Jeremy Schiff posted the following shiur of Harav Aharon Lichtenstein refered to by Nati Helfgot in responding to "What's The Fuss"
> I would recommend that you
> get a hold of the tape of a fascinating sicha Rav Lichtenstein gave at
> Gush in 1986on asarah betevet after Rav Shakh gave a talk where he
> intimated some reasons why german Jewry was devastated, and spoke of the
> Nazis as "shlikhim" of the Ribbono shel Olam and it caused a big uproar
> in Israel.
DEVELOPING A TORAH PERSONALITY
Based on addresses by Harav Aharon Lichtenstein
Adapted by Rav Ronnie Ziegler
LECTURE #21: The Challenges of the Holocaust
The Holocaust raises many intractable questions. On
a cultural level, we can ask, in the words of George
Steiner, how it is possible that a person can listen to
Brahms and read Goethe in the evening, and wake up in the
morning and go to work as commandant of a death camp. On
the social level, we can ask how the Holocaust grew out
of other historical phenomena. But the question which
concerns us principally is the prophetic question which
echoes throughout the generations, the question of
theodicy: Why do the righteous suffer?
A number of possible approaches exist in tackling
this problem.
a. Not only is it not true that God ignored what
was going on, but - on the contrary - the Holocaust
represented the fulfillment of His will. We need to
recognize this and to confess that it was "because of
our sins...," to see the Holocaust as a punishment, and
to answer the question of the suffering of the righteous
with another question: why do we ignore our own behavior
which preceded the Holocaust? If we are so concerned
with the fulfillment of the prophecy of "women consuming
their own offspring," why do we not conduct an equal
level of soul-searching when faced with the image of
"priest and prophet have been slain in God's sanctuary?"
b. The completely opposite approach: God has given
man free choice, and He now is - as it were - unable to
interfere. "When the powers of destruction are allowed
to act, they do not distinguish between the righteous and
the wicked" (Bava Kama 60a).
c. A combination of these approaches: The Holocaust
represents the "hiding of God's face" (hester panim). It
is neither a purposeful act on His part, nor is He bound
by human freedom of choice, but rather it is a situation
whereby God withdrew His hand because of the sins of Am
Yisrael. We may ask why God hid His face, despite the
fact that He could have saved us, and the answer
(according to this approach) is that since modern
secularism broke off all contact with God, as described
in parashat Vayelekh, this severance became reciprocal.
God hid His face as a natural result of our severance of
contact with Him - not as a punishment but as a
consequence. The Nazis were then able to give free reign
to their satanic desires.
However, it may be preferable to remain with the
problem - even if it is multiplied six million times -
than to accept any of these answers. Not because there
are better ones - there are not, and any of these answers
may theoretically be correct. We should not reject
outright the answer which maintains "because of our sins"
- who are we to instruct Divine Providence as to how to
punish? However, morally we dare not say this, since by
uttering this answer we have to see European Jewry as a
terribly wicked community, to the extent that it brought
the Holocaust upon itself, or alternatively to adjust our
standards and to say that such terrible punishments are
the appropriate response to very ordinary sins.
Yeshayahu was punished for saying, "I dwell amongst a
nation of unclean lips." For us to make such a serious
accusation against the previous generation is certainly
more serious than the accusation made by Yeshayahu; who
would dare to say that there is even some comparison
between the punished and those who effected the
punishment? Among the victims were people of the highest
spiritual level, saints from birth and childhood. On the
other hand, if we change our standards of sin and
punishment, then we have to see the God of the Thirteen
Attributes of Mercy in a completely different light.
The second answer - maintaining that God's hands
were tied, as it were - we must also reject, for this
would imply that we deny Him any role in the course of
history.
The third answer, that of "hiding His face," leaves
us with a question: why? Was the situation so dire that
we really deserved for God to hide His face from us?
For those of us who believe, it is preferable to
remain with the question and with the faith which
surrounds it rather than to try and snatch at excuses of
one kind or another. We cannot nor will we ever be able
to provide an adequate explanation for what happened.
Someone once said, in response to a question as to
whether he believed an explanation would ever be found
for the Holocaust, "I hope not." A woman once asked my
neighbor Leib Rochman, a Holocaust survivor, "Where was
God during the Holocaust?" He replied, "He was with us."
That is the only response - "I am with him in distress."
The question exists, but we are unable to supply an
explanation for even smaller details of history's course
because we cannot see the entire picture; how much
greater, then, is our inability to explain an event of
this magnitude.
We are not judged by our ability to find or create
convoluted explanations. Our test lies in not forgetting
and in learning lessons for the future.
Firstly, we are obligated to remember, and the
remembrance is twofold. The Gemara speaks of acts "in
memory of the Temple," and this involves two dimensions.
A) There are mitzvot which are prescribed in order to
recall the Beit Ha-mikdash: shaking the lulav all seven
days of Sukkot, counting the Omer, etc. B) We have to
remember not only the glory and the splendor but also the
destruction and desolation. In our case, too, we have to
remember the glorious Judaism that was - not just as
historical knowledge, but as part of a personal
relationship, with love. We have to remember the vibrant
Jewish life that existed there, the Jews who walked with
their heads upright in the squalid ghetto and created a
rich world within that most difficult socio-political
situation. At the same time, we have to remember the
personal tragedies, the fearsome destruction, the chaos
which befell the community and the individuals. And
although there is generally a boundary to mourning -
twelve months - in the "remembrances" of Rosh Hashana we
recount every year our communal remembrances, and these
are never forgotten.
In addition, we have to strive for a higher level of
love for our fellow Jews - not just on the basis of the
communal fate of the past, but on the basis of our
destiny and our common future.
Thirdly, we have to learn from the poverty and
suffering of the past how truly fortunate we are here and
now, in the sense indicated by the mishna in Pirkei Avot:
"Who is wealthy? He who is satisfied with his lot."
Every person is capable of seeing himself as
discriminated against or lacking or unfortunate in some
respect, but when we encounter genuine suffering it is
easier to put everything into its proper perspective and
to regain our sense of priorities and trivialities. As
part of this, perhaps we need to learn to appreciate
little things too, even levels of spirituality which are
less than lofty.
Moreover, we have to learn humility when it comes to
historical commentary. Someone who cannot provide an
answer for what took place during the Holocaust should
not be overly eager in providing explanations for current
events either (even though this is sometimes convenient).
Furthermore, one of the messages of the Holocaust -
paradoxical as it may seem - is that of faith. If a
person experiences a period of intense difficulty and his
faith wavers as a result of his troubles, he has to
remember those Jews who lived through the inferno and
persevered with perfect, pure faith; people who, in the
midst of the hideous events which they experienced,
continued to believe and persisted in their scrupulous
observance of mitzvot. A person has to remember that
each one of us is capable of being an Avraham Avinu -
someone who believes, even if he is alone in his belief.
Someone once said that to be a believing Jew means to be
the last Jew on earth, and still to believe. Dr. Zerach
Warhaftig recounted how, when he discovered Rav Yechiel
Ya'akov Weinberg (author of "Seridei Eish") the end of
the war, the latter asked him, "Are there any other Jews
left in the world?" He had believed that he was the
last, but nevertheless remained a Torah giant, firm in
his faith.
Finally, we must be animated by a sense of mission,
a feeling of duty towards God as well as towards those
who sacrificed their lives. Those of us who remain on
the battlefield after the great decimation of God's army,
as it were, have to gird ourselves, take up their vision
and carry it forward. The same responsibility which they
carried is now the lot of a much smaller community, and
we therefore have to make much more of an effort. In the
past, a person who built himself up was free to consider
only himself and his own personal interests. In our
generation, we have to see ourselves as a part of Knesset
Yisrael, continuing in the path laid down by our fathers,
lifting the baton that was struck from their hands. We
are all, in a sense, survivors. We must always keep the
interests of the community in mind and do our best to
serve it. Moreover, our people's great and inspiring
vision has in no way dimmed, and we must rededicate
ourselves to pursuing its realization.
Someone was once asked, "After the Holocaust -
you're still a Jew?" He immediately replied, "What else?
Should I then become a gentile?" Let us not become
entangled in meaningless questions of how they allowed
themselves to be led like sheep to the slaughter, etc.
What supreme heroism was demonstrated there! Jews sang
on the way to the crematoria - "Joyful are we; how good
is our portion, how pleasing our lot!" And it was not
only the pious and righteous who declared this.
In addition to devoting rededicated efforts to the
Nation of Israel and the Torah of Israel, let us also
strengthen ourselves and continue with the construction
which they never completed through building and
developing the Land of Israel. Anyone who emerges from
Yad Vashem experiences profound depression - and quite
understandably so. But someone who emerges and sees the
hills of Judah and Jerusalem rebuilt can take some
comfort. We should not attempt to do "accounting" and to
say that this is God's compensation to us for the
Holocaust. The State of Israel is not the solution to
that problem but rather an opportunity for us to fulfill
our mission; not an answer but rather a challenge and a
destiny, and our responsibility is to work towards its
realization!
(Translated by Kaeren Fish.
Based on a student summary of a sicha delivered to the
yeshiva on 10 Tevet 5746 [1986].
It has not been reviewed by Harav Lichtenstein.)
YESHIVAT HAR ETZION
ISRAEL KOSCHITZKY VIRTUAL BEIT MIDRASH
ALON SHEVUT, GUSH ETZION 90433
E-MAIL: YHE@VBM-TORAH.ORG or OFFICE@ETZION.ORG.IL
Copyright (c) 1999 Yeshivat Har Etzion
All Rights Reserved
(The views expressed in this essay do not necessarily reflect the views of Tzemach Dovid)