SEFER EIRUV VE-HOTSA’AH (RESPONSUM AND LETTERS PERMITTING CARRYING ON THE SABBATH IN PARTS OF THE EAST SIDE OF MANHATTAN), RABBI JOSHUA SEIGEL, NEW YORK: ZE’EV WOLF HIRSCHSPRUNG OF KRAKOW, 1907

SEFER EIRUV VE-HOTSA’AH (RESPONSUM AND LETTERS PERMITTING CARRYING ON THE SABBATH IN PARTS OF THE EAST SIDE OF MANHATTAN), RABBI JOSHUA SEIGEL, NEW YORK: ZE’EV WOLF HIRSCHSPRUNG OF KRAKOW, 1907

56 pages (7 1/4 x 4 3/4 in.; 185 x 121 mm).

Rabbi Joseph Seigel (1845-1910) was born in Kuczbork, Poland. He began his rabbinic career in his native country, but due to the opposition of local Hasidim to his leadership and his meager salary, he immigrated to the United States about 1875/1884, settling in New York. In the present work, Seigel argued that Jews living on parts of Manhattan’s East Side could carry outside on the Sabbath because the East River, Harlem River, and Third Avenue’s elevated train tracks constituted a halakhic eiruv that rendered the area all one legal “domain” for such purposes. Appended to Seigel’s responsum are letters of support from other rabbinic authorities. Still, Seigel’s position was deemed controversial by many and even caused a split among his followers.