Oct 17, 2018

Interesting Psak: no smoke detectors

After the horrific tragedy in Beitar recently in which two young children died in a fire, an avreich from the community went to Rav Chaim Kanievsky to ask if they should be installing smoke detectors or fire extinguishers in the house, just in case of other similar fires, God forbid.

Rav Chaim Kanievsky responded, according to the report on Kikar, that people who learn Torah do not require any additional measures of protection beyond the Torah learning. The Torah protects. Ergo, each person should improve and increase his learning as much as possible.

I don't know how this stuff works, but we know traditionally that this is true. The question is how much Torah does a person have to learn to get this level of protection. I guess each person has to decide for himself and herself  if his/her learning is at that level that they can rely on it for protection and not take care of obtaining external forms of protection.






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6 comments:

  1. AnonymousOctober 17, 2018 3:02 PM

    That is more than strange, as people are required to do hishtadlus as well - and putting in smoke detectors and owning a fire extinguisher is well within the realm of normal hishtadlus. Is R' Chaim saying that the parents of the two children who were killed in the Beitar fire did not learn enough, and therefore they were not worthy of the protection?

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  2. Rafi G.October 17, 2018 3:25 PM

    I didn't want to go there, about the parents of the tragedy in Beitar. I don't know.
    Shulchan Aruch says talmidei chachomim do not have to pay taxes collected for a town's security, so I guess torah learning trumps hishtadlus. maybe the torah learning is enough hishtadlus for protection and no more than that is required.

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    Replies
    1. AnonymousOctober 17, 2018 5:09 PM

      I'm afraid that when foolish people misapply a ma'amar of Chazal, there is a need to "go there" to show how ridiculous what they're saying is. I am not calling Rav Chaim foolish as I doubt what is being reported is fully accurate - but this is sheer idiocy.

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  3. Michael SedleyOctober 17, 2018 4:29 PM

    The Shulchan Aruch may say that Talmedei Chachamim do not have to pay taxes, but it does not say that the town does not require any security. It also doesn't say that every single person that learns Torah is automatically a Talmid Chacham.

    I find it almost impossible to believe that a Talmid Chacham like Rav Kanievsky really said what he is reported to have said (did he publish this Psak? is there any way to know that it was him that said it), but IF he, or any other Posek, were to say such an outrageous thing, they would lose any credibility as a Posek.

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  4. Rafi G.October 17, 2018 5:24 PM

    http://actualic.co.il/%D7%9E%D7%A8%D7%9F-%D7%94%D7%92%D7%A8%D7%97-%D7%A2%D7%9C-%D7%94%D7%97%D7%A9%D7%A9%D7%95%D7%AA-%D7%91%D7%91%D7%99%D7%AA%D7%A8-%D7%9C%D7%95%D7%9E%D7%93%D7%99-%D7%AA%D7%95%D7%A8%D7%94-%D7%90%D7%99/

    is reporting the same story and says it was written in an alon called "Aleh Siach (which focuses on quotes from Rav Kanievsky)

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  5. sheldanOctober 17, 2018 10:50 PM

    I don't think there is any reason one should not do both...

    I'm not sure why this had to be a question for the rabbi. Common sense should permit one to do this.

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