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20 Elul 5759 - September 1, 1999 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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Opinion & Comment
The Torah's Advice: How To Arouse Oneself To Teshuvah
HaRav Emanuel Toledano

Part II

In the first part, HaRav Toledano explained that the parshias at the end of sefer Devorim, including the tochecho of Ki Sovo and the strong words of Nitzovim-Vayeilech, which are often read before Rosh Hashanah (like this year) are preparation for the yomim noraim and should stimulate us to teshuvah. The Torah stresses that what happens to us is a result of what we do, and this was all dramatically borne out in the difficult years of the Nazi Holocaust.

6) We saw that also gedolei Torah veyirah were punished in the Holocaust and also in the destruction of the first and second Beis Hamikdash. Undoubtedly, if we were to understand in the simplest way Chazal's dictum that "once permission is given for the destroying angel to destroy, he does not discern between a tzaddik and a rosho (Bovo Kama 60a)," we would not be able to understand the perfectness of HaKodosh Boruch Hu's deeds. Apparently, an injustice is being done! The explanation is that during the period of divine anger tzaddikim are punished harshly for every small sin that they have committed, although in regular times they are not so severely punished.

HaRav Yitzchok Zev Soloveitchik zt'l, the Brisker Rov, once revealed to me a way to understand the above. The world is judged according to the majority of its zechuyos or aveiros. A tzaddik who sins even a little will be harshly punished since his sins also join with others to compose a majority of sins for the whole world. Even if without his aveiros the world has more sins than mitzvos, the world's judgment is nevertheless decided at least in part because of the tzaddik's sins as well, and therefore he is severely punished, together with them.

There is a clear proof to this principle. The gemora (Avoda Zorah 17b) tells that R' Chanina ben Tradyon would assemble people to teach them Torah. He disobeyed the Roman decree not to teach Torah, which was made in order that the Jews should forget their culture and Torah. The Romans arrested him and ordered him to be burnt and his wife killed. The gemora asks: Why was he burnt? [Why was he punished so severely?] (The gemora does not at all take into consideration that the governing Romans were the ones who decreed that harsh punishment upon him.] The gemora answers that R' Chanina was punished because he would pronounce the full name of Hashem when teaching publicly and he did not have more respect for Heaven's honor. Although there is no death penalty for such an act, nevertheless "in a period of anger HaKodosh Boruch Hu is particular with his chassidim, even down to a hairsbreadth." His wife also received a death decree because she could have protested against her husband's slight lack of respect but did not do so.

They were taken to be killed and both of them justified their sentence. R' Chanina said, "The Rock, His work is perfect, for all His ways are justice," while his wife said, "Hashem is a Lord of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is He."

This is exactly what we have written. It was not because of the wicked Roman decree against Torah study that R' Chanina was killed. The enemy does not kill, rather, "See now that I, even I, am He . . . I kill, and I make alive; I have wounded, and I heal" (Devorim 32:39). All that is done to Klal Yisroel by the enemy is the work of HaKodosh Boruch Hu, Who prompted the enemy to afflict us. He gave them the will to torment the Jews. "He turned their heart to hate His people" (Tehillim 105:25). Everything is justified because "The Rock, His work is perfect, for all His ways are justice."

The Nazis were imbued with deep hatred for the Jewish Nation. They professed that cruelty to Jews and annihilating them is essential, since the Jews are out to destroy mankind. This ideology, which was current in many parts of Europe for over fifty years before the rise of Nazism, was further drilled into the minds of the Germans and their satellite states during the six years (1933-39) that the Nazi party ruled before the war.

It is, however, a mistake to blame the Holocaust on the Nazis. This mistake is unfortunately common among many Jews too. The posuk in Haazinu says that HaKodosh Boruch Hu wanted to thoroughly destroy bnei Yisroel: "I thought I would make an end of them, I would make their memory cease from among men" (Devorim 32:26). However, Hashem feared that the non- Jews would ascribe Am Yisroel's destruction to their own power and success, even though, "How could one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had given them over" and had put fear in their hearts. Hashem therefore decided to save some Jews to show the nations that when HaKodosh Boruch Hu does not want someone to be destroyed the nations -- with all their power, hatred, and determination -- will not succeed in destroying him. The nations might understand from this, "that I, even I, am He . . . I kill, and I make alive, I have wounded, and I heal and there is none that can deliver out of My hand."

The posuk cries out that the entire Holocaust, even the smallest hardship done to any individual out of all those killed or saved, was all done according to Hashem's omek hadin (penetrating judgment). The Nazis' hatred for the Jews and the entire background of racism and poverty in which Hitler, yimach shemo, grew up in his youth, which caused him to develop into such an archenemy of the Jews (it is well known that he blamed the Jews for all the German people's sufferings), were all the ways of Hashem -- "He turned their heart to hate His people." All this prepared the background for the horrible Holocaust.

Divine Providence surely does not free the Nazis from their responsibilities. "Zechus is brought to a person who is himself a zackai and chovah is brought to a person who is himself a chayov" (Shabbos 32a). Nonetheless, a person should not make the main reason a secondary one, and the secondary reason a major one. The Holocaust was mainly a terrible punishment for the Jewish Nation sent by the Ruler of the World because of our abandoning His covenant.

On the posuk in parshas Vayeilech that calls parshas Haazinu a shirah -- "Now therefore write this shirah for yourselves" (Devorim 31;19) -- Targum Onkelos and Targum Yonoson Ben Uziel write "the praise" as an explanation for shirah. Without their explanation we would mistakenly think that Haazinu is called a shirah only because it is written like stacks of bricks (as the Ramban writes, since the sentences are equal in length it is easier to remember and not be forgotten by the generations); we would not think that it is a praise at all.

The churbonos and the Holocaust were divine punishments for each individual. How much of the Creator's wisdom and greatness is expressed by His ability to rebuke millions of people daily, each particular person with the exact rebuke he deserves.

It should be added that HaKodosh Boruch Hu used the wicked Nazis, and many other means, to punish each one of us. Each person was punished by this or another means. Being able to arrange whatever means was needed at the precise moment shows Hashem's command over all His creations.

I will mention a case illustrating the above. I once read that a certain Jew succeeded in escaping the ghetto, although he lacked proper clothing and was penniless. He decided to hide out in a far-off Polish village. The Jews, however, greatly feared the Poles as well as the Germans, because they also despised the Jews. This man, therefore, was afraid the Poles might hand him over to the Nazis or kill him themselves. So that Jew hid in a pit on an abandoned local farm. At night he would hunt for food although he feared for his life when doing so. Divine Providence protected him.

On the farm a Jewish woman who was pretending to be a Catholic took care of the family's children and the kitchen. No one knew that she was Jewish and everyone thought she was a real Catholic. She discovered the man's presence in the pit and each night would bring food and water to his hideout. The family began to suspect her of stealing food each night from their house. She noticed that they were carefully watching her, so she had to stop bringing the Jew food. After two or three days the Jew was forced to leave his pit to search for food and water to save his life. Just then the farmer's horse was lost and the farmer went to look for it all over the farm. He suddenly encountered the Jew outside the pit. Instead of having pity on him, he started screaming that he had found a Jew who wants to hide away on his farm. The Pole brought him to the Nazis, who immediately killed him.

HaKodosh Boruch Hu helped that Jew to leave the ghetto. He, was, however, forced to live in continual fear, hunger and thirst. Nevertheless as long as his time to die had not arrived Hashem sent him sustenance via the Jewish woman. When his time had finally come, Hashem used a horse that fled from its owner to cause the Polish farmer to wander around his farm at night, then to find the Jew and to kill him.

One must think in just this fashion about all of HaKodosh Boruch Hu's ways during the Holocaust period. First a satan like Hitler, yimach shemo, arose, and managed to gain control of all Germany. He prepared Germany for a terrible war, with weapons and a mighty army and motivation, aiming to rule over the whole world and to obliterate any remembrance of the Jews. There were numerous circumstances that caused the war, then all that happened during the war itself -- first the dazzling success of the Germans . . . all was brought about by Hashem Himself.

Yirmiyohu Hanovi (32:19) wrote about Hashem's providence over us: "Great in counsel and mighty in feats" (How many feats and ways must Hashem use to punish each person according to what he deserves), "Whose eyes are open upon all of man's ways, to give each one according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings."

HaKodosh Boruch Hu set the Germans in motion, as well as all the other nations of the world who took part in the war, to do His will. Hashem's wish then was to punish the whole world in general and in particular the Jews, and He caused all the course of events to happen and used His creations according to His will.

8) It is proper to mention here the Rambam's words (Yesodei HaTorah 2:10): "The conclusion is that He is the One who knows, He is what is known, and He is the knowledge itself . . . therefore He does not know created things because of their [existence], as we know them, but because of Himself He knows them. Since He knows Himself He knows everything, because everything hinges upon Him in His existence."

The explanation is that Hashem is the neshomoh of the Creation and of existence. Just as a person senses all parts of his body, so the Creator, Who gives life to all, through His knowledge of Himself knows and perceives all created things: their identity, place, and powers. He animates them just as the neshomoh and life of a person animates all his limbs. "He [Hashem] is the principal force and the root of all the worlds, and there is no place vacant of him at all" (Zohar).

We observe all this from the depth of Hashem's judgment and his ways of action (how to execute the exact punishment) that He carried out during a time of hester ponim and divine anger against Am Yisroel. We see Hashem's perfect oneness, and that there is no other power besides Him, and that He did, does, and will do all deeds.

This is the praise of the Ruler of the World.

HaRav Emanuel Toledano is a rosh yeshiva in Yeshivas Shearis Yosef in Beer Yaakov.


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