In this week’s Sidra is a long chapter of warnings and prophecies of terrible things that will happen to the Jewish People if they should desert the Torah and Mitzvos that HaShem has commanded. These warnings are so fantastic and fearsome that when Mosheh our Teacher first told them to us we wondered, first of all, if they were at all possible and secondly, if they were possible, if a People could ever withstand such troubles and survive.
Sadly, when we turned away from HaShem and His Torah and Mitzvos, we found out that everything foretold came true — to the letter. But we also found out that yes, the Jewish People can survive these troubles and indeed has survived these troubles. For HaShem’s punishments are never to destroy us: they are to chastise us, to bring us back to Him. HaShem Himself has declared that the Jewish People will exist forever because as long as the world exists, His Jewish People have the sacred task to make HaShem known in that world. The punishments that HaShem has brought upon us, therefore, together with the Anti- Semitism, that special hatred that some of the Nations of the World have towards us, serve to bring us back to Him and indeed have preserved us from being assimilated out of existence.
One of the most fearsome experiences that we have suffered in our long history was undoubtedly the recent series of unbelievable cruelties and mass-killings, at the hands of the Germans in the Second World War, which has come to be called “the Holocaust.” The following article points out some of the lessons to be learned from the Holocaust, to be learned by us and by the Nations of the World.
Adapted from an address given to the boys of the Hasmonean High School, London, in Assembly.
First published in the London “Jewish Tribune” of Friday 18 March 1983 and in the April 1983 edition of “The Federation Chronicle” of Johannesburg, South Africa.
Some of us have been to see the Auschwitz Exhibition. [This was the Auschwitz Exhibition, in the crypt of St George’s in the East, Cannon Street Road, Stepney, East London. It later opened at Manchester and Newcastle.] It is a shocking experience and a frightening expe-rience. Shocking — to see how low and bestial human beings can be. Frightening, because — yes, it can happen again. Yet indirectly it is an exhibition of the true victory of the Jewish spirit.
Until some time ago it was thought that this kind of exhibition is for the גו ֹי ֹם — let them see what they did. But we Jews know all about it and don’t need to be told. Wrong. Unfortunately, many of us do not know, and we do need to know, for two reasons, at least.
Firstly, as time goes on, the facts will be forgotten or twisted. The events will be explained and rationalized. In 50, 20, even 10 years’ time, the subject will be ignored or falsified — some writers have already started to deny what the Germans did. So we must know and record the facts, otherwise we ourselves will believe the liars that are called historians.
And secondly, we must learn from these events and teach the true lessons to the world. But they are not the same lessons as the גו ֹי ֹם would learn by themselves.
We, the Jewish People are the People of HaShem — it is a fact resented by the nations of the world, but a fact nevertheless. We have been taken by HaShem to be to Him as His People "ל ֹה ֹיו ֹתֹלו ֹֹל ֹע ֹםֹ ס ֹֹ וגל ֹהֹמ ֹֹ כלֹה ֹע ֹמ ֹיםֹא ֹש ֹרֹע ֹֹ פֹלנ ֹיֹה ֹא ֹד ֹמ ֹה" — “to be to Him as His treasured People more than all the nations which are upon the face of the world,” to be His Witnesses, א ֹֹ תםֹע ֹד ֹי,ֹנ ֹֹ ואםֹה'ֹ — “You are My witnesses,” says HaShem.[ישעיהו,ֹֹמ"גֹ:ֹי']ֹֹ This is a fact known by the nations of the world — and they have always resented it. So, either they deny it, or they scoff at it, or they usurp the title “Chosen People” and use it about themselves. But whether they like it or not — in fact, whether we like it or not — whatever they do to get rid of us, we will not go away. Empires come and go. Great rulers, tyrants, dictators, powerful men, will try their worst, but we do not go away. We are HaShem’s People and He has promised that we will live on as His People until the end of time.
וקד ֹש ֹאֹב ֹר ֹֹ ךיֹֹ והאֹו ֹאו ֹר ֹי ֹית ֹאֹו ֹי ֹש ֹר ֹא ֹלֹח ֹד — The Holy One, blessed be He, and the Torah, and His People Israel are as one. So much so, that we have become living proof of HaShem in an otherwise G-dless world.
Werner Keller, at the beginning of his book “Diaspora,” quotes an interesting conversation. Frederick the Great asks, “Can you give me one single irrefutable proof of G-d?” And Jean Baptiste du Boyer, Marquis d’Argens replies: “Yes, Your Majesty, the Jews.” Nothing in our History as a People can be properly understood without remembering that we are the People of HaShem, and everything in our History can be understood when we do remember that we are the People of HaShem.
The Sponsors and designers of the Auschwitz Exhibition mean to teach what race-hatred can lead to: good. We all hope the exhibition helps. But this is not enough, because if the conditions should warrant it, race-hatred can again become acceptable and even encouraged.
But we are to see things somewhat differently, somewhat deeper, and teach what we see to the worlds This is our duty.
When א ֹב ֹר ֹה ֹםֹא ֹב ֹֹ ניֹ, our Father Avrohom, came into the land of Philistia, the Chumash tells us that he described Soroh his wife as “his sister,” meaning his clanswoman. And when Avimelech the king of the Philistines took her by force for himself, and was immediately punished by HaShem, he summoned Avrohom and asked him, “Why did you do this to me? Why didn’t you say she is your wife, that you bring G-d’s wrath upon me?” And Avrohom, the first Jew, answered him, כ"יֹא ֹמ ֹר ֹֹ תיֹ ר ֹקֹא ֹיןֹי ֹר ֹא ֹתֹא ֹ-ל ֹה ֹיםֹב ֹמ ֹקו ֹםֹה ֹֹ זהֹו ֹה ֹר ֹֹ וגנ ֹיֹע ֹֹ דֹלב ֹרֹא ֹש ֹֹ
