A community Eruv (Hebrew: ערוב mixture, also transliterated as Eiruv or Erub, plural: Eruvin) is a symbolic boundary that allows Jews who observe the traditional rules concerning Shabbat to carry certain items outside the walls of their own property (including outdoors and to other areas in a shared dwelling) that would otherwise be forbidden during Shabbat. It is more properly known as an eruv chatzerot (Hebrew: ערוב חצרות).
The validity of an eruv requires a set of walls or a fence — either real or symbolic — that surrounds an area containing anything from a single private home and its yard, to an entire Jewish neighborhood, permitting carrying within its boundaries. In contemporary Jewish discourse, "an eruv" frequently refers to this symbolic "fence," (actually "doorframe/s") rather than the eruv itself. However, the term eruv actually refers to the process of sharing ownership within the enclosed domain..
