Quantifying Our True Worth

The Undefeatable Jewish Spirit

By Rabbi Yoseph Kahanov, Jax, Fl.

“How do you figure we humans got here in the first place,” inquired a young girl of her mom. “Many years ago,” said the mother, “G-d created Adam and Eve. They had children and grandchildren and so it all began.”

A few days later the girl asked her father the same question. “That’s a truly complex question my child, let me try to explain: Hmmm. . . Where do I begin? Well, to make it simple, many years ago there were monkeys, the monkeys gradually evolved into humans. . .”

Confused, the child determinedly returned to her mother: “Dad says that humans came from monkeys, how come you told me they were created by G-d?”

“Well dear,” replied the mother after only a slight pause, “It is quite simple, I speak for my side of the family; your dad speaks for his!”

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R’ Tzvi Hersh Meisels (the Veitzner Rav), was a skilled Shofar blower, who somehow succeeded in smuggling a Shofar into Auschwitz with him.

One Rosh Hashanah, after blowing the Shofar more than 20 times, for some 1,000 men, he was thoroughly exhausted when he learned about a bloc of new arrivals consisting of 1,400 boys, all of whom had been condemned to the crematorium.

Upon discovering that somewhere in Auschwitz there was a man with a Shofar, the ill fated youngsters made an all-out-attempt, via a series of messengers, to arrange for their final Shofar blowing in this world.

The young Hungarian Rav found himself in a serious quandary. It was quite obvious that to enter the bloc was to risk his life. Should the SS men catch him, he would no doubt, share the same cruel end as his young petitioners; he was sure to become the 1,401st victim on the dreaded crematorium list. Yet, can you really deny the final request of 14,000 holy martyrs? Can you turn your back on such a group of pure angelic souls in a time like that? What should he do? Should he take the chance?

After successfully gaining permission to access the bloc by bribing the Capos, R’ Meisels decided to go ahead and grant the doomed souls their holy wishes, impending danger notwithstanding.

“Where is the pen, and who is the writer that can transcribe the emotions of my heart as I entered that bloc,” are the heart rending words he used to describe his dramatic experience: “I met a sea of eyes as they pressed forward to kiss my hand and my clothes. They cried with bitter tears and wailing voices to the heart of heaven.

“As I began to recite the preliminary verse, ‘Min Hametzar,’ they stopped me and begged me to say a few words before the Shofar service. In my emotional state I could not speak, my tongue cleaved to its palette. . .”

R’ Meisels concludes his narrative with the extraordinary courageous act on the part of one of the boys. After the Shofar was blown this youngster got up and cried out, “My brothers, let us, in our final moments, reaffirm our unwavering faith in G-d, by crying out the holy ‘Shema’ in fervent devotion. Suddenly with heart rendering voices and with great enthusiasm they all cried out ‘Shema Yisrael, HaShem Elokeinu, HaShem Echad!’”

Those 1,400 young Holocaust victims knew their intrinsic value. Though their lives were about to be snuffed out, they were aware of the eternal life that awaited them in the world to come.

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The holocaust was such an inconceivable occurrence that even a half century later one cannot begin to put it into any sort of perspective. In fact, I sometimes wonder how we were able to pick up and move on so soon.

Sometimes I attribute this incredible feat to our extraordinary stamina and resilience as a people. But, to be honest, there are times when I feel like it is human fragility and weakness that accounts for our ability to shrug off the mind numbing injustice and evil that was perpetrated against our very flesh and blood and to recreate ourselves from scratch, without bitterness or resentment.

When I perceive my generation – the generation that sprouted out of that dreadful era – so completely whole and restored, I flounder between pride and guilt. Are we really that strong to have healed so quickly and so wholly, or is it mental weakness – our inability to absorb the earth-shattering magnitude of the devastation and loss – that accounts for our miraculous recovery? I sometimes wonder if it is even fair for us to have forgiven and forgotten so quickly.

Yet there is one thing I do not doubt, that is the heroism of the martyrs. While I may struggle with the holocaust’s impact on “Us” the victim nation, I have no qualms with the impeccable and unprecedented heroism of its martyrs and their interminable contribution to mankind.

Unlike others who question the courage of those holy martyrs – who fault them for failing to stage a formidable resistance and for “Going like sheep to the slaughter”– I share none of those sentiments. To me they are the consummate heroes. I credit them for endowing the world with the greatest gift since the revelation at Sinai. I thank them for proving the true and eternal anatomy of the Divine spirit within man.

From time immemorial, the invincible nature of this Divine sprit has been questioned, challenged and contested. Its actual existence lies at the heart of every moral conflict and struggle from the very beginning of time. Whether it be Nimrod, Ishmael, Esav or Amalek, or any of the varied more contemporary rebellious icons, at the core of the rebellion lie a direct challenge to the invincible Divine spirit within man and its Heavenly source.

Three thousand years of unspeakable strife, bloodshed and tears failed to end this cosmic struggle. Then came the Holocaust and the indisputable verdict was in: “You can break the body and even destroy it, but you cannot destroy or break the Divine spirit in man.”

Yes, at Auschwitz and Treblinka occurred an event of epic proportions – on par with that of the revelation at Sinai. In Bergen-Belsen, Buchenwald, Dachau, Sachsenhausen and Theresienstadt the cosmic quandary, which is central to all of creation, had finally been resolved. The human spirit is indeed invincible – as infinite and eternal as its Divine maker. This has been resoundingly determined via the holy ashes and sacred skeletons of the tenacious holocaust martyrs.

It ought to be clear that Hitler’s war against the Jew, was a war against G-d. Hitler sought to destroy truth, justice, morality and Divine consciousness, hence he attacked the people who were for thousands of years committed to convey these values to the world. Should any doubt arise as to what was behind the malicious campaign on the part of the Nazis, just consider Hitler’s own words:

“Conscience is a Jewish invention. It is a blemish, like circumcision”().
“Providence has ordained that I should be the greatest liberator of humanity. I am freeing men from the restraints of an intelligence that has taken charge: from the dirty and degraded self-mortifications called conscience and morality, and from the demands of a freedom and personal independence, which only a few can bear” ().
“Against the “so-called” Ten Commandments, against them we are fighting” ().

This approach was not Hitler’s alone, it was the view of the Nazi Party. In 1936 a Nazi Official, Supreme Group Leader Schultz, speaking at a meeting of the National Socialist Confederation of Students made this very point: “We cannot tolerate that another organization is established along side of us that has a different spirit than ours. We must crush it. National Socialism in all earnestness says: “I am the lord thy god, thou shalt have no other gods before me . . .”

“The internal expurgation of the Jewish Spirit is not possible in any platonic way, for the Jewish spirit is the product of the Jewish person” ().

What, exactly was this “Jewish spirit,” which the Nazis and others throughout history sought to destroy? Let a non-Jew, Reverend Edward H. Flannery of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, describe it: “It was Judaism that brought the concept of a G-d given universal moral law into the world. The Jew carries the burden of G-d in history and for this he has never been forgiven” ().

On October 25, 1940, in a memorandum dispatched by I.A. Eckhardt, from das Reichssicherheitshauptamt – the Central Office of the German Security Forces – to the Nazi district governors in occupied Poland, instructs them not to grant exit visas to Ostjuden (Jews from Eastern Europe). The reason behind this order is clearly spelled out: they fear that because of their “Orthodoxen eisnstellung”, their Orthodoxy, these Ostjuden would provide, “di Rabbiner und Talmudlehrere, the rabbis and teachers of the Talmud, who would create “di geistige Erneuerung” the spiritual regeneration of the Jews in America and throughout the world. ()

The martyrs were well aware of the true nature of this battle. They knew that this struggle was not about physical might or cleverness but rather about the essential temperament and value of the spirit.

They also knew that no military victory can win this battle. The only way to triumph over this ongoing cosmic contest, was by proving the true value of the spirit over the body and they were willing to pay the price in order to deliver the victory once and for all.

This Shabbos we conclude the book of Leviticus with the reading of Bechukosai, the second of the double Parshios. The above phenomenon sheds light on this mysterious Parsha.

Fraught with terrifying warnings of unimaginable consequences, triggered by the wanton abandonment of Torah law, it’s no wonder that this portion is commonly referred to as the Parsha of “Tochacha” – rebuke. Each curse is more bone-chilling than the one preceding it.

Indeed, throughout the generations it has always been a challenge to find someone willing to be called to the Torah for the Aliyah in which these somber verses are read. In fact, it is the custom in many Synagogues for the Baal Korei – the one reading the Torah – to quietly take the Aliyah for himself without even being called up, so that no one is insulted.

It is curious to note that after concluding this petrifying section of rebuke, the Parsha abruptly shifts gears to a section dealing with the laws of “Arachin” – the dedication of the value of one’s own worth or another person to the Temple. This narrative seems completely misplaced. What is the relevance of these laws to the rebuke which dominates the rest of the parsha?

During the Holocaust, when many of the horrifying curses of this week’s parsha were manifested before our very eyes, the Germans derived a particularly sadistic pleasure in torturing and disgracing the great Rabbis who served as pillars of inspiration to the Jewish community in those harrowing times. The suffering endured by these righteous leaders is unfathomable.

In one particularly cruel incident, a number of malicious Nazi officers beat the Klausenberger Rebbe to the brink of consciousness. After enduring seemingly endless blows, the officers asked the battered and bloodied Rebbe if after all of this suffering he still believed that the Jews are G-d’s chosen people. He responded unequivocally in the affirmative.

Infuriated by what they considered to be the Rebbe’s stubborn arrogance and audacity, they beat him some more. When the Rebbe continued, in between blows, to affirm his unshakeable belief in being one of G-d’s chosen people, the miserable, frustrated officers scoffed in outrage: “Look at you! You are laying here on the ground bloodied and bruised; scarcely alive, and you call yourself chosen! Is this your idea of chosen?”

To this the Rebbe replied: “As long as I am down here on the ground declaring my unwavering faith in my G-d and my principles, while you are up there doing what you’re doing, I am indeed part of the chosen people.”

Applying the lesson of this story to our original question, the Kotzker Rebbe explains that after reading the terrifying curses contained earlier in the parsha and seeing how they have tragically been fulfilled throughout history; the Jew might begin to lose faith in his intrinsic value and self-worth.

As a nation, we have been persecuted more than any other people throughout the ages. Such intense personal and national suffering could easily cause a person to lose hope.

In order to counter this mistaken conclusion, the section outlining the painful times which will befall the Jewish people is immediately followed by the section dealing with the laws of Arachin. This section details how much a person is required to donate if he chooses to dedicate the “value” of himself or another Jew to the Temple.

This juxtaposition comes to remind us that even in the darkest moments, after enduring the most inhumane suffering fathomable, having been stripped of all dignity by our vicious oppressors, our intrinsic worth in Hashem’s eyes is eternal.

In fact, as difficult as it is to say, our true worth in the eyes of G-d and man, would never and could never have been fully realized in absence of our tenacious faith and conviction in face of the brutal oppression and suffering throughout the millennia.

We have now passed the test by all accounts. We have demonstrated to G-d and the world that our priorities are intact, our faith is unshakable and that the G-dly spirit is invincible. In doing so, we’ve bequeathed humanity with the ultimate gift – proof that there is a higher existence that can never be denied or suppressed – a truth more real and critical than life itself.

At the same time we’ve adorned G-d with the ultimate glory and honor – the purpose for which the universe has actually been brought into existence.

Our precious value is now known to G-d and man beyond a scintilla of doubt. The mission has been accomplished – the test is over – the Golus has run its course. It’s time for Moshiach.

We have earned our reward and it is indeed commensurate with our true worth!