Did the Chazon Ish’s Promise About Bnei Brak Fail? Rabbi Yitzchak Zilberstein’s Harsh Answer
Amid uncertainty over the security situation, Member of the Council of Torah Sages Rabbi Yitzchak Zilberstein delivered a sharp talk, saying, “Anyone who stops in the middle of Gemara to listen to ‘news headlines’ creates a hole in the protection over the city.” He said the recent rocket impacts in Bnei Brak were connected to interruptions in Torah study for news and gossip, and asked why the Chazon Ish’s promise was not fully realized in recent rounds and what role news lines play.
Below are Rabbi Zilberstein’s full remarks:
“There is a bit of an unfavorable rumor circulating in the street, and everyone comes and asks a question. It is known and widely cited in the name of the Chazon Ish that there would be no bombs in Bnei Brak, because Bnei Brak is guarded and protected. And everyone is asking, today we do not see that, we see that in several homes there were impacts. Indeed, in most of them no one died, but there were serious fragments. Everyone is asking whether the Chazon Ish’s promise that there would be no bombs in Bnei Brak has been canceled?
“I think there is a little to answer, not much, but a little. A person who studies Torah must know that when he learns, he spreads over himself and over all the residents of his city complete protection of Torah, and this saves from every evil, as stated in tractate Sotah (21a), that Torah protects and saves. Torah protects and saves us.
“And my brother-in-law, the sage of Torah Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, of blessed memory, was asked during the Gulf War whether one should leave Bnei Brak. He said that it is told in the Prophets (2 Kings 6:15-17) that the king of Aram sent an entire army to capture Elisha: ‘And when the servant of the man of God arose early and went out, behold, an army surrounded the city, with horses and chariots. And his servant said to him, Alas, my master, how shall we do? And he said, Fear not, for they that are with us are more than they that are with them. And Elisha prayed and said, Lord, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.’
“And who were Elisha’s protectors? The Torah he studied, that is what protected him. And today, too, millions of pages of Gemara protect the city, except that we do not have a prophet to open our eyes.
“All these things are good when everything is going smoothly, but when among us there are people who, when there are news updates, in the middle of Gemara study open the news to hear what was said on the radio or on the news lines, that is a bit of a breach. That is not what the prophet Elisha meant when he spoke of the protectors.
“I sit among my people, and I see and know that they study well, thank God. But still, when there is a news update, and it comes around seven or eight o’clock, he is in the middle of learning and opens it to hear what the news is, that is already not exactly what is written in the Prophets, and that is not what our sages intended. He may think he is not stopping much, just to hear a little news, short news, concise and sharp, but this harms, I think. And there is no promise of the Chazon Ish.
“Certainly, a person who studies Torah, sits and learns, the Holy One, blessed be He, protects him more than others. But to say that there will be no harm at all is hard to say, because his Torah is not being studied as the Holy One, blessed be He, wanted. There are a few small holes there, there are small holes in his prayer, in his learning, so there are also small holes in his protection. If there is a hole in the learning, then there are also bombs in the hole. Studying Torah means no news, no old news, there is only one thing, ‘The Lord is king, the Lord was king, the Lord will reign forever and ever.’
“That is the answer I give to all those who ask me about the bombs that are destroying, because this is already not exactly what the Holy One, blessed be He, said. The Holy One, blessed be He, said that whoever keeps Shabbat and whoever keeps the Torah and whoever fulfills the Torah, and fulfilling the Torah means studying Torah without interruption in the middle. But you stop in the middle, a small break to hear only the news headlines, not all of it. News headlines are a hole. There is a hole in the protection, there is a hole in the defense, so there is also a hole in the bombs. And indeed, thank God, there are not such disasters as in other places, but it is not the same thing that the Holy One, blessed be He, spoke about.”
Rabbi Zilberstein’s remarks have drawn wide attention in the world of Torah, with many focusing on his reference to “a little news, short news,” while also alluding to kosher news lines that do not extend updates throughout the day, but only in short and concise editions. However, when this causes an interruption in the middle of one’s study, it represents a major flaw in the supreme protection that Torah provides to those who learn it.
