Can A Drone Be Used To Check An Eiruv?

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hecking a community eiruv is time-consuming, complicated, and frequently dangerous — due to the need to climb tall ladders and occasionally stop traffic, among other situations. Using a small commercial drone, an unmanned aircraft system equipped with a high-resolution camera, the eiruv checker could remotely inspect complicated spaces up close with precision, convenience, and most importantly, with complete safety. But would it be halachically permissible?

FIRST, WHAT IS AN EIRUV? 

Among the creative labors prohibited on Shabbos by the Torah is carrying between a reshus hayachid, an enclosed space, and a reshus harabim, a public, unenclosed area. Additionally, carrying over a distance of four amos (approximately 6 feet or 1.8 m) is forbidden inside a reshus harabim. Carrying within a reshus hayachid is permissible..

An area is defined as a reshus hayachid if it is an enclosed space. It can be closed off with walls, fences, doors, buildings, hills, or canal banks. Two polls with a lintel that passes over them constitute a tzuras hapesach, a doorway. A “wall” can be formed by successive “doorways.” Most community eiruvin rely, at least in part, on electric polls with wires passing over them. There are many intricate and complicated laws governing eiruvin, and one should only rely on an eiruv designed and supervised by a qualified expert.

KNOWLEDGE OR WITNESSING? 

Each week we rely on chazakah, the assumption of status quo, when we carry during Shabbos, based on the confidence that the eiruv was kosher when Shabbos began and nothing changed. How are we able to attain this knowledge? Some areas of halachah demand witnesses who watch an event or occurrence. For example, for a couple to be married, witnesses must directly observe the transmission of the ring from the groom to the bride. For a couple to get divorced, witnesses must watch the transfer of the get. The question of whether something observed via a camera is considered “witnessing” is debated among poskim, and due to the lack of consensus, it has not been put into practice.