Dr.

Karen Shawn Teaching the Holocaust: Final Project ' ' '

Nosson Schuman August 9, 2012

I heard an interesting story this week in my Teaching the Holocaust class at YU. The story is told by Howard Shultz, CEO of Starbucks When I was in Israel, I went to Mea Shearim, the ultra-Orthodox area within Jerusalem. Along with a group of businessmen I was with, I had the opportunity to have an audience with Rabbi Noson Tzvi Finkel, the head of a yeshiva there [Mir Yeshiva]. I had never heard of him and didn't know anything about him. We went into his study and waited 10 to 15 minutes for him. Finally, the doors opened. Rabbi Finkel was severely afflicted with Parkinson's disease. Our inclination was to look away. What we did not know was that Rabbi Finkel was severely afflicted with Parkinson's disease. He sat down at the head of the table, and, naturally, our inclination was to look away. We didn't want to embarrass him. We were all looking away, and we heard this big bang on the table: "Gentlemen, look at me, and look at me right now." Now his speech affliction was worse than his physical shaking. It was really hard to listen to him and watch him. He said, "I have only a few minutes for you because I know you're all busy American businessmen." You know, just a little dig there. Then he asked, "Who can tell me what the lesson of the Holocaust is?" He called on one guy, who didn't know what to do -- it was like being called on in the fifth grade without the answer. And the guy says something benign like, "We will never, ever forget?" And the rabbi completely dismisses him. I felt terrible for the guy until I realized the rabbi was getting ready to call on someone else. All of us were sort of under the table, looking away -- you know, please, not me. He did not call me. I was sweating. He called on another guy, who had such a fantastic answer: "We will never, ever again be a victim or bystander." The rabbi said, "You guys just don't get it. Okay, gentlemen, let me tell you the essence of the human spirit. "As you know, during the Holocaust, the people were transported in the worst possible, inhumane way by railcar. They thought they were going to a work camp. We all know they were going to a death camp. "After hours and hours in this inhumane corral with no light, no bathroom, cold, they arrived at the camps. The doors were swung wide open, and they were blinded by the light. Men were separated from women, mothers from daughters, fathers from sons. "As they went into the area to sleep, only one person was given a blanket for every six. The person who received the blanket, when he went to bed, had to decide, 'Am I going to push the blanket to the five other people who did not get one, or am I going to pull it toward myself to stay warm?'"

Dr. Karen Shawn Teaching the Holocaust: Final Project ' ' '

Nosson Schuman August 9, 2012

And Rabbi Finkel says, "It was during this defining moment that we learned the power of the human spirit, because we pushed the blanket to five others." And with that, he stood up and said, "Take your blanket. Take it back to America and push it to five other people." Although Rabbi Finkels point is well taken, I dont believe its the main lesson of the Holocaust. There is perhaps a bias to this perspective when there are 8000 hungry students in your school, with very few of them being trained to earn a living. Never again may also not be his priority, when the official position of his yeshiva is to dissuade its students from joining the Israeli army. I believe the main lesson of the Holocaust, (if we could have the audacity to say so) was to show us the need to return to our own land. We werent desired anywhere in Europe, and as we learned from the Evian conference, there was no place for us worldwide either. In the 19th century under the instructions of the GRA and the Baal Shem Tov, Israel began to be resettled by Jews. Secular Zionism developed as well, but the vast majority of the Jewish populace remained behind in Europe, waiting for Moshiach to bring them there. When we finally needed a place to go to, there was no place for us. In the short story, Prelude, (The Call of Memory, page 48) published in 1948 right before Kristalllnacht, an immigrant family is depicted trying to settle in Urban Chicago. The protagonist says, My Pa said we got to watch our step extra careful now because theres no place besides this country where we can go. Weve always been picked on, he said, but were up against the last wall now, and we got to be calm because if they going after us here, theres no other place where we can go. Because there was no place to go, the Final Solution took place! Although acts of altruism under unimaginable pressure are great achievements, I believe this imperative: Never again-- never again allow ourselves to be so vulnerable, never again to be without our own homeland and never again to allow such indifference to occur to others, has to be the main lesson. When Dinah was abducted by Schem, the sons of Jacob didnt sit around, grovel and play the role of the victim. Rather, they girded their swords and rescued her.

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Dr. Karen Shawn Teaching the Holocaust: Final Project ' ' '

Nosson Schuman August 9, 2012

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30 And Jacob said to Simeon and Levi: You have troubled me, to make me odious unto the inhabitants of the land, even unto the Canaanites and the Perizzites; and, I being few in number, they will gather themselves together against me and smite me; and I shall be destroyed, I and my house.' 31 And they said: 'Should one deal with our sister as with a harlot?' The tribes stood up for the indignity done to them and their family! They proclaimed, Never Again from the onset of the Jewish people. When David heard of the massacre of Saul, Jonathan and the Jewish people by the Philistines, he did not react by saying, Time to learn some more Torah. Neither did he say, Its time for peace negotiations with the Philistines. Rather he responded with a call to physically strengthen the Jewish people (Samuel 2, 1:18), Its time to teach Yehudah how to shoot with bows, for this is what is written in the Book of the Righteous. Likewise in our parsha, after being tricked and seduced into sin by the Midianites, G-d tells Moshe to avenge the disgrace of the Bnei Yisrael from the Midianites. :() () : Avenge the Bnei Yisrael from the Midianites, afterwards you will be gathered unto your people. And Moshe spoke to the people saying, Prepare yourselves for war. You should attack Midian to bring the revenge of Hashem upon Midian. Hashem is preaching Never Again on behalf of the Jewish people. When the Rambam lists someone the sages thought to be Moshiach, it wasnt a scholar with a long white beard, rather a strong military leader: (1) " - . [ " -

 ' " :] And dont think that the Messiah will perform signs and wonders, create new things or revive the dead, its not so. For Rabbi Akiva was a great Sage, from the men of the Mishnah, and he was a supporter of Bar Koziva (Bar Kockva). Rabbi Akiva used to say about him that hes the Messiah. He and all the wise men of his generation thought so, until he was killed Who was Moshiach in the Sagess eyes, someone like Bar Kochkva, who stood up to our oppressors. Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel was certainly a great person and his lesson is important. Nonetheless, the Torah was given to for all of us to interpret. The way I see it, the Torah and our parsha in particular, instructs us, that after being disgraced, to Avenge the disgrace of the Bnei Yisrael! This message stood for our forefathers and sages and, and its still timeless now!