Rabbi Eli Jundef is
trudging through mud and vegetation
somewhere nearby.
The sun beats down on the bearded
rabbi, who has been walking around
West Bloomfield for three years in an
effort to give observant families who
live west of Orchard Lake Road more
freedom on Shabbat.
Rabbi Jundef, of Ohel Moed of
Shomrey Emunah, wears a hard hat
and shirtsleeves as he walks along the
dusty shoulder. He follows Steve
Wolff, an independent contractor in a
bright orange vest who climbs tele-
phone poles to secure bamboo posts
and a thin wire, known in Hebrew as
a lechi. They are building an eruv, a
boundary that will
enable Jews to carry on
Shabbat.
"It can be challeng-
ing," says the
Orthodox rabbi.
"There are trees in the
way [that] you have to
prune."
The growing obser-
vant community west
of Orchard Lake Road,
which is dispersed
among Ohel Moed,
Young Israel-West
Bloomfield, B'nai
Israel-Shan rey Zedek
and B'nai Moshe, has
faced one obstacle: On
Shabbat, Jews are pro-
hibited from carrying
anything from a pri-
vate to a public
domain, including a
baby stroller or wheel-
chair. (A private
domain includes only
an enclosed area; a per-
son's yard qualifies as
Rabbi Eli Jundef works with independent contractor Steve Wolff to construct an eruv in West Bloomfield.

6/5
1998

8

.

it's wonderful that we have this variety
and diversity in our community."
Jundef has knocked on doors in the
neighborhood to request permission
for the eruv to run across private prop-
erty. We are grateful to many proper-
ty owners who were sensitive to the
needs of the handicapped and families
with small children, to use their prop-
erty to make the eruv," he said.
Dr. Steve Borzak, a member of the
Eruv Committee, said the group has
raised about half of the $25,000 need-
ed to build the eruv. That amount
covers construction and the first year
of maintenance, including employing
somedne to check the eruv every
Friday to make sure it's intact for
Shabbat.
,-/
"We're raising the money as we
go along, doing construction bit by bit
as we get more money. Rabbi Jundef
has donated probably 1,000 hours of
his time without compensation,"
Borzak said.
The eruv could be completed this
summer. Detroit Edison and
Ameritech "have been very coopera-
tive. It's a difficult concept to explain
to a non-Jew, even tough to explain to
a Jew," he said.
"We have a child 7 1/2 months old,
so it's going to make a huge difference
for my wife, who generally stays at
home with the kids," Borzak said.
"Ideally, the boundaries of the eruv
would be much larger, but because of
the difficulty involved and the
wetlands and the terrain, Rabbi
Jundef chose to go for an expedi-
tious two- square-mile area."
The rabbi excluded wetlands
- from the enclosure by closing off
non-traversable parts of the
township with a separate eruv.
An eruv must contain only land
that people can walk across,
Jundef said.
Said Borzak, "It really is a
community eruv, not just one
shul. Rabbi [Leonardo] Bitran of
B'nai Israel-Shan rey Zedek was
very enthusiastic; he sees it as
representing a real growth oppor-
tunity for his shul as well. There
are people who prefer a
Conservative shul who would
hold by the concept of eruv, not
carry on Shabbos because of [the
lack of an] eruv."

❑

Donations can be made to the
West Bloomfield Eruv
Committee, 5188 Kingsfield
Dr., West Bloomfield, 48322.