HaGaon HaRav Yitzchak Zilberstein on Monday published a letter, signed by Rosh Yeshivah HaGaon HaRav Gershon Edelstein, against firecrackers ahead of the upcoming Yom Tov of Purim. “My dear brothers. I came to warn about the spilling of innocent blood וְלָאָרֶץ לֹא יְכַפֶּר לַדָּם אֲשֶׁר שֶׁפַּךְ בָּהּ (במדבר לה לג). Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave us the kodesh day of Yom HaPurim which is like Kippurim, and unfortunately, it has been transformed into a day of bloodshed. I know of children who threw firecrackers and caused women situations of pikuach nefesh mamash, there are children whose fingers were cut off, and people who were blinded.” “One who sells firecrackers or a father who allows his children to use them – what will he answer on Yom HaDin?” “And it’s written in the sefer Moed L’Kol Chai (in the introduction) that the use of gunpowder stems from the nations of the world, and it’s not appropriate for the Jewish nation in any place and at any time to do so, and the one who does so violates ‘You should not do as their deeds.’ “And he writes that at first, the Beis Din would inform the Bnei HaGolah (Diasporah) when Rosh Chodesh was determined by raising torches, and they would light up the entire Golah like a bonfire. It wasn’t announced by a ‘reed of fire” or like, for they are weapons and instruments of death which are designed for calamity – because the moedei Hashem were given for life and not death.” “And even if there is nothing deadly in it, its sound alone, when it’s set off suddenly, can cause a person to tremble and panic. These instruments of death shouldn’t be used in any form even on Purim and at weddings.” (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

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