Mara d'asra and member of the Crown Heights Beis Din
Rabbi Avrohom Osdoba's Rulings on the Crown Heights Eruv
Rabbi Avrohom Osdoba has addressed the Crown Heights eruv repeatedly as a mara d'asra of the neighborhood. His rulings prohibit carrying and reject attempts to interpret his earlier correspondence as approval of the proposed eruv.
His earlier letter gave no permission
After a private letter of his was circulated as though it supported the new eruv, Rabbi Osdoba issued a clarification. The earlier letter, he wrote, contained “no permission or agreement to make an eruv” and could not be used to suggest otherwise (8 Iyar 5776).
The clarification removed the premise on which the private letter was being publicized. It did not leave the route awaiting a minor repair or further inspection; it denied that Rabbi Osdoba had authorized the project in the first place.
No valid eruv anywhere in Crown Heights
Together with Rabbi Shlomo Yehuda Halevi Segal, Rabbi Osdoba then ruled that no halachically valid eruv existed anywhere within the boundaries of Crown Heights. The ruling prohibits carrying from one domain to another and carrying through a reshus harabim on both Shabbos and Yom Kippur (Sivan 5776).
The same ruling situates the decision within the earlier position of Rabbi Zalman Shimon Dworkin and the large-city rulings led by Rav Moshe Feinstein. It speaks directly to the neighborhood while recognizing the broader Brooklyn setting.
The prohibition was repeated
When advertisements for the eruv appeared again, Rabbi Osdoba and Rabbi Braun restated that carrying was forbidden and that the earlier Crown Heights Rabbonim had rejected the proposal. Their next notice answered a new argument based on exterior walls and ruled that it made “no change whatsoever” to the psak.
The most recent notice in the present collection again prohibits carrying in Crown Heights. Rabbi Osdoba's handwritten signature appears above his name on that notice (4 Tishrei 5786).