Rashi tells us that ויקהל, Moshe assembled the Jewish people, occurred the day after Yom Kippur. The Olilos Efraim teaches that even after Yom Kippur we still must have ויקהל, unity (on Yom Kippur we naturally have unity). Someone once said, “While it’s important to act properly between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, it’s perhaps as important to act properly between Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashana.”
This idea also applies to after Purim, the day of unity (where we give Mishloach Manos and Matanos L’evyonim). Purim we naturally have unity, but it must continue even after Purim. In fact, Purim is compared to Yom Kippur as it is called יום כפורים. Just as after Yom Kippur we must hold that unity, the same applies to after Purim.
R’ Kalman Krohn was once in a cab in Israel driven by an anti-religious driver. Although R’ Kalman tried to be amiable, the driver was very curt and abrupt. Suddenly, in middle of the ride, R’ Kalman told the driver “We are brothers.” With antipathy, the driver tersely retorted “We are not brothers. You are religious and I am not.” R’ Kalman replied, “My rebbe taught me that we are brothers.” Who is that, the driver inquired. The response: “Hitler. He didn’t differentiate between those who were religious and those who weren’t. He killed them all.”
As crazy as it sounds, there were a nice amount of Jews in New York in 1933 who had the last name Hitler. A JTA article from June 1933 entitled “Kiss the Mezuzah — and meet the Brownsville Hitlers” begins, “Herr Adolf Hitler of Germany would be covered with confusion if he dared to enter the strictly kosher home of Mrs. Rose Hitler, pretty young Jewish housewife, who lives at 233 E. 92nd Street, in the heart of Brooklyn’s Brownsville.” In 1933, more than 30 families across New York had the last name Hitler, the same name as the man who became the leader of Nazi Germany that year. Rose Hitler said, “My father-in-law, may he rest in peace, used to say when he was living that he never heard of a Hitler who wasn’t Jewish. Take my brother-in-law, Louis Hitler, who lives on Pulaski Street. Take all the other Hitlers in New York.”
R’ Moshe Shapiro (1935-2017) related that when he was growing up, the Chevron yeshiva would make plays. One year the play was about an irreligious person who was murdered in the Holocaust and ascended to heaven. Now they were going to judge this soul. They acted out the following scene: in heaven, they asked the martyr some questions before he would be able to enter paradise. They asked him, “Did you observe the laws of kashrus? “No,” was the reply. “Did you keep the laws of Shabbos?” “No.” “Tefillin?” “No.” The question was then posed, “So what makes you Jewish?” The soul answered, “Well, Hitler thought I was Jewish.” This reply caused a commotion in heaven. Finally, they came up with a verdict: “Halacha K’Hitler.”
