But I guess that doesn't cover the contemporary situation. It also doesn't address the eruv in Columbus, OH, which would be a prerequisite for an article of the scope the OP is asking about. — Daniel23 mins ago
@Daniel is there something special about the eiruv in Columbus?
@Daniel ok, I figured it was that. But if there were something interesting about the Columbus eiruv in particular, I was curious. (Columbus isn't that far away from me, though so far I haven't been there at a time when eiruv status would have mattered.)
@MonicaCellio It was the first city Eruv in the "new world." Lots of letters went back and forth to rabbis in Europe and elsewhere about its feasibility.
@MonicaCellio Here is a booklet published by the chief rabbi at the time proposing the eruv hebrewbooks.org/1969
As I'm sure you can guess there was a fair amount of controversy at the time. Honestly, I suspect a lot of the leniencies he used wouldn't fly today.
Part of that is the general acceptance in the modern world of Jews attaching strings and poles to things. If the locals aren't amenable to that, it becomes harder to build an Eruv without relying on certain leniencies.
Yeah, if the local government or other powers that be object, then it poses problems. I haven't read the booklet, but I imagine that use of others' property (like telephone poles) without permission would be a problem.
I'm surprised the first eiruv in the Americas was as late as 1896. Did Jews start needing to carry things they didn't previously carry, or did patterns of movement on Shabbat change, or did we stop building proper courtyards, or what?
@MonicaCellio I said "city Eruv". I suspect there were smaller ones (like surrounding a few buildings) beforehand but I'm not an expert on Jewish US history. Perhaps we should ask revolutionary war hero @IsaacMoses?
@DoubleAA good point. Maybe smaller neighborhood (or small-cluster-of-houses) eiruvim were good enough for a long time. I (casually) wonder what changed; I'm not an expert either.
I just noticed that the bottom of the circular "favorite this question" button is cut off, both on Mi Yodeya and Mi Yodeya Meta:
I spot-checked a few different questions and saw this issue on each one. I'm not sure when it started. I'm not the only user to experience this. I see this issue in...
@menachem If you have a problem, please take it to Mi Yodeya Meta or Chat, and please be polite. I flagged both your previous comment and this one as "not constructive," as such confrontation rarely is, and the comment stream on this post certainly isn't the place for it. Such flagging is a request to the mods to delete the comment. — Isaac Moses1 min ago
When I see evidence that he's read it (hopefully in the form of polite, model-fitting activity on Meta), I'll delete this.
@DoubleAA @MonicaCellio The "should be closed" flag description says that the post "is unlikely to be fixed via editing", yet I notice that currently-off-topic-but-editable posts get closed prior to their being fixed. Is there a meta post that talks about this?
@DoubleAA "Does the common non-Jewish practice of carrying a handkerchief in one's breast pocket derive from Jews and a desire to have something handy for chalifin?" Would you say this is on-topic? I'm not sure. Arguably, it's a question about "general knowledge (science, etc.) as it relates directly to Judaism".
The pulling-ear-when-sneezing question is analogous, I think.
The explanation for should be closed in the new flag dialogue for questions reads (boldface mine):
This question is completely unclear, incomplete, overly-broad, primarily opinion-based or is not about [site’s topic] as described in the help center, and it is unlikely to be fixed via editing....
@magicker72 huh, I forgot that that dialogue says that. If you can improve a question through editing and without changing the author's intent, you should edit. If the edit has to come from the author (e.g. intent is unclear), the question should be put on hold pending that -- no sense having people guessing with answers.
The one exception I see here, and I realize it's our custom but I'm personally not so keen on it, is that we make authors fix p'sak questions instead of just doing it for them. We're trying to teach, I know, but sometimes there's a good question that could be easily fixed and I want to do that. But I don't.
(Want to do that, when it's a new user. The new-user experience can be tricky here and I see this as helping, if accompanied by an explanatory comment, but I know others disagree.)
@MonicaCellio I think there's a MetaMY answer on that (possibly mine, but I forget now); did you (or someone) post a dissent? Might I encourage you to do so?
Of interest (and somewhat related to what @magicker72 just asked, but I'm posting it here actually only because I happened to just come across it):
When doing reviews for new users' questions, I come across scenarios where the user has some basic question in the title and a 'description' in the question body, but no actual question.
I'm of the opinion that regardless of the title, the body should have a complete question, then the title sho...
@MonicaCellio I'd post the same answer there, I think. My comment to @Yez was only that his proposal wouldn't quite fly. (Maybe he should post it anyway, though, come to think of it.)
@ephraimhelfgot Your question is specifically whether one is allowed to vote for a consistent liar? I thought consistent liars exist only in logic puzzles.
@ephraimhelfgot If you can formulate that into a question rather than a stream of consciousness, and it's different from the one I linked to above, then I recommend you ask it on MY. If you're here to get help formulating it into a question, perhaps some people here can help you.
@MonicaCellio @msh210 @DoubleAA Right, I thought I understood the site policy. Since the close-flag reasons have been customised for this site, I presumed that the wording on the first radio button for the close-flag itself was also intentional (but it seems as if not).
The body of this question asks specifically about the case where editing isn't possible. I'm going to give a broader response based on the question in the title.
We have a custom here of not editing people's p'sak-seeking questions for them, even when it's clear how to fix the question. I unde...
I just noticed that the bottom of the circular "favorite this question" button is cut off, both on Mi Yodeya and Mi Yodeya Meta:
I spot-checked a few different questions and saw this issue on each one. I'm not sure when it started. I'm not the only user to experience this. I see this issue in...
The explanation for should be closed in the new flag dialogue for questions reads (boldface mine):
This question is completely unclear, incomplete, overly-broad, primarily opinion-based or is not about [site’s topic] as described in the help center, and it is unlikely to be fixed via editing....
The body of this question asks specifically about the case where editing isn't possible. I'm going to give a broader response based on the question in the title.
We have a custom here of not editing people's p'sak-seeking questions for them, even when it's clear how to fix the question. I unde...
