[Avodah] Eruvin in Pre-War Europe: An Eyewitness Account

[Prof. Levine]

 From 
http://eruvonline.blogspot.com/2008/11/eruvin-in-pre-war-europe-eyewitness.html 


Rabbi Poliakoff, a Baltimore native,  studied in the Telshe and 
Slabodka Yeshivas in Europe. He served as a chaplain during WW II.


Minhagei Lita

Customs of Lithuanian Jewry


By Rabbi Menachem Mendel Poliakoff

Eruv

It is a mitzvah to establish an eruv, and Chazal even instituted a 
brachah for setting one up. Additionally, the local Rabbi is 
obligated to establish an eruv for his community. There was hardly a 
community in pre-war Lithuanian, Poland, or Russia without an eruv. I 
surmise the same was true regarding Rumania, Austria, Hungary, and 
Czechoslovakia. There were also eruvin in Vienna and Paris.

Today many American communities have an eruv, which is as it 
appropriate, and in consonance with the halachah. Whoever instituted 
them deserves commendation. However, in keeping with the spirit of 
extremism in vogue these days, some people think they are 
demonstrating great piety by publicly refusing to rely on the eruv. 
Those who ostentatiously refuse to use the eruv cause the uninformed 
to feel guilty for using it. They are also violating halachah 
(Shulchan Aruch, 366:13). Even worse, the Talmudic Sages and later 
authorities would have accused them of being apikorsim [heretics] 
(Eruvin 31b, Mishnah and Rashi, 61b, Rabbeinu Yehonasan, and Shulchan 
Aruch 385:1). The Sages of the Talmud highly praise King Solomon, and 
expressed their gratitude to him for instituting the laws of eruv, 
hailing it as one of the most important rabbinic regulations ever 
enacted. Consequently, they frowned upon people who impeded those who 
sought to install and use an eruv.

The knowledgeable dissenters base their objection on the Chafetz 
Chaim's ruling in his Mishnah Berurah.

I am well aware of the Mishnah Berurah's strong objection to the 
eruvin we have installed during the 20th century all over the world, 
and I am shocked. His objection is not new. It has been a point of 
contention for hundreds of years, and it is evident the overwhelming 
majority of the great scholars disagreed with this objection. Proof 
of this is there was no community large or small without an eruv, 
despite the objection of the Mishnah Berurah and those who preceded him.

See the URL for the rest. YL
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