Rabbinic Rulings on Carrying in Crown Heights, 2015–2026

Carrying in the neighborhood streets

The first signed notice issued after the eruv was publicized did not leave the public waiting for the technical discussion to be completed. Rabbi Aharon Yaakov Schwei and Rabbi Yosef Yeshaya Braun gave the practical psak: “On Shabbos it is absolutely forbidden to carry in the streets of the neighborhood.” They added that the eruv being presented for Crown Heights was “treated as nonexistent” (2 Iyar 5776).

The footnote to that notice names the questions that stood behind the psak: reshus harabim, the calculation of shishim ribo, seratya and platya, the construction of a tzuras hapesach, the kinds of walls and gates required, sechiras reshus, and shitufei mevo'os. The notice did not reduce the issue to a single disputed wire or intersection.

The Beis Din psak in full

Rabbi Osdoba: no agreement to establish an eruv

Rabbi Avrohom Osdoba wrote separately after an earlier letter of his was circulated as support. His clarification says: “It never entered my mind to agree to build an eruv in our neighborhood.” He continued that such an eruv was not halachically possible according to the Alter Rebbe's approach or according to other poskim (8 Iyar 5776).

The same letter records Rabbi Yehuda Leib Groner's report of the Rebbe's words: “I will not permit an eruv to be made here in the neighborhood.” Rabbi Osdoba concluded that no one may assist or support the construction of an eruv in Crown Heights.

Rabbi Osdoba's clarification

No valid eruv within Crown Heights

Rabbi Osdoba and Rabbi Shlomo Yehuda Halevi Segal addressed the whole neighborhood: “There is no halachically valid eruv anywhere within the boundaries of the neighborhood.” They prohibited both carrying from one domain to another and carrying in a reshus harabim on Shabbos and Yom Kippur (Sivan 5776).

Their psak places Crown Heights in an earlier line of rulings. It cites Rabbi Zalman Shimon Dworkin, the former mara d'asra, together with the American and Canadian poskim led by Rav Moshe Feinstein, and states that a kosher eruv could not be established in the city.

The Osdoba-Segal psak

Local conditions are decided by the local Rabbonim

The Beis Din quoted the instruction that “the Rabbonim who know the conditions of the place” must decide whether an eruv should be made in that place. A second letter cites Rabbi Shmuel Wosner's ruling that eruvin should not be decided from a distance: “The matter rests upon the Rabbonim who are on site.”

That authority covers more than construction. It includes the status of the streets, the halachic design, the complete route, the communal acquisition and sechiras reshus, the standards for inspection, and the instruction given when a problem cannot be repaired. The Crown Heights Beis Din did not accept the proposed system.

• The Beis Din letter of 20 Sivan
• The Beis Din letter of 23 Sivan

The position of the Crown Heights Beis Din

Rabbi Osdoba and Rabbi Braun named the Rabbonim whose position they were restating: the two signers, Rabbi Aharon Yaakov Schwei, and before them Rabbi Zalman Shimon Dworkin. Their words were “categorical rejection.” They then repeated the practical instruction: “On Shabbos it is absolutely forbidden to carry in the streets of the neighborhood, and this ‘eruv’ is treated as nonexistent.” (Erev Sukkos 5782).

The notice also quotes the earlier New York warning that even if an eruv were erected in a neighborhood without a heter, adults and minors were not to carry within it. It again places the decision with the Rabbonim familiar with the conditions of Crown Heights.

The Erev Sukkos psak

The claimed exterior walls

A later version of the proposed enclosure relied on purported walls outside Crown Heights. Rabbi Osdoba and Rabbi Braun addressed that proposal expressly. They wrote that the new publicity produced “no change whatsoever” in the categorical rejection already issued by the local Rabbonim (20 Teves 5783).

Their conclusion remained the same: carrying in the streets was absolutely forbidden, and the eruv was treated as nonexistent. The question was not left open pending another percentage calculation or an outside endorsement.

The psak concerning exterior walls

Shabbos and Yom Kippur

Before Yom Kippur 5786, the Beis Din again addressed residents and guests. The notice prohibits carrying in a reshus harabim and transferring from one domain to another “in any manner” throughout Crown Heights and its vicinity on Shabbos and Yom Kippur.

The instruction covers the ordinary cases for which people seek an eruv. A stroller, key, machzor, tallis, food, or other needed object is not permitted merely because the purpose is important. Medical danger is governed by the halachos of pikuach nefesh and does not depend on an eruv.

The current Beis Din notice

The written psak through 2026

The chronology is useful because it shows when each question reached the Beis Din. The dates are not separate positions: the later pages repeat the same practical halacha while addressing new publicity, new attributions, and a new exterior-wall proposal.