One of my cardinal house rules: No guns

“Seven days he should wear them — he who serves in his place from among his sons, who’ll enter the Ohel Moed to serve in the Kodesh.” (Shemos 29:30)

Rashi says this tells us that the son of the previous Kohein Gadol has the right to become Kohein Gadol after his father (provided he’s worthy of the position).
The Talmud (Yoma 72b) asks: “What about the Kohein who’s Anointed for War (Mashuach Milchamah)? Can he, too, pass on the position to his children?” The Gemara answers, “No.”

Why not? (Rabbi Yissocher Frand, Torah.org)

“MA,you’re just too American.”

“Can’t help it. That’s what my passport says.”

This discussion typically comes up this time of year. Despite having a house full of boys, I still refuse to give in on one of my cardinal (American? Or just plain sensitive?) house rules: No guns in my house.

Plastic, water, super-soakers, firecrackers, you name it. We have a no-gun-tolerance rule. Which my kids make fun of and chalk up to my nationality. I’m just too peace-loving (tree-hugging?) American for their taste.

I heard in the name of Rav Avraham Yitzchak HaKohein Kook that inheritance is all about continuity — from father to son, son to grandson, etc. This is appropriate for Kehunah Gedolah. The Gemara says ideally, rabbanus should also go from father to son, if the son is worthy. However, there’s one area of Jewish life where continuity isn’t appropriate: War. War isn’t supposed to be a permanent function of Jewish life. War is an exception to the rule — an anomaly.

We don’t want war to happen. There shouldn’t be a need for a Kohein Meshuach Milchamah. Making the role of the Kohein Mashuach Milchamah hereditary is saying that we view war as part of the eternal continuity of Jewish existence. We don’t want that. Our goal is what it says in Yeshayahu (2:4): “That a nation shouldn’t lift a sword against another nation and that they should no longer study warfare.”

Come Purim, I’ve dressed my boys as policemen with handcuffs instead of guns, as soldiers with cool X-ray glasses and spy equipment to compensate for lack of guns, even as a Yamas special forces policeman sans gun (which my boys say was simply embarrassing). And they roll their eyes at my idealistic naivete.

The Mishnah discusses if one can carry his sword in public on Shabbos. Rav Eliezer says it’s permitted because it’s considered an ornament. The rabbis disagree with Rav Eliezer, stating that a weapon isn’t an ornament, but rather something unseemly! We don’t venerate war weapons. This isn’t supposed to be a function of our lives! It’s true that when war occurs, we need to fight the war and be successful in our battles. However, to make it a permanent institution — to say the position of Mashuach Milchamah should pass down to son — that would send the wrong message. That would send the message that war needs to be a part of our lives. That’s not the case.

Yet I hope they’re internalizing my deeper message. Yes, I know I live in Israel where a gun-toting soldier is seen as another government service provider, along with firemen, policemen, and mailmen. But to me that’s part of the sadness of this galus. I don’t want guns to be part of my kids’ lives. I don’t want them to be so comfortable with their doctor having a gun under his white coat, and our neighbor with his stuck in his belt, covered with his white shirt and tzitzis. Even a gun in shul is nothing to raise eyebrows about as many people work for the regional safety team and yes, guns are necessary in our day and age.

But that doesn’t make them a fun toy. That doesn’t make them cute. I didn’t find it adorable when my six-year-old dressed up for Purim and posed for a picture with his dimples and missing teeth and aimed a gun at me?

No. Let them call me squeamish. Let them call me an American. Let them call me “too strict,” and “not fair,” and say that “everyone else has one.”

I can’t bring myself to tolerate guns. And I pray one day I shouldn’t have to anymore, anywhere.

In the meantime, when my son mimes picking up a gun yelling, “Hands up!” I respond, “To Tatte in Himmel!”

(Originally featured in Family First, Issue 934)