The Jewish community in Markham, Ont., is now within the Toronto eruv, as of mid-September.
The Markham eruv extension
The completion of the project, which represents an extension of the Toronto eruv, marks the end of a 13-year period when the area east of Yonge Street and north of Steeles Avenue – Toronto’s northern limit – didn’t have an approved boundary within which observant Jews could carry items or push a stroller or wheelchair on Shabbat.
The addition of Markham improves the entire Toronto eruv, because the new eastern and northern borders (along highways 404 and 407 respectively) now rely more on walls and fences that serve as highway and railway safety barriers, instead of relying on hydro poles, said Rabbi Avraham Plotkin, spiritual leader of Chabad Lubavitch of Markham.
Rabbi Plotkin, whose synagogue spearheaded the eruv effort over the past couple of years, said the project’s cost was approximately $18,000. More than half that amount – about $10,000 – went toward adjustments to existing hydro poles.
Work included completion of the “walls” that form the eruv by creating so-called “doorways” using hydro poles and strong nylon wire attached on top of them.
“The poles are like the doorposts, and the wire becomes like the lintel of the door,” said Rabbi Plotkin.
A committee of about a dozen people was involved in the eruv project. In addition to financing – some of which Thornhill’s Shaar Shalom Synagogue helped with – approval was needed from the Town of Markham in order to proceed, Rabbi Plotkin said.
“We’re very excited,” the rabbi said. The completion of the new eruv provides “an opportunity for many more young families to move into the area,” he added. “It makes it much more easy for families to be able to keep Shabbat.”
The area has a Jewish population of about 12,000, with about 370 families belonging to Chabad Lubavitch of Markham, according to Rabbi Plotkin.
For the rabbi himself, the new eruv means, among other things, that he can carry his tallit on Shabbat instead of wearing it. A more challenging issue has been bringing the Plotkins’ special-needs child to shul. In the past, they would manage as best they could, or engage the services of a non-Jewish person, he said.
“The eruv is very liberating.”
Toronto’s eruv – which dates back to 1922 and has been updated several times since then – used to include the Markham area. However, it was excluded in 1996 when Toronto’s eruv committee, in consultation with Rabbi Shlomo Miller, rosh kollel of Toronto’s Kollel Avreichim, sought to establish an eruv that didn’t rely on heterim (special halachic authorizations), according to the website of the Toronto eruv.
The eruv is checked weekly to ensure that it is intact. Its status can be verified online at torontoeruv.org, or by calling 416-350-2879.
