I was starting to feel a bit desperate, until I suddenly remembered that historical precedent was on our side

Photos: AbstractZen

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lected officials don’t like to play around with bribery, and Sheriff Chronister of Hillsborough County, Florida was no exception. He shook his head, eyes narrowed suspiciously, when I showed up at his office to offer him money. The “favor” I was paying for? Bringing the Tampa eiruv into existence. The amount I was paying? One whole dollar.

Sechirus reshus (literally, “renting permission,”) is an important component of the eiruv-building process. An eiruv turns public property and other people’s private property all into one big private domain (halachically speaking), where Jews can carry on Shabbos as if inside their own homes. The mechanism for this magical transformation from public property to private is the sechirus reshus — a rental agreement where the Jews of the city lease the public property from a city official for a nominal amount of money. The public official who conducts this rental must be someone who has the authority to enter into all areas of the city, which in most cases, is the mayor, police chief, or county sheriff.

Which is why I was doggedly trying to talk Sheriff Chronister into taking my money on behalf of Tampa’s Jewish community, and he was just as resolutely refusing. No amount of halachic reasoning (“But the whole eiruv won’t be usable without this payment!”) or logical reasoning (“It’s only a dollar!”) could convince the straightlaced sheriff to put his job on the line. I was starting to feel a bit desperate, until I suddenly remembered that historical precedent was on our side.