For those not in the know, Jews view everything in their torah as something that can be bargained with. That is, they are the descendants of the pharisees — they view their god as a merchant god who is willing to make a deal on everything, and the letter of the law rather than the intent is what matters. This is to be contrasted with the omnipotent Christian God whose word is immutable, it is the law. They even have entire books dedicated to this such as the talmud, full of rabbinical debates on the best way to get around biblical laws.
This is not something jews will deny in the slightest, it's just never talked about and it's fascinating.
- Jews hang thin lines around their entire living areas — that is, not their house but their city areas — because they believe that it then counts as 'indoors' and therefore can walk around freely carrying objects in the area because they aren't allowed to go outside:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eruv
An eruv ([(ʔ)eˈʁuv]; Hebrew: עירוב, lit. 'mixture', also transliterated as eiruv or erub, plural: eruvin [(ʔ)eʁuˈvin] or eruvim) is a ritual halakhic enclosure made for the purpose of allowing activities which are normally prohibited on Shabbat (due to the prohibition of hotzaah mereshut lereshut), specifically: carrying objects from a private domain to a semi-public domain (carmelit), and transporting objects four cubits or more within a semi-public domain. The enclosure is found within some Jewish communities, especially Orthodox ones.
An eruv accomplishes this by symbolically integrating a number of private properties and spaces such as streets and sidewalks into one larger "private domain" by surrounding it with mechitzas, thereby avoiding restrictions of transferring between domains. Often a group constructing an eruv obtains a lease to the required land from a local government.[1]
An eruv allows Jews to carry, among other things, house keys, tissues, medication, or babies with them, and to use strollers and canes – all of which are otherwise forbidden from being carried outside one’s home during Shabbat, in the absence of an eruv.
