His voice trailed off.

“But what?” I prompted. “What’s the problem?”

The volunteers’ red faces flicked on a dubious lightbulb in my head. “Wait, are you telling me you’re not sure where the eiruv goes next?” I said, trying to not to display my incredulity.

They slowly nodded.

Swallowing a million things I would have liked to blurt out, I managed, “Oh, okay, well, let’s figure it out, since we’re already here.”

Taking notes on my phone, we traced a usable cable across the intersection and down Willow Street. Noting a broken conduit pole, I saw that the eiruv had indeed come this way, but was in clear need of repair. It also looked as if these lines had been moved multiple times recently, as new and old poles were clustered together in pairs along the length of the street. Clearly, the poles and lines at this intersection had been moved around in the recent past, and the eiruv checkers had lost track of what was being used for the eiruv. Not having a specific rabbi to consult and also not wanting to ask a self-incriminating question, the checkers had simply ignored this area over the past several months, hoping that the eiruv had sorted itself out when the utility work was over.

I refrained from commenting so as not to further embarrass the checkers, but inside I was boiling. An entire community was being mechallel Shabbos every week because the eiruv committee had no clear procedures for how to call in an expert when professional help was needed!

That year, a new “minhag” was born. Whenever I would come to town to check the eiruv, I would schedule a “continuing education” shiur for the eiruv checkers. Focusing on practical halachah, with pictures and videos from their very own eiruv, we review the concepts of what constitutes a tzuras hapesach, (a halachic doorway); what tricky situations tend to occur in this eiruv; and how to determine if a given situation is kosher, passul, or coming close to being passul. These focused learning sessions have greatly improved the knowledge of the checkers and the quality of their eiruv checking over the years.

And that’s why the weekly text messages make my heart sing. Today, the eiruv checkers are able to use their expanded halachic knowledge to do excellent checking. And when they don’t know, they know that, too. They’re not ashamed to reach out and ask for guidance, and together we work out the issues.

At this point, I think we can finally say that we’ve got proper boundaries in place.

*Locations have been changed to protect the identity of those involved.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1096)