On Remembering the Holocaust

The other day, I gave some serious thought to the Holocaust, right after reading an article titled, “On Remembering The Holocaust.”

 

To me, the people who felt compelled to “Never Forget” the Holocaust, and who contributed to the building of the Yad Vashem memorial in Israel, and the United States Holocaust Memorial in Washington DC, were doomed to fail in their mission in the long term. I mean, the Holocaust was destined to become just another terrible event in world history. As such, the way I see it, the lessons to be learned about the uniqueness of this era of unspeakable crimes against a people, and against all of humanity, I am afraid, were doomed to be forgotten.

 

As unbelievable as it is, humanity will have to learn these lessons all over again, but it’s the main reason this will happen that compels me to share my thoughts. You see, the reason the lessons of the Holocaust will be lost with the passage of time, the reason this is inevitable, is because too high a percentage of Jewish society were destined to have lost their interest in the Holocaust. I learned, if the Jewish people forget, the world’s conscience will be lost forever. Without the Jewish conscience guiding the world’s memory of the Holocaust, who else will? Absent of Jewish memory, the stage is set for the rise to power of another Hitler, who may well again target the Jews, or perhaps this time, target the American people.

 

So the question is, “why was it inevitable that the conscience of world Jewry be lost?” Well, I discovered the reasons at the very end of a tour of Yad Vashem last summer, and after thinking about it, I realized that the United States Holocaust Memorial, which I visited only a year earlier, shared the exact same problem. You see, with both memorials to the Holocaust, the planners, paradoxically, “forgot” to include the living conscience of the Jewish people. I mean the source of Jewish memory. By that I mean, TORAH IS MISSING FROM BOTH YAD VASHEM AND THE UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL. But even if Torah is present, in neither case is Torah displayed with the prominence it warrants. The very source of hope that kept the vast majority of Europe’s Jews, who were religious, alive day after day, always believing in Torah’s promise, that “with life there is always hope in the future,” was forgotten. Amazingly, THE BOND THAT LINKED THE GENERATIONS OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE THROUGH SHARING AND LIVING THE SAME WAY OF LIFE, A TORAH RICH LIFE THAT SERVED THE PURPOSE OF KEEPING THE MEMORIES OF THE PAST ALIVE, AS PART OF THE CONSCIOUS LEVEL OF EVERY JEW’S MIND AND HEART, IS MISSING FROM YAD VASHEM AND THE UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL.

 

HOW COULD THAT HAVE HAPPENED?

 

The source of Jewish unity–thus the binding link of the generations, the living memory of every Jew’s shared past with his fellow Jews no matter where scattered across the world–is missing from the very memorials charged with the objective of never forgetting the Holocaust. I submit, without Torah, without the daily repetition and practice of Shema Yisroel, THE PURPOSE OF WHICH IS “NEVER TO FORGET, without the Shabbos, THE PURPOSE OF WHICH IS NEVER TO FORGET…mission impossible.

 

Thus, the world’s moral conscience is missing, and absent of Torah’s recalling the past, the Jew has lost his guiding light into the future, as such, absent of Torah as a daily way of life, there was no way the planners of these great memorials were properly equipped to preserve and protect the lessons of the past. TORAH WAS FORGOTTEN FROM THE VERY PLACES DESIGNED TO “NEVER FORGET.” SHAME ON ALL OF YOU.

 

Sure, people will continue to visit these memorials, and their hearts will break, but as the years go by the numbers will drop, as a high percentage of the world’s Jews and the world at large lose interest in the Holocaust. As the old saying goes,”time heals all wounds,” and that includes even the most horrible of memories. IT IS BECAUSE NATURE IS BUILT ON THE HEALING OF WOUNDS WITH THE PASSAGE OF TIME, THAT ANOTHER SYSTEM HAD TO BE DEVISED FOR THE PURPOSE OF REMEMBERING THE PAST, OF KEEPING THOSE WOUNDS ALIVE, FRESH IN THE MEMORY OF EVERY’S JEW’S MIND. SUCH A SYSTEM COULD NEVER PERMIT THOSE MEMORIES TO SLIP AWAY INTO THE DEPTHS OF THE HUMAN MIND, THUS REDUCED TO EVENTS OF INSIGNIFICANCE, IF NOT LOST FOREVER. NO MEMORIAL COULD EVER ACHIEVE SUCH A LASTING IMPRINT ON THE HUMAN MIND. THE PERFECT SYSTEM TO ENSURE REMEMBERING THE MEMORIES OF THE PAST WAS GOD’S GIFT TO THE JEWISH PEOPLE, THIS IS THIS PEOPLE’S MESSAGE TO THE WORLD. THE GUIDING LIGHT INTO THE FUTURE, ARE THE MEMORIES AND LESSONS OF THE PAST. THAT PERFECT SYSTEM WAS DESIGNED IN TORAH, YET TORAH WAS FORGOTTEN BY THE PLANNERS OF YAD VASHEM.  How could that have happened?

 

There is a reason the planners of Yad Vashem and other Holocaust memorials forgot the importance of Torah in Jewish life for almost 3,500 years.  That was because a few German rabbis around the year 1880, decided they would rather live as Germans than as Torah observant Jews. I am referring to the birth of Reform Judaism. Reform Judaism served the purpose of assimilating into German society, solely to reduce the burdens of life of living as an observant Jew, and that message was brought to America. How could these rabbis not have known that the meaning and purpose of assimilation would end up causing the Jew “to forget his past, to become a part of a new and different way of life?” Of course they knew. How could any rabbi not consider the impact of breaking from a past that demanded daily practice, and the daily teaching of one’s children to keep the light from the past burning? HOW COULD ANY JEWISH LEADER TAKE SUCH A RISK?

 

UNITY DEMANDED OBSERVANCE OF TORAH, BECAUSE ONLY THROUGH A CAREFULLY DESIGNED “WAY OF LIFE” COULD THE MESSAGE REMAIN CLEAR IN THE MIND OF EVERY JEW, THUS, “NEVER TO BE FORGOTTEN.” TORAH HELD THE GENERATIONS TOGETHER THROUGH OBSERVANT LIFE, AND THROUGH THE BEAUTY OF SHABBOS, AND TORAH LIFE KEEPS THE MEMORIES OF THE HOLOCAUST AND THE SIX MILLION THAT PERISHED SQUARELY AT THE CENTER OF THOUGHT, WHY? BECAUSE TORAH IS THE “BOOK OF LIFE,” THE STORY OF THE BEGINNING OF LIFE, THE GENERATIONS OF LIFE, AND THE PRESERVATION OF LIFE, AND THE MESSAGES AND LESSONS OF LIFE. TORAH IS RECORDED HISTORY OF A PEOPLE’S STRUGGLES AND HARDSHIP, AS WELL.

 

If the prayer, Shema Yisroel wasn’t clear to the first reform rabbis, the Ten Commandments should have been. Isn’t it common sense, that people will always seek an easier road if the door is open? Meaning, purpose, the unity of the Jewish people, all had to fall prey to that easier path of life once Jewish leaders opened that door. Was not the story of the departure from Egypt, a story about human nature? Didn’t freedom beget the construction of a golden calf (a symbol of a materialistic life, and immoral behavior)? Didn’t these rabbis, Israel Jacobson, Leopold Zunz, Abraham Geiger, and Isaac Mayer Wise, learn from Torah that as the world and lifestyle changes over time, the foundation of life’s story never changes? Didn’t they learn from Torah, or simply just from mere observation, that sharing the same way of life forms a bond that connects one person to another, while keeping the family together, and unifying a people? Didn’t they learn from Torah? Didn’t they understand nature, that “birds of a feather flock together?” Didn’t they learn that the unity and strength of a people, and the meaning of life, all come from the preservation of a shared past, and the preservation of a shared goal for the future?

 

The point is, Reform Judaism established a pathway that would inevitably lead to forgetting the source of unity from generation to generation. That is Torah. Nowhere in Yad Vashem, the State of Israel’s memorial to the six million Jews who died during that horrible era, is the presence of Torah to be found in a prominent position. No tour of Yad Vashem that I had ever been on, and that was on four occasions, ever included any meaningful teaching of Torah, or a description of how Torah kept the light of hope burning throughout those dark days in Jewish history for millions of Jews. Amazingly, during the Holocaust, most of European Jewry was observant, yet the planners of Yad Vashem, “they forgot Torah.”

 

The hypocrisy calls out from the ashes of the ovens of Hitler’s Auschwitz, Belzec, Begen Belsen, Buchenwald, Chelmno, and Dachau. If there was ever an event to learn from, it was from the years of the unimaginable hell of Hitler’s Holocaust. Amazingly, the most important lesson of all, was missed. TORAH, THE PERFECT SYSTEM TO KEEP THE MEMORIES OF LIFE, THE MEMORIES OF THE HOLOCAUST, A PART OF EVERY JEW’S LIFE IS MISSING FROM YAD VASHEM.

 

The Holocaust is a story of death, but the unity of the Jewish people demands sharing the same story of life, for without following that “COMMANDMENT,” the Jew would surely forget. Death is final, death must remain in the past, but the story of life continues, and to wait until the very end of Yad Vashem to learn that lesson, without the bond that connects one Jew to another, the bond that connects every Jew to his or her past, I mean Torah, the significance of Yad Vashem’s message must be short lived. Without Torah, without the daily reminder, without the Shabbat, the memories and lessons of the past, must be lost, because if the Jew forgets, for sure the world will too.

 

Nothing in life is important enough to remember, if all one remembers is once or twice a year. A Torah observant Jew remembers everyday, which is why every Jewish life that has past on is remembered through the Kaddish prayer. This is why every Jewish life is sacred, to be cherished. TORAH IS A CELEBRATION OF LIFE, THE HOLOCAUST IS A STORY OF DEATH, WHICH SHOULD WE CHOOSE TO GUIDE THE FUTURE OF OUR PEOPLE. THE STORY OF LIFE, OR THE STORY OF DEATH?

 

Freedom as it stands alone, is a very shallow experience. Freedom can only relate to a moment in time, and the moment is always in the present. Freedom has nothing to do with one’s past, nor does freedom have anything to do with one’s future. Freedom is merely the ability to do as one pleases from one moment to the next. Very shallow indeed, but also very addictive.

 

But with life it’s different. Life is a story, it is a story of the past, and the story always relates to a person’s family, a person’s genetic and cultural and perhaps religious heritage. All of the richness of a person’s life comes from the past, but that past will surely be forgotten if its messages aren’t passed on to the next generation. Thus we find the meaning of the Shema Yisroel, the central message of Torah. THIS IS WHAT WE MUST DO TO NEVER FORGET THE PAST.

 

God didn’t give the human being the power to choose the pathway toward the future, both in physical terms nor when it comes to learning the meaning and purpose of life. It must come from the past, and the message is carried into the future through the generations of the family, from father to son, and from mother to daughter. This is not a matter of the free will of the human mind, it is a matter of a “law of nature,” it is G-d’s law.

 

LEARN THE PAST, BECAUSE NOW IT SHOULD BE EVIDENT TO ALL, “FREEDOM DESTROYED OUR CONNECTION TO THE PAST, TORAH IS MISSING FROM YAD VASHEM, TORAH IS MISSING FROM JEWISH LIFE.

 

Thus, the main message of the Holocaust is what the Jewish people must do, not only to “Never Forget” the moral lessons to be learned from the Holocaust, but also what the Jewish people must do to become United “as if one heart and one mind,” thereby paving the way for a bright new future for the entire world.