eruv

Pronounced “AE-roov.” A symbolic enclosure in which observant Orthodox Jews are permitted to perform tasks that would otherwise be forbidden, such as carrying items on the Sabbath and other holy days from one “domain” to another. (The area surrounded by the eruv is considered to be a single “domain.”) Dictated by Jewish law, eruvin (the plural form) are unbroken boundaries rabbis erect by attaching strips of plastic or cloth to public utility poles. They occasionally have been the subject of lawsuits by non-Jews.