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hungry” and [furthermore,] desire is only common in a heart that is
empty of wisdom, see there.



Installing an Electric Fence for Self-Protection

Question: A single woman [who lives alone in her house in a crime
infested non-Jewish neighborhood and] who fears for her life, wants
to install an electrical fence and put up a large sign warning that any-
one who breaks in without permission will receive a harmful electric
shock. Is she allowed to do so?

Response: It is written in Shmuel II (13:14-15),“He would not listen
to her and he overpowered her and oppressed her and lay with her.
And Amnon hated her with an exceedingly great hatred….” Chazal
say in maseches Sanhedrin (21a), “Why [did Amnon hate Tamar]?
Rabbi Yitzchak said, “She attached a hair to him and made him a
kerus shufchah [maimed his male organ].” The Ben Yehoyada explains,
“They had a kind of ointment for smearing on the pubic hair of virgins,
which made the hairs hard and sharp so that they would prick the
flesh of any man who touched them, like thorns. This was only done
to virgins to indicate that that they were not ready for intercourse, for
married women who had a husband did not do so. Even though Am-
non was aware of this custom of smearing the hair, he undertook to
suffer this pain… and therefore became a kerus shufchah.” This proves
that a single woman is allowed to protect herself even at the cost of
her attacker sustaining serious damage. Nevertheless, this does not
prove that it is permissible to install an electric door or fence, for if we
allow this, people will take the law into their own hands and install
such doors even in order to prevent the poor from coming and asking
for charity. [The Hebrew word for door, deles, alludes to its role in
providing access to dalim, the poor.]

As for a practical ruling, I asked my father-in-law, Rav Y.S. Elyashiv
zt”l, whether the woman is allowed to install an electric door, and he
responded as follows:

142 1 Medical-Halachic Responsa of Rav Zilberstein