devarim

See update in extended post

Yesterday at about noon, Rabbi G sent a message to our synagogue's email list announcing that the eruv would be down for this week. The reason, it seems, is that there are insufficient funds for the Greater Boston Eruv Corporation to check (and, if necessary, repair) the ropes, wires, and other accoutrements that make up our community eruv. From time to time, when money is low, the eruv will go unchecked for a week in the hopes that this will encourage community members (particularly those who did not pay their annual $90 dues) to donate to the GBEC.

The earliest notice I can find for the eruv downage for this Shabbat is dated November 28 (this past Monday); Julian found it on the front page of the GBEC website yesterday, but it appears to have been taken down since and I cannot find it anywhere on the site:

November 28, 2005 - No Eruv for December 2005: The 2005 fundraising effort was successful in collecting sufficient money to cover expenses through the end of November. Several announcements were made on the Status Phone Line during August and September and a small set of members responded.
We need immediate 2005 contributions (preferably from members who have not yet contributed this year) to cover the December expenses or the Eruv probably will not be available until the first Shabbat in January 2006.

If you are not sure whether you contributed during 2005, please send us your request for information about your giving history. Letters for the 2006 Fundraising Campaign should be arriving in your mailbox in early December. Please consider responding in a prompt manner.

Many if not most of the people served by the GBEC check the eruv status online, not by calling in. Why not make specific fundraising announcements on the website, particularly when funds are low? Announcements on the phone line were made in August and September...why not October and November too? Why not tell us directly, last week and the week before and the week before that, that if a fundraising goal of $X is not met by such-and-such date, the eruv will be down the week(s) of so-and-so?

Perhaps the GBEC wanted to make a point. There are several goals accomplished by actually having the eruv "down" for a Shabbat once every year or so. First and foremost, it reminds people that an eruv is merely a legal fiction, and that there remains a halachic prohibition against carrying objects (and babies) outside of your home on Shabbat. It's all too easy to forget that if you live in a place with a reliable eruv, and you never venture outside of its boundaries on Shabbat. (This is a reality for a huge proportion of the Brookline-Brighton-Newton community, since the eruv is so large. Unless you are walking over to Cambridge for a Shabbat meal, or into parts of South Brookline, you are unlikely to ever leave the eruv on any given Shabbat.) Another important goal is to make the community aware of the operating costs associated with the eruv, and to make us all miss it a little bit (and appreciate it all the more when it's there).

The problem, though, even with these noble goals, is that the short notice does a great deal of harm to the community as well. The primary issue revolves around families with infants and very young children (those requiring strollers and/or diaper bags). These children now cannot leave home for the duration of Shabbat, and for that entire time, at least one caretaker must remain home as well. In virtually all cases, the caretaker in question will be Mommy - the necessary caretaker if the child is breastfed, and the likely candidate at least during services, since men are obligated to daven with a minyan (and therefore must go to shul) while women are not. So, first problem: Mom's going stir-crazy, along with the kiddies. Great. I'm not stuck in such a situation, but I can imagine the frustration. Given the month I just had, if I were told yesterday that I couldn't go to shul tonight and tomorrow, and likely couldn't see my friends, I'd be a wee bit pissed. Tell me that it's planned, and fixable, but going to happen anyway, and I'd be really pissed.

Next problem: families with small children can't go anywhere. Like meals. Which are the main form of socialization for many members of a frum community. And also, y'know, the way people get food. Thursday afternoon is not really a ton of notice for a family that was planning to be "out" for one or both Shabbat meals to pull together meals of their own, especially if both parents work outside the home (and especially this time of year, when many of us work late Monday through Thursday in order to leave early on Friday). The money that this family may have contributed to the GBEC is now likely to go to expensive prepared Shabbat foods as they scramble to get everything in place. And it's not like they can pull together a potluck with their friends...it's difficult to coordinate getting all the food to one location before Shabbat, and more likely than not most of their friends also have young children and are in the sae can't-go-anywhere predicament.

Furthermore, Thursday afternoon is a wee bit late for the hosts who invited these families over, who probably spent a significant amount of time and money purchasing (and preparing) perishable foods for their guests. Again, more wasted money (and food, and effort), coupled probably with a great deal of ill will.

If planned down-time is a necessity, for whatever reason, wouldn't a little more advance notice be in order? I'm not fully convinced that we need to have the eruv purposely down to make a point (any point), but if the Powers That Be think we do, is it too much to ask that they let us know in time to work around it?

Update: The Boston Eruv Committee sent the following message to be distributed to the Jewish-Boston email list:

The total estimated need for December is $2800. It is a five-Thursday month so there is an extra week of salary that the checkers will receive and of course an extra week for possible bucket truck rental and repairs. This would entail getting about 30-35 responses of $90 from people for THIS year very soon.

As far as this week, I already notified the checkers (they usually start early this morning) and the contracting company (they charge us a weekly retainer fee that we don't want to incur if we are not checking the Eruv) that we would not have the Eruv this week.

With enough financial support coming in between today and early next week to cover the balance of the month, I don't see why we would have any problems next week. It all depends on the response.

Jesse

Remember that anyone who has not yet given this year can go to our website, www.bostoneruv.org and pay securely by credit card using Paypal.

$2800? This is all over $2800? I'm fairly certain that a well-targeted (y'know, actually announced) request for funding, back in October or November, would have taken care of the $2800 without much trouble. Of course, nowthat this week is already out of the picture, the needed funds should be dropping back to about $2240. Not to mention...this shortfall wasn't foreseeable? The dues can't be recalculated? There isn't a better way to make sure that more community members pay their dues? From what I understand, there is significant motivation within the greater community to volunteer for fundraising and oversight, but no adequate way to organize and take advantage of this motivation. It would be nice to see GBEC accounting and management made a bit more public. Our shul opens up its books to members once a year; if I'm a member of the GBEC, shouldn't I expect the same from them?