A Hasidic Rabbi Created A Shabbat Jacket For Carrying Guns In Synagogues

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Rabbi Raziel Cohen demonstrates how to use the Tactical Kapota, a jacket designed for easily accessing a weapon. (Rabbi Raziel Cohen)

SOUTH FLORIDA (JTA) — Rabbi Raziel Cohen doesn’t want you to have to draw a gun in synagogue. But if you must, he doesn’t want you to waste precious time unbuttoning your kapota, a type of jacket worn by men in the Chabad Hasidic community on Shabbat and Jewish holidays.

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So Cohen, a firearms instructor who goes by the moniker “The Tactical Rabbi,” worked with Shaul Snovsky, who sells kapotas in South Florida, to create the Tactical Kapota. The jacket, which looks like any other kapota, closes with snaps instead of buttons for easy opening. Its cost: $550.

“The issue came up with when you wear a kapota … the ‘gartel’ gets in the way and the kapota gets in the way and it can make it dangerous to draw your weapon,” Cohen said, using the Yiddish word for the belt worn over the kapota.

By adding snaps underneath the buttons, the Tactical Kapota looks like a regular jacket.

“Usually in a shul we try to keep a low profile, we don’t want to look like we’re in a war zone,” Cohen said.

A video ad for the kapota shows a man studying in a synagogue when the building is attacked. The man fumbles to unbutton his kapota to reach his holstered gun until the words “every second counts” flash across the screen. The video then shows the man unsnapping the Tactical Kapota in seconds before drawing his gun.

Snovsky said some people thought the video wasn’t for real. It’s completely serious, he insists.

“I’m not selling fear over here, I’m selling awareness,” he said. “Some people are calling me and saying is it a joke, and it’s not a joke. You just never thought about it.”


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33 Comments
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Marcia
Marcia
2 years ago

Something I suggested over a decade ago…glad to see it

Marcia
Marcia
2 years ago

If you pin your keys to your dress, it is not considered carrying….

PaulinSaudi
PaulinSaudi
2 years ago

Thank you all for your explanations.

yitz
yitz
2 years ago

were can I see the video

PaulinSaudi
PaulinSaudi
2 years ago

As a complete non-expert, how can a person be permitted to carry a gun on the Sabbath, when he cannot even carry his house keys?

Rats rats DemocRATs
Rats rats DemocRATs
2 years ago

You can strap a gun on your feet as long as you font remove it over shabbos. That means you will have to wear wide pants so you can remove your pants without moving your gun as you can’t move mukzah with your hands or just sleep with your pants on. Obviously there is an Eruv in the area.

DR WHO 613
DR WHO 613
2 years ago

Will the HI (Halachically Ignorant) please sit quietly and not speak of things they do not know? Carrying a gun where necessary is permitted by almost every posek (Halachic decisor). If it is necessary for preservation of life, it is permitted. I live in Jersualem and carry 24/7 when I go out, including Yom Kippur. It is not considered muktzeh (for me; my friend could not pick it up on Shabbat, for example, unless it was for the purpose of giving it to me in the case of need) nor is the absence of an eiruv an issue. If one lives in a place where the issue does not arise (is there such a place anymore?) perhaps the ruling would be different.

Shmuel
Shmuel
2 years ago

This is what happens when a reference is made to Chabad as “Chasidic,” often in secular media. It confuses the uninformed and makes their behavior appear legitimate.

K blz
K blz
2 years ago

With Eiruv , Idiot

Just2Truth
Just2Truth
2 years ago

Only reform Rabbis and Chabad would allow carrying handguns on Shabbos.