In Jewish tradition, saving a life trumps all other laws. Safeguards designed to protect life are both warranted and necessary.

2000 years ago, when the corpus of Jewish life was fashioned, gun control was not a pertinent issue. It is today. Along with most rabbis, I support effective controls on access to weapons.

To me, however, gun control is not the central social and political issue raised by the Newtown murders. It is access to and the stigma surrounding mental health care. Mental illness is as real and life-threatening as physical illness, and I hope and pray that we can recognize and treat it as such.

Read more from Evan on his Beliefnet blog, Truths You Can Use.