The Historic Lesson
Now, whatever is in the Torah is a torah, a teaching. It’s not merely an episode that happened – it’s teaching us something for the future. And therefore we have to take this as a model – we shouldn’t just relegate it to the past and say, “Then, that’s what happened and that was the purpose in those days.” We should take this as a model for other events that have happened in our history.
We’re expected to live always with the principle that when troubles come upon people, Hakadosh Baruch Hu is teaching something. And it’s up to us to react the way the Am Yisroel did in Mitzrayim and to think, “ןָל עַמׁ¿ ַ̆מ ‡ָ ̃ י‡ַמ – What is Hakadosh Baruch Hu saying with this event?”
There’s a verse in Tehillim (94:10) which states it openly. It’s a pity we say it so frequently and never stop to think. ַיחƒכֹיו ‡ֹלֲה םƒיֹוּ‚ ר≈סֹיֲה – The One Who brings punishments and suffering on the nations, isn’t He showing something? ַיחƒכֹיו means to show something. ַ̇ﬠָּ„ םָ„ָ‡ „ּ≈מַל¿מַה – Isn’t He teaching mankind knowledge?
A Most Painful Subject
Now, I have to bring up a very painful subject. Because although there are many things we can study, many things that happened to our people in the thousands of years since the makkos, it’s especially important to look at events that happened in our time, in recent history, and to try to understand their messages. “Isn’t Hashem showing something, isn’t he teaching mankind knowledge?” And if an event of tremendous suffering was brought not upon the nations, but on our nation; if Hashem chose to decimate His chosen nation in what they call the Holocaust, so we understand that there were great lessons He was teaching.
Some Orthodox people don’t want to hear this at all. They say it’s sacrilegious to talk about such things – it’s a kitrug on the kedoshim; it’s ‘accusing the holy ones.’ But the kitrug on Hakadosh Baruch Hu, that
We Must Try To Understand
When there’s misfortune in the world, when there’s terrible misfortune among Jews, we have to understand that Hakadosh Baruch Hu knows exactly what He’s doing. And therefore we have to understand that these reshaim, the Germans, were the shluchim of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Hitler, yemach shemo, was a shaliach from Hashem.
So a man once said to me, “You mean to say Hitler was a tzaddik?!” No; he was a rasha, the biggest rasha, but הָﬠָר םֹיו¿ל עָׁ ָ̆ר םַ‚¿ו – Hashem picks a rasha for a day of evil (Mishlei 16:4). Certainly. He doesn’t appoint tzaddikim to kill people. He picks a rasha for that. But they were his shluchim, and there’s no question that He did it with a purpose.
Certainly the Germans are reshaim, and they’re all in Gehinom now – oh yes, they’re being punished in Gehinom right now! If we could listen to their cries, our blood would run cold. We’d shiver from the cries of pain that they’re suffering now. But that doesn’t absolve us in the least from knowing that the righteous Hashem doesn’t do judgment without justice. If Hashem brought a churban upon us, it was for a very good reason.
We Cannot Stop Weeping
Of course we weep for what we lost; we weep for the ב∆רָחּ∆בּלו¿פָּנׁ∆ ̆ םּׁ≈ ַ̆ה םַﬠ. The wicked Germans came to town after town spilling Jewish blood. I lived in a small town in Lithuania for a while and I knew the people there well; I was close to them. And the Nazis came in and marched all the men out to the field outside the town and shot them all down. My brother-in-law, they shot him down. A Telzer yeshiva bochur, a very nice boy, they shot him down for nothing. In cold blood they killed him. Can you do anything but weep at that?
And a few weeks later they took all the women and the girls – my sister-in-law was among them; a beautiful and fine frum girl – and the Nazis shot them all dead in cold blood. Certainly we weep; we can’t stop weeping.
My chaveirim, my best friends were all murdered. Rav Feivel Pilvishker, zichrono l’vracha, a tzaddik, a young man who was learning all the time. He was always thinking in mussar in his spare time. And they found his body in the field outside the town – he was shot there and left to bleed to death. Other friends too – Aharon Birzher, my chavrusa. He was the son- in-law of the Kurdaneh Rav, and he was murdered along with the Kurdaneh Jews.
My rebbi, Rav Avraham was burnt up alive in a fire when the Germans set fire to the hospital. Rav Elchonon Wasserman zichrono l’vracha was in Slabodka and they marched him out with all the Slabodka boys – my chaveirim – and they shot them dead in the Ninth Fort.
Justice Will Prevail
Certainly we weep rivers of tears. The fact that we lost our people is a devastating blow that we will never cease weeping for. And the Germans – all the nations of the world as well – will be held accountable, no question about it. Hakadosh Baruch Hu will remember everything. רָכָז םָ ֹ̇ו‡ יםƒמָּ„ ׁ ̆≈רֹ„ – The One Who remembers the blood of the innocent, יםƒוָנֲﬠ ַ̇ ֲ̃ﬠַˆ חַכָׁ ̆ ‡ֹל – He won’t forget their outcry (Tehillim 9:13). He won’t forget them forever. And we too will not forget them.
But we have to know that sof kol sof, Hashem is Just in His ways and that He’s teaching us something. “The One Who brings punishment on people, is He not trying to teach us something?!” He won’t do judgements without justice!
There Was A Breakdown
All over Europe you have to know there was a breakdown. Of course there were frum Jews too but all over, the Am Yisroel was defecting from the Torah in great numbers. Today they tell you narishkeit that the towns were chassidishe strongholds, nothing but
