Yom Hashoah and Yom Ha'atzmaut

Originally published 5/7/08, 10:55 PM.

From Rabbi Davdi Wiliig of the Morasha List
A very touching story.

On Wed, May 7, 2008 at 12:13 AM, Rabbidw@cs.com wrote:

Yom Ha'Shoa and Yom Ha'Atzmaut

Immediately following Pesach there are two holidays, which within the span of one week take the Jewish people from the agony of the holocaust to the triumph of the birth of the State of Israel. I believe that we all can understand the magnitude of the holocaust, but I think that, living sixty years after the fact, and most of us coming to consciousness after Israel was born, it is difficult for us to understand what the birth of Israel meant and still means today. One of the most astonishing books to come out of the holocaust is a multi-volume work, in rabbinic Hebrew called Questions and Answers from the Depths, a collection of responsa, questions and answers pertaining to halacha. These were written by a Rabbi Ephraim Oshry, who was in the Kovno ghetto until its liberation in 1944 and was able, after he was liberated, to gather his notes and eventually publish his five volume work. A one volume version has been published in English under the title Responsa from the Holocaust.
I would like to cite some of the questions and answers from his work.

• Can we recite the blessing thanking God for not making us a slave?
• Yes, because the blessing is formulated for spiritual, not physical liberty
• Does a ghetto dwelling need a mezuzah?
• No, because ghetto dwellings are considered temporary, like a sukkah.
• May one build a sukkah with lumber stolen from the Germans?
• Yes, because the Germans stole lumber from the Jews.
• Can one say a Mi Sheberach for a non Jew? What about Kaddish?
• In both cases the answer is yes, God allows us to pray for the worthy, Jew and non-Jew alike.

Some of the questions came from people who were not religious until they were moved into the Ghetto. A young man, a former atheist, found his religion in the ghetto and was heartbroken when the Germans cut off his left arm, because he was now unable to put on tephilin, phylacteries. Rabbi Oshry ruled that someone could help the young man put the tephilin on his right arm. The man rejoiced in being able to fulfill the mitzvah.

I cry when I read through these questions, and I ask myself how these people cared about the minutiae of Jewish Law when all around them, their friends, neighbors and family were being killed. The answer is they believed that the mitzvot were a sign of Gods love for us and to reject the mitzvot is to reject God's love. Sometimes it is up to us to reach out to God, not to abandon Him, even though it appears that He has abandoned us.

And three years after the holocaust we had the miracle of the birth of Israel. And it was a miracle. Truman overrode the opinion of General George Marshall, who threatened to resign over the recognition of Israel, as well as the Arabist State Department. Truman, came under the influence of Chaim Weizmann, (and you all know the story of how Truman's old business partner Eddie Jacobson called in all the chips of his long friendship with Truman to prevail on Truman just to see Weizmann.) Weizmann, old and blind, and being pushed out of his leadership by the young, ambitious David Ben Gurion, used all his powers of persuasion to convince Truman to vote for the partition. Once Truman decided to back partition he went over Marshall's head and put the full force of the State Department to work so make sure he was backing a winner. Various countries changed their vote, and one Foreign Minister was replaced in the days leading up to the vote as foreign aid was used as a bargaining chip to get the necessary votes.
And who would have anticipated that the antisemitic Joseph Stalin would not seize this opportunity to play the Arab card, and with this decision would go the votes of the entire Communist bloc. Had he voted against partition that would have killed all hopes for the necessary two thirds vote. And the unexpected victory of an untrained and unequipped Jewish Army (Jewish Army - that term itself seemed like a joke) over the armies of five neighboring Arab States.

I think the short time between Yom Ha'shoa and Yom Ha'atzmaut is symbolic of how rapidly God can work. We should understand this in our own lives as well. As bad as we may feel one day, with God's help they can turn around the next. As we celebrate Yom Ha'atzmaut, which the Rabbi's have proclaimed to be the beginning of the process of redemption, we should continue to hope and pray to see the redemptive process unfold to its completion, speedily and in our day.

Rabbi David Willig

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Kol Tuv / Best Regards,
RabbiRichWolpoe@Gmail.com