Senior Shas figure: Anyone with a gun license should carry firearm on Shabbat

Rabbi David Yosef makes remarks in light of the heightened security threat experienced in Jerusalem and other parts of Israel.

By JEREMY SHARON
Guns (photo credit: INGIMAGE)
Guns
(photo credit: INGIMAGE)
Rabbi David Yosef, one of the four members of Shas’s Council of Torah Sages, said on Thursday anyone who has a valid gun license is obligated to carry his weapon this Shabbat in light of the heightened security threat in Jerusalem and other parts of the country.
The resident of Har Nof and neighborhood rabbi also said synagogue administrators should ensure that there is a charged cell phone available in their synagogue over the Sabbath in case of emergency.
In general, carrying a cell phone and firearm on Shabbat is not permitted according to Jewish law, but Yosef ruled that the possibility that such items could help save lives overrides these prohibitions.
“In light of the current danger, I think that anyone who has a gun license should carry it [his gun] on Shabbat... There should also be a telephone available in synagogues... If the premises are big, then there should be two or three,” Yosef said.
The country was shaken this week by the bloody terrorist attack carried out in the haredi neighborhood of Har Nof in which four worshipers at the Kehilat Bnei Torah synagogue were killed by two Palestinian residents of east Jerusalem, along with a police officer who was shot during an exchange of gunfire with the killers and later died from his wounds.
“If there is even a one in a hundred chance that by doing a certain action someone might save a person’s life they are obligated to do so – so that we may live by God’s commandment’s, not die by them,” Yosef said, on the Kol Barama haredi radio station Thursday morning, referring to a principle of Jewish law.
“There is a fear that has taken hold of us, we’re all worried and looking left and right, and this is fine, but we must ask if we’re overstepping the mark or not.”