Standing in the cherry picker high above his truck, hard hat protecting his head, Rabbi Rafael Shmerla worked steadily in the hot sun, screwing a long black rod onto the telephone pole before him.

When he is done installing the plastic rods on 250 poles, this growing suburban community will have its first eruv, a boundary of string and existing fencing that forms a symbolic Shabbat border for observant Jews.

In many towns, the construction of an eruv has touched off debates on church and state, and conflict between Orthodox and non-Orthodox Jews, for starters.

In Manalapan, the eruv is generating interest mainly in the local real estate market. Susan Tarnoff, a sales associate with Weichert Realtors, said she has seen an estimated 20-25 percent increase in inquiries, which she expects will lead to sales.

In addition to local people who want to move within the eruv, others are coming from elsewhere in New Jersey and from out of state. Most have been referred to her by the rabbi behind the eruv, Rabbi Chaim Veshnefsky of the Jewish Learning Center Synagogue in Manalapan.

The eruv clinched the deal for Eli and Lauren Levy, an Orthodox couple with two small children who moved to Manalapan from Brooklyn in April. He commutes every day to Brooklyn, where he is a warehouse manager for Mesorah Books. His two sisters live in the area, he said, and the eruv made it possible for him to join them.

"I wanted my wife to be able to come to shul with the children," he said.

The eruv demarcates an area within which observant Jews may carry objects as well as push strollers on Shabbat. The eruv effectively defines the borders of a new or extant Orthodox community.

Last September, Lisa and Lewis Baron moved to a larger house in Manalapan and insisted their new home be located inside the eruv, according to Lisa. "We just had a baby, and my husband wants my son to be able to go to shul with him," she said.

"People with young families and young children really need an eruv to transport their children to shul," said Veshnefsky. "For everyone else, it's more of a convenience."

The eruv signals the dramatic growth of the Jewish Learning Center, opened five years ago by Veshnefsky with eight members. Today, there are 40 families of varying backgrounds, but about half are fully observant.

"When we first started, the eruv was not a big necessity," he said. But things have changed. The community has been steadily growing, families like the Barons have grown increasingly observant, and new fully observant families, like the Levys, are moving in.

When completed, the eruv will define an area of between 4.5 and 5 acres, with the synagogue roughly in the middle. Within the area are homes that according to Tarnoff's estimate, range in price from the low $300,000s to over $900,000, with the bulk falling in the $400,000-$600,000 range. That range is no accident. "We want to be very inclusive," said Veshnefsky.

On a recent morning, the Jewish Learning Center was buzzing with men learning downstairs. Upstairs some of Veshnefsky's children were baking cookies while he worked in his study. He isn't surprised that people want to move to Manalapan. "It's rural living. It's beautiful. It's a nice, pleasant place to live."

He defines it in terms of nearby religious communities: "It's half an hour south of Highland Park and half an hour north of Lakewood." And the best part, he said, is that it's "a lot less intense" than big cities like New York.

Spiritually, there's plenty to talk about, with classes every morning and evening and a lunchtime session as well. There are day schools and two kosher restaurants in town, plus a ShopRite Kosher Experience department.

Manalapan supports five other synagogues: the Conservative Temple Beth Shalom, Chabad Lubavitch of Western Monmouth, the Orthodox Union Hill Congregation, the traditional Congregation Sons of Israel, and the Reform Temple Shaari Emeth.

Manalapan will be the third Monmouth County town with an eruv, joining Aberdeen and Deal. Rabbi Melinda Pankin of Shaari Emeth acknowledged that although it would have little impact on her congregation, "It's always a wonderful addition to any community."

Rabbi Ira Rothstein of Beth Shalom was on vacation and could not be reached for comment.

The other Orthodox communities have been looking into erecting eruvs as well but have been stymied, according to Union Hill Congregation president Gary Steinberg. Unlike JLC, which is surrounded by homes and telephone poles, they border open fields. From the standpoint of Halacha, or Jewish law, that makes erecting an eruv more difficult.

Veshnefsky called everyone involved, both from the town council and Verizon, "very cooperative in the process."

"It went right through," he said of the approval process. "It was unanimous. There's no reason why it shouldn't. It doesn't bother anyone. It's very difficult to see — you don't even know it's there."

Other communities, notably Tenafly, have had plenty of opposition, even legal challenges based on suits against public utilities — like telephone poles — being used to accommodate a strictly religious function. Veshnefsky dismissed these as due to "either anti-Semitism or anti-Orthodoxy."

Still, it has taken nearly two years since initial approvals were received to complete the installation in Manalapan. "Working out the details with Verizon has taken time, and there can be halachic impediments in certain areas," he said. Still, he called this an "easy eruv" to install because telephone poles cover nearly the entire area. Raising money — $20,000 for this eruv — was the biggest challenge, he said.

Once installed, the synagogue will provide weekly updates as to the status of the eruv via telephone and the Web.

Outside, Shmerla has challenges of his own. Like poles covered in poison ivy. Or busy streets that need a string connecting poles hung all the way across. Or Verizon workers questioning the legality of his work. As he talks to a visitor, his work is briefly interrupted as Verizon workers question his claim on their pole and call the police. But after Officer G. Heitz inspects his papers, he returns to his work. He expects to complete the work by Aug. 15.

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