As the worldwide Daf Yomi community prepared to begin Masechta Eruvin this past week, OU’s AllDaf app added new content to its offerings. “Bringing Eruvin to Life” is a new video series on the app, featuring Rabbi Haim Jachter, a renowned expert on eruvin. A beloved Jewish Link columnist, Rabbi Jachter is also the spiritual leader of Congregation Shaarei Orah of Teaneck, Shaarei Orah and a rebbe at TABC. A dayan on the Beth Din of Elizabeth and a widely published author, including a new one specifically about eruvin, he has also consulted with more than 60 communities on eruvin-related matters.

Rabbi Jachter sought to explain the power and importance of learning about eruvin, the halachic enclosures that must be designed and built for each specific community, for the purpose of allowing activities, like carrying objects or pushing strollers and wheelchairs, which are normally prohibited on Shabbat and Yom Kippur. “It’s hard to imagine how profound it is, how deep the feeling is that the Gemara is on your telephone pole. It’s so mundane, but you’re elevating it,” Rabbi Jachter told
The Jewish Link.

AllDaf, launched at the beginning of the current Daf Yomi cycle this past January, features shiurim from notable Gemara educators, offering users a variety of teachers and styles to enhance their daily learning. In addition to sharing full-length Daf Yomi shiurim, the site includes topically arranged series that focus on different areas of Torah and different frameworks within which Gemara can be explored. It also offers insightful supplemental content pertaining to each daf, such as source sheets delving into relevant halachic topics and summaries of issues featured in that day’s learning.

Rabbi David Pardo, managing director of the OU’s Torah Initiatives department, said that the goal of AllDaf is “to increase accessibility to the highest quality learning as much as possible both by increasing the variety of people’s learning and curating extremely high-quality content.”

As part of the introductory videos on Masechet Eruvin, Rabbi Jachter discusses eruv issues “from the field,” of the Teaneck eruv, pointing to and focusing on various wires, trees and connectors as he explains the meaning of halachic terms. He provides concise but detailed summaries, exploring how the existing landscape manifests in real-life situations in this specific eruv. Topics such as how to construct a halachic door frame using wires and telephone poles and how to exclude highways from the area enclosed by the eruv.

While the videos were conceived to introduce lomdim to the new masechta, Rabbi Jachter expressed the hope that the videos can also serve as a resource that contributes to people’s understanding and appreciation of the eruv’s role in Jewish life.

“Even absent Daf Yomi, people need to learn about eruvin,” Rabbi Jacher said. “The eruv should be on the radar. People benefit from the eruv…and sort of know it’s there, but there’s very little practical awareness of it.”

Aside from spreading greater awareness of how eruvin work, Rabbi Jachter also singled out its unique qualities as inspiring him to devote his time to advising and educating communities on eruv-related matters.

After describing his hours spent checking the Teaneck eruv before Tisha B’Av with a colleague, Rabbi Jacher reiterated, “We did that out of love. It’s out of love for Hashem, and the mitzvot and taking Torah and making it very real.”

Rabbi Jachter’s efforts to share his passion and expertise for eruvin do not stop with AllDaf, as he has authored a new book, “Walking the Line: Hilchot Eruvin From the Sources to the Streets,” which is available on Amazon. The book begins by reviewing the theories that govern how eruvin function, and follows with an in-depth look into the process of assembling, maintaining and inspecting an eruv, providing many case studies of eruvin from diverse locales across the globe.

Rabbi Jachter describes his book as an aid for those learning Daf Yomi, as a resource for the upkeep of local eruvin, and as a tool to enhance understanding of the eruv in general. When asked how people can actualize their newfound knowledge regarding eruvin, Rabbi Jachter advised that all one needs to do is to ask their rabbi how they can get involved.

AllDaf and the “Bringing Eruvin to Life” series represent the heightened capacity to connect far greater numbers of Jews to Torah in the digital age. Receiving an unprecedented amount of feedback since AllDaf went online, Rabbi Pardo commented, “Not a day goes by where we don’t receive messages from someone thanking the creators of AllDaf for bringing learning back into their life, or for making Torah enjoyable again.”

AllDaf is available on the Apple store and Google Play. To purchase Rabbi Jachter’s book, visit https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08F9T287Z

By Yosef Press and Jewish Link Staff