HaGaon HaRav Yitzchak Zilberstein was asked a shaila by a Bnei Brak avreich who wrote that he is is scared to go to shul on Shabbos with his children as no one in the shul carries a gun. “I checked out the possibility of obtaining a gun from the police for Shabatos and Yamim Tovim and they told me that they have a condition that I volunteer in the Bnei Brak civil guard for 45 hours a month,” the avreich wrote. “That would mean patrolling the streets in a car in certain areas and then I could receive a gun license. It would be at night so it wouldn’t be on the cheshbon of my learning in kollel. Is it appropriate for me to do this?” the avreich asked. HaRav Zilberstein responded: “It’s chaval that even within the tzibur of Bnei Torah, there are those who aren’t sufficiently aware of the chashivus of their limmud and don’t sufficiently believe in themselves, how much Torah protects Am Yisrael.” “Today, there’s the Iron Dome system, one of the most sophisticated systems that Hakadosh Baruch Hu has given to the intelligent, a system that is capable of identifying rocket launches and detonating them while they’re still in the air – we have to thank Hakadosh Baruch Hu for this wonderful wisdom.” “Imagine if someone would say to the operators of the Iron Dome: ‘Chaval on this wonderful system – I’ll go with a weapon and if I see someone about to launch a missile, I’ll take care of him with my weapon.’ They would say to him: ‘You’re a complete fool. This system protects the entire country from every area where they launch missiles. You, with your weapon, can perhaps protect one area, and even that, you probably can’t do.” “A person who learns Torah knows that when he learns Torah, he spreads the perfect protection of the Torah over himself and his entire city which protects from all harm, like it says in the Gemara in Sotah, that the Torah protects and saves.” “When they asked my brother-in-law, HaGaon HaRav Chaim Kanievsky, z’tl during the Gulf War whether to leave Bnei Brak, he said that it says in the Navi (מלכים ב, ו טו) that the king Aram sent an entire army in order to capture Elisha, and it’s written: ‘And the servant of the Ish Elokim got up early and went out, and behold an army with horses and chariots was surrounding the city. And his attendant said to him: ‘Adoni, what will we do?’ And he said to him: ‘Don’t fear for those who are with us are more numerous than those who are with them.’ And Elisha davened and said: ‘Hashem, open his eyes and let him see. And Hashem opened his eyes and he saw, and behold the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire around Elisha.’” “Who were these who were protecting Elisha? It was the Torah he learned, that’s what protected him. And also today, a million pages of Gemara are protecting the city but we don’t have the Navi to open our eyes to see it.” “Additionally, we must be aware of what the Ohr Somayach said at the time of World War I, that every bullet has an address – and there’s […]

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