My household is facing a lot of upheaval. The 100-year-old house next door was recently demolished, as the new owners wanted to live in an \u201cold house neighbourhood\u201d but in a new house. Their choice has been hard for us. It doesn\u2019t preserve history and it\u2019s not environmentally sustainable. The demolition and excavation are loud, and the shaking and vibrating has damaged our house and the neighbours\u2019 homes, too. It\u2019s a hard situation and we\u2019ve got nowhere else to go, especially during a pandemic.<\/p>\n
Years ago, when our twins were toddlers, we built a sturdy wooden fence around our front yard, to match the taller fence in the backyard. This fence has been a blessing. It\u2019s kept kids and dogs safe, not to mention balls, badminton shuttlecocks, and more. Anything that strayed over the fence in any way \u2013 like, say, squash and cucumber vines \u2013 were completely trashed during this construction, which left a bare, muddy cavern on the other side. It\u2019s been unsettling.<\/p>\n
This physical boundary reminds me of other ones with which we\u2019re all reckoning. As the pandemic continues, mask wearing and physically distancing from others has to be absolutely ingrained in us. Yet, articles online mention parents who hate having to enforce mask wearing with their kids, or how friends must make difficult decisions about whether to hang out with others who won\u2019t wear masks. Our public health officials warn against mask shaming but these boundaries, these masks, are part of what keeps us safer.<\/p>\n
This goes further, when considering how people manage remote school, work and public interactions where, frankly, all the rules have changed. Every family home, workplace and even transportation has changed. We set up boundaries \u2013 we build both physical and imaginary fences, through Plexiglass partitions and dots on the ground, to keep ourselves safe.<\/p>\n
As Jews, none of this should be new to us, because the rabbis loved a good boundary! Whether it\u2019s deciding what can or can\u2019t be done on Shabbat, or how to manage keeping kosher, there are rules everywhere in Torah and rabbinic teachings. The rules, however, aren\u2019t always clear or easy to follow. It requires both study and thought to decide what will work \u2013 and it isn\u2019t always obvious how a Jewish person should interpret those rules or what\u2019s important to follow.<\/p>\n
Lately, I\u2019ve been reading about how an eruv can work, because I\u2019m studying Daf Yomi <\/em>(a page of Talmud a day) and have been working through tractate Eruvin. What\u2019s an eruv? Well, a simple definition (straight from the internet) is: \u201cAn urban area enclosed by a wire boundary which symbolically extends the private domain of Jewish households into public areas, permitting activities within it that are normally forbidden in public on the Sabbath.\u201d<\/p>\n If you\u2019ve wondered why it\u2019s OK, in some traditional Jewish neighbourhoods, for people to push strollers or carry food over to a friend\u2019s house on Shabbat, well, it\u2019s because they\u2019ve created this special ritual space. This creates a single \u201cprivate space\u201d that connects a whole community of homes. The eruv is so important in some places that it causes housing prices to go up within its borders.<\/p>\n Many times, I\u2019ve heard complaints from people about how \u201cthere are too many rules\u201d in some context or other. Whether it\u2019s \u201cfences cut up the landscape in our neighbourhood,\u201d \u201cWhy can\u2019t we eat in this room in the community centre?\u201d or, from parents, \u201cIt\u2019s so hard to make kids wear masks or stick to this rigid schedule.\u201d However, for many, creating routine, structure and boundaries, physical or psychological, helps us in so many ways.<\/p>\n The example of the Shabbat and festival eruv is a way to see rules in a positive light. If the \u201crules\u201d state that we cannot do something in the public sphere on Shabbat, look at how we can get around this by using an eruv, the rabbis say \u2013 we create a huge private \u201chome\u201d out of all of our homes. What a rich way to build community, belonging and togetherness!<\/p>\n Even if we\u2019re not Shabbat observant or using an eruv, this is a reminder of why fences and boundaries can be used for good. Without our sturdy wooden fence, I suspect our kids and dog might fall into the enormous excavation hole and construction site next door. Without those masks or social distancing rules, we\u2019d have to stay home completely during the pandemic.<\/p>\n It takes all of us to make boundaries work effectively. As Robert Frost writes in \u201cMending Walls,\u201d there is a lot of resistance to walls. From hunters to animals to elves \u2013 \u201cSomething there is that doesn\u2019t love a wall.\u201d<\/p>\n However, Frost\u2019s neighbour reminds us, \u201cGood fences make good neighbours.\u201d A boundary can keep us inside a rich and loving community. It can also keep us physically safe from harm or psychologically safe, by creating structure and limits to our days.<\/p>\n For now, we all need to embrace these boundaries. We must use these fences and walls to bolster us onwards, as we shelter through the winter and pandemic, even beyond the temporary walls of Sukkot.<\/p>\n Joanne Seiff <\/strong>has written regularly for CBC Manitoba and various Jewish publications. She is the author of three books, including <\/em>From the Outside In: Jewish Post Columns 2015-2016, a collection of essays available for digital download or as a paperback from Amazon. Check her out on Instagram @yrnspinner<\/a> or at joanneseiff.blogspot.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My household is facing a lot of upheaval. The 100-year-old house next door was recently demolished, as the new owners wanted to live in an \u201cold house neighbourhood\u201d but in a new house. Their choice has been hard for us. It doesn\u2019t preserve history and it\u2019s not environmentally sustainable. 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