The Theological Significance of the Shoah

1. The Theological Significance of the Shoah CALEV BEN DOR Is the Holocaust Unique? Nor do we for a single moment entertain the thought that what happened to European Jewry in our generation was divine punishment for sins committed by them. It was injustice absolute; injustice countenanced by God....[however] the experience of God’s 'absence' is not new; each generation had its Auschwitz problem…The shock of those who perished or lived through the destruction of the Jewish commonwealth of antiquity, or the Crusades or the Chmelnikci period was not much different from the experience of our generation (Eliezer Berkovits, Faith after the Holocaust) Theologically, religiously, it seems to be absurd to hold that the extirpation of Judea, Rhineland, or Southeastern European Jewry was a more acceptable experience than what transpired between 1939-45. Is the vision of an infinite God who is Guardian of Israel less shaken by the annihilation of only a million Jews at the hands of the Romans, or only several hundred thousand each by crusaders, Cossacks, haidamuks, than by the 6 million dead in German Europe? And Judaism has survived until 1939, as it shall now, without denying its God and the covenant with Him. The question to God – Why? – is the same for the first child truck down in human history and for the last to perish in Auschwitz. That is the eternal confrontation of all men with God (David Weiss Halvini: After the Holocaust, Another Covenant?) Killing Jews is not a new phenomenon in history. For more than 2000 years Jews have died because of and for their faith, either of choice or someone else’s necessity. Thus the Nazi onslaught stands at the end of a long series of such tragedies and indeed, would have been unthinkable without this prehistory. Yet in order to be begin to try and understand what happened specifically to the Jews of 20th century Europe…we have to push beyond the recognition of an old pattern of Jew-hatred resulting in murder and ask whether there is anything different about the Nazi experience. In answering this question one category…becomes of primary significance: intention. The Genocidal intent of Nazis. (Steven Katz: Post Holocaust Dialogues) It is surely correct that the Holocaust be understood as a seismic event in Jewish history, structurally unique, a meta-historical absurdum in the midst of a Jewish experience that had been willing, generously, to over credit the enlightenment and reasonableness of the emancipated nations among whom Jews had lived. This cannot be stressed enough…The Holocaust should become for all of us the critical event of modern Jewish history – a caesura, a Red Sea of evil which parted time and space, separating the past of the Jewish people from its future. But, unlike the Red Sea of Exodus, it was not the enemies of Israel, but the Jews themselves, who drowned when the sea closed (Arthur Cohen, Review Essay of Emil Fackenheim) The Holocaust is a novum [epoch making event] in human history which ‘ruptures’ Christian, Jewish and philosophical thought. (To Mend the World: Foundations of Post Holocaust Thought) Our hermeneutic situation is radically altered by the Holocaust. An abyss separates our ‘here and now’ from the ‘then and there’ of both the Bible and its rabbinic interpreters. (Emil Fackenheim: The Jewish Bible after the Holocaust: A Re-reading)

2. Understanding the Shoah Free Will / Hester Panim He who demands justice of God must give up man; he who asks for God's love and mercy beyond justice must accept suffering....if at Auschwitz we witnessed 'The Hiding of God's Face' in the rebirth of the State of Israel and its success we have seen a smile on the face of God; it is enough." "Freedom and responsibility are the very essence of man. Without them man is not human. If there is to be man, he must be allowed to make his choices for freedom. If he had such freedom, he will use it. Using it he will often use it wrongly. He will decide for the wrong alternative. As he does so, there will be suffering for the innocent." (Eliezer Berkovits, Faith after the Holocaust) Punishment for Sin “because of our sinfulness we have suffered greatly, worse than Israel has known since it became a people. In former times, whenever troubles befell Jacob, the matter was pondered and the reasons sought – which sin had brought the troubles about… but in our generation one need not look far for the sin responsible for our calamity…the heretics have made all kinds of efforts to violate these oaths, to go up by force and to seize sovereignty and freedom by themselves, before the appointed time…they have lured the majority of the Jewish people into awful heresy…and so it is no wonder that the Lord has lashed out in anger. (Joel Teitelbaum, from Aviezer Ravitsky, Messianism, Zionism and Jewish religious Radicalism) Suffering God Now the Jew tormented by his afflictions thinks that he alone suffers, as if all his personal afflictions and those of all Israel do not affect above, God forbid. Scripture states, however, “in all their troubles he was troubled” (Isaiah 63:9) and the Talmud states: “When a person suffers, what does the Shekhina say? ‘my head is too heavy for me, my arm is too heavy for me’”. Our sacred literature tells us that when a Jew is afflicted, God, blessed be He, suffers as it were much more than the person does. (Kalonymous Kalman Shapira, Rebbe of the Warsaw Ghetto the Holy Fire)

3. CALEV BEN DOR Responding to the Shoah Acceptance with Love There are innumerable examples of religious heroism in the Holocaust, even at the entrances to the gas chambers…it was a Saturday afternoon. A large number of Jews had been assembled at the train station, to be transported to Auschwitz, where most would be put to death immediately. When they realized it was time for Seudat Shlishit, the Jews searched for a bit of water and bread, and began to sing songs for Seudat Shlishit. A second instance. A group of fifty young men were brought into the hall where they undressed before the ‘showers’. While in this hall, they said to each other ‘Today is Simchat Torah. Let us celebrate the holiday before we die. We have no Torah scroll, but the Holy One blessed be He, is with us – let us rejoice with Him’. They began the traditional dancing and singing, with great fervour. (Nissim Nadav, The Lights of Faith and Heroism in the Darkness of the Holocaust) Religious Challenge / Protest They formed a rabbinic court (Bet Din), and conducted the trial completely in accordance with Halakha (Jewish Law). They gathered evidence against God, building a strong case against the “Holy One Blessed Be He.” The trial lasted several days, with the judges giving all those who wished a chance to speak their minds. Witnesses were heard, painful personal testimonies were given, and in the end, young Elie remarked in amazement how none of the witnesses even remotely defended God. It was time to issue a ruling, and the rabbinic court pronounced a unanimous verdict: “The Lord God Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth – guilty of crimes against creation, against humanity and against His own Chosen People of Israel.” Soon after this painful judgment was pronounced, followed by a reaction from the people that Wiesel describes as an “infinity of silence,” the rabbi presiding over the rabbinic court looked up to the sky, saw that the sun had set, and that the darkness of night was upon the world. This rabbi, who had just indicted God and pronounced Him guilty of crimes, looked towards the silenced crowd and said “Come, my friends, we have a minyan – it is time to pray Maariv.” The other members of the rabbinic court, together with the witnesses and the onlookers, all gathered around the rabbi to join in their evening prayers to God. The fifteen-year-old Wiesel watched this perplexing scene with utter amazement. (Elie Wiesel, Night) I cannot say, after all I have lived through, that my relation to God is unchanged. But with absolute certainty I can say that my faith in Him has not altered by a hairsbreadth…my relationship to You is not the relationship of a slave to his master but rather of a pupil to his teacher. I bow my head before Your greatness, but I will not kiss the lash with which You strike me…In earlier times, when my life was good, my relation to Him was as if to one who gave me gifts without end, and to whom I was therefore always somewhat in debt. Now my relation to Him is as to one who is also in my debt — greatly in my debt. (Zvi Kolitz, Yossl Rakover talks to God)

4. CALEV BEN DOR Rejecting God (remaining within tradition?) “if I believed in God as the omnipotent author of the historical drama and Israel as his chosen people I had to accept Dean Gruber’s conclusion that it was God’s will that Hitler committed six million Jews to slaughter. I could not possibly believe in such a God not could I believe in Israel as the chosen people after Auschwitz” The theological account of the Shoah as retribution (because of our sins) is blasphemous against both man and God. If indeed such a God holds the destiny of mankind in His power, His resort to the death camps to bring about his ends is so obscene that I would rather spend my life in perpetual revolt rather than render Him even the slightest homage.....what sin could be so great as to justify such retribution, the only worthy reaction is a rejection of the Jewish theological framework... we stand in a cold, silent unfeeling cosmos, unaided by any purposeful power beyond our own resources. After Auschwitz what else can a Jew say about God?" (Richard Rubenstein, After Auschwitz) One day when we came back from work, we saw three gallows rearing up in the assembly place, three black crows. Roll call. SS all around us; machine guns trained: the traditional ceremony. Three victims in chains--and one of them, the little servant, the sad-eyed angel. The SS seemed more preoccupied, more disturbed than usual. To hang a young boy in front of thousands of spectators was no light matter. The head of the camp read the verdict. All eyes were on the child. He was lividly pale, almost calm, biting his lips. The gallows threw its shadow over him. This time the Lager capo refused to act as executioner. Three SS replaced him. The three victims mounted together onto the chairs. The three necks were placed at the same moment within the nooses. "Long live liberty!" cried the two adults. But the child was silent. "Where is God? Where is He?" someone behind me asked. Total silence throughout the camp. On the horizon, the sun was setting. "Bare your heads!" yelled the head of the camp. His voice was raucous. We were weeping. "Cover your heads!" Then the march past began. The two adults were no longer alive. Their tongues hung swollen, blue-tinged. but the third rope was still moving; being so light, the child was still alive...For more than half an hour he stayed there, struggling between life and death, dying in slow agony under our eyes. And we had to look him full in the face. He was still alive when I passed in front of him. His tongue was still red, his eyes were not yet glazed. Behind me, I heard the same man asking: "Where is God now?" And I heard a voice within me answer him: "Where is He? Here He is--He is hanging here on this gallows.." That night the soup tasted corpses. (Elie Wiesel, Night)

5. The Search for New Language Primo Levi – Shema You who live secure In your warm houses Who return at evening to find Hot food and friendly faces: Consider whether this is a man, Who labors in the mud Who knows no peace Who fights for a crust of bread Who dies at a yes or a no. Consider whether this is a woman, Without hair or name With no more strength to remember Eyes empty and womb cold As a frog in winter. Consider that this has been: I commend these words to you. Engrave them on your hearts When you are in your house, when you walk on your way, When you go to bed, when you rise. Repeat them to your children. Or may your house crumble, Disease render you powerless, Your offspring avert their faces from you. Emil Fackenheim 614th Commandment “Jews are forbidden to hand Hitler posthumous victories. Jewish existence itself is a holy act. To submit to cynicism is to abdicate responsibility for the world and to deliver the world into the hands of the Luciferian forces of Nazism…They are commanded to survive as Jews, lest the Jewish people perish. They are commanded to remember the victims of Auschwitz lest their memory perish. They are forbidden to despair of man and his world, and to escape into either cynicism or otherworldliness, lest they cooperate in delivering the world over to the forces of Auschwitz. Finally, they are forbidden to despair of the God of Israel, lest Judaism perish. Irving Greenberg: Broken (but Voluntary) Covenant No statement, theological or otherwise, should be made that would not be credible in the presence of burning children... The cruelty and the killing raise the question whether even those that believe after such an event dare talk about a God who loves and cares without making a mockery of those who suffered....the Holocaust offers us only dialectical mores and understandings...our relationship to God can't not be affected... the Shoah marks the era where the Siniaic covenant was shattered...Israel is now the senior partner in the covenant (God is the silent one)...and the covenant is now voluntary.......If Treblinka makes human hope an illusion, then the Western Wall asserts that human dreams are more real than force and facts.