Introduction

1. The Need for Halachic Regulation Regarding Personal Weapons in the Civilian Space

A unique challenge that faces those who analyze, study, and expound halacha in the various topics surrounding security, including within it the carrying of a personal weapon, is the lack of tradition of halachic rule and clear sources engaging in it in a direct and structured fashion. Throughout the years of the Diaspora, the rabbinic greats did not engage in these topics on a practical level. Rabbi Shlomo Goren describes this phenomenon well in his memoirs from his initial days as the first Chief Rabbi of the Army in the fledgling State of Israel:

The steadily approaching days of Pesach bring with them an extremely difficult reality. I had no other means… I permitted eating matzah on the eve of Pesach in the army, and to this day it remains the practice, despite its rabbinic prohibition. I had no other choice – if we do not allow soldiers to eat matzah on the eve of Pesach, they would have nothing else to eat or they would be unable to kasher the utensils in time, on the eve of the 14^th of Nissan. Nevertheless, at that time all of these problems were at the forefront. They were awakened for the first time in our history after two thousand years.¹

Already in the time of the pre-state paramilitary resistance forces, the Jewish Infantry Brigade Group (the Jewish Brigade), and in a lesser and partially documented fashion also amongst Jewish soldiers in foreign armies, ‘the halachot of army and war’ and all of the issues contained within have become relevant once again, as they of course were in ancient times:

Alas, the verse “when you depart to war against your enemies, and Hashem your God places them in your hands and you take its captives”, when the Jews dwelled in the Land of Israel and the Kingdom of Israel stood, there was the simple understanding of “when you depart to war” – genuine war, as it is understood simply… and when the Temple was destroyed, and because of our sins we were exiled from our country and distanced from our land, and no man fought us and we did not fight others, while granted that the nations of the world pester us and make our lives difficult, they do not fight us, the inferred lesson [of the verse] became its simple interpretation “when you depart” to war with the evil inclination, “and Hashem your God places them in your hands”, as stated: “Had the Holy One, Blessed Be He, not come to his aid, he would not have been able to overcome him, the evil inclination”… Nowadays we once again return the simple interpretation to its original source. Once again there is a reality of genuine war, in its simplest form, in our land, and even the divine promise is fulfilled: “when you depart to war… and Hashem your God places them in your hands”, yet the Torah hints to us that we should know there is also a war with the evil inclination, and even in this war we are promised that “Hashem your God places them in your hands”. And thus, the issues of war according to halacha are rendered tangible in the State of Israel.²

Rabbi Yosef Dov Soloveitchik, in the “Fifth Knock” of his famous essay “Kol Dodi Dofek – Listen, My Beloved Knocks”, “perhaps the most important” in his own words, defends the importance of using a weapon for war and for defense and the innovation within the matter after years of exile:

If we want to courageously defend our continued national and ‎historical ‎existence, we must, from time to time, interpret the verse of an “eye for an eye” literally. ‎So many ‎‎“eyes” were lost in the course of our bitter exile because we did not repay hurt for ‎hurt. The ‎time has come for us to fulfill the simple meaning of “an eye for an eye.” (Exodus 21:24) … ‎with respect to the Mufti and Nasser I would demand that we interpret the ‎verse in accordance ‎with its literal meaning — the taking of an actual eye.³

The work to restore the halachot of war, which had not been applicable for a long time, is no simple matter, and in our generation, there is widespread engagement in this topic that has sprouted many compendiums and essays. These compilations drew upon the spread out and scattered roots and sources of halacha to form a complete work of practical halacha for the IDF, police, prison system, and the rest of the intelligence and security forces vital to the Nation of Israel in its land. Granted, limited and focused issues of defense of the individual and civilian did not merit broad scope analysis. We remain steadfast to the words of Rabbi Yitzchok Yaakov Weiss, the Av Beit Din of the Chareidi community in Jerusalem, regarding this matter:

The questions and issues regarding states of emergency are also different, difficult and very complex compared to peace, for in times where everything works accordingly, [when each man goes about individually,] one man with his grapes and one man with his figs and everything is in order, the [number and scale of] issues decrease… in a time like this which is a time of suffering for Israel, and the problems that require solutions are exceedingly great… and furthermore the living conditions, and the reinvigoration of new findings in daily life bring about doubts and new issues to be solved practically by halacha… therefore the obligation is placed upon anyone who God, may He be blessed, granted the understanding to comprehend and [the ability to] be enlightened with clarification of halachot not to withdraw his hand from it… we believe with complete faith that all of the Torah was given at Mt. Sinai, there will be no alternative and no other Torah from the Creator… and therefore whenever a new question and a problem of new innovations is brought before us, we must solve it only according to the Holy Torah, and with the aid of Heaven find the proper source in Shas and the halachic authorities to bring about halacha in its truest form.⁴

The bountiful engagement in halachot of the army and security forces of a sovereign country and the additional issues that go along with it are of penultimate importance, however one should not neglect the individual. Carrying a personal weapon for the sake of self-defense in the civilian space and not as a part of continuous military or security action and the unique halachot that carrying a weapon brings forth, such as professionalism and training, carrying a weapon in synagogue and during the Priestly Blessing, cleaning it on Shabbat, allowing a priest who has killed a person to bless the congregation, women carrying weapons, and more issues of similar nature, did not merit a formulated, written response. In light of the responsibility emphasized in the words of the Minchat Yitzchak, we decided to collect, clarify, and arrange organized responsa for the topic of carrying a personal weapon. There is a need to provide a basic, methodical, halachic approach to these issues, especially when carrying a weapon is commonplace in the population. By doing so, we hope to enable both the learned and halachic authorities to cultivate an understanding in a clear and practical fashion, and to create order in a space that has not been fully elucidated yet.

2.The Lack of Sources and Our Methodology in this Compilation

The primary challenge when engaging with the work of writing and rendering halacha for security issues is the lack of written sources dealing with these issues directly which can be used to extrapolate practical halacha:

Granted that we have hilchot melachim vemilchamoteihem^[JK1] 5,however even the Rambam did not require a practical [answer to] these questions… even the sources in Shas that he relies upon are few. This is because already in the time of the Sages we were not sovereign over ourselves and the questions were minimal as well as the answers in turn⁶.

Furthermore, perhaps this topic, included in “Halachot of the State”, involves unique and diverse characteristics, as Rabbi Abraham Isaac HaKohen Kook explains:

And all of these and the like are remnants that have been left over from the law of governance, which do not follow the Torah’s boundaries on halachot of the individual. Elsewhere I have explained that these too have a source in the Torah, however the methods of expounding this [doctrine] have been handed to each king in his expansive wisdom.⁷

Due to the lack of sources, the question emerges regarding whether one can even provide an adequate response to all the new moral and halachic questions from the halachic sources available.⁸ To address this obstacle, we found two primary approaches: The first, halachic landmarks for innovating questions through the traditional process of study and halachic ruling – analyzing the fundamentals of halacha according to Shas and the authorities and pouring through responsa literature that delineated the framework of Jewish life in the various communities of the Diaspora.⁹ The second, expanding the sources, such as analyzing the Jerusalem Talmud and works of biblical exegesis (Midrash), relying on the rationale behind mitzvot and even analyzing historical sources and extracanonical works.¹⁰

Regarding carrying a personal weapon, we have explicit halachic sources in the Mishnah dealing with carrying a weapon in various contexts, especially regarding halachot of Shabbat, and therefore we do not require extraordinary innovations such as analyzing the rationale behind halacha and the like in order to determine ruling. Additionally, some of the halachot that have been written in the past regarding the use of military weapons relate – with slight adjustment – to the topic of private weapon ownership for self-defense, as the foundational halachic principle regarding responsibility, professionalism, and caution applies in both contexts. Granted, one should not subsist on this alone, instead assessing other sources – in Tanach, biblical exegesis, and the words of the Sages – in order to understand all the ethical aspects of carrying a weapon and using it. We will follow this path in the compilation before us.

Each chapter in this compilation is structured in two parts: the beginning of each chapter includes the “Core Halachic Principles” in summarized fashion, and afterwards “Analysis of the Halacha” explaining the sources of the law – from the Sages to the words of the halachic authorities – in order to enable the reader to deepen their understanding of the roots of the laws and their rationales.

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