Question

Hello Honorable Rabbi, and have a good week!

In Kislev 5777, a conference was held in Jerusalem for thousands of seminary girls, to warn against the danger of academia. Rabbis and great Torah leaders spoke there, and among them the great genius Rabbi Yitzchak Zilberstein, may he live a good long life, a member of the Council of Torah Sages (son-in-law of Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv and brother-in-law of Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, may he live a good long life).

Here is a quote from his remarks: “In the seventh chapter of tractate Gittin, there are two pages in the Talmud on medicinal cures. The Maharsha says that if a person understands what is written there, there will be no illness he cannot cure.

I was at the Western Wall; there was an engineer there speaking about the weight of the stones. How did they know how to raise them to such a height without cranes?

It says in the verse in Ecclesiastes, ‘I got myself male and female singers, and shiddah and shiddot’—these are ornamental carriages. The question is: for that you need King Solomon? Any wagon-driver knows how to make that. Our teacher the Ben Ish Chai answers: each shiddah was like a ship. Where is that today? He hid them away because he feared traffic accidents. He knew how to make cars, he knew how to find a crane, and all of it from the Torah.” End quote.

From Rabbi Zilberstein’s words I understand that King Solomon, in his immense wisdom, knew all forms of wisdom, and therefore also knew how to manufacture anything produced today, such as cars. The only reason he did not reveal this wisdom and make it possible to produce cars on a mass scale was that he understood the destructive implications of modern transportation and sought to prevent traffic accidents.

The obvious question, then, is why Solomon did not reveal the secret of autonomous cars. In that way, he would have enabled his generation and future generations to travel comfortably and pleasantly, while also being safe and protected. He also would have saved tens of thousands and millions from fatal traffic accidents throughout history.

I would be very grateful if you could enlighten me as to why our King Solomon did not arrive at this solution.