FORM STECHER
was not a question of disorder or lack of Jewish survival in a war-torn and desecrated
organization but that, on the contrary, a very
thoroughly considered, conscious idea was in
the back of the camp's existence. They had
condemned us to die in our own filth, to
drown in mud, in our own excrement. They
wished to abase us, to destroy our human
dignity, to efface every vestige of
humanity ... to fill us with horror and
contempt towards ourselves and our
fellows .... From the instant when I grasped
the motivating principle .. .it was as if I had
been awakened from a dream .... I felt under
orders to live .... And if I did die in
Auschwitz, it would be as a human being, I
would hold on to my dignity. I was not going
to become the contemptible, disgusting brute
my enemy wished me to be .... And a terrible
struggle began which went on day and night.
(Ibid., 49-50)
In Fackenheim's view, such dedication is of
fundamental significance. As a Catholic,
Lewinska felt under an obligation to resist the
Nazi terror; her experience, Fackenheim
believes, is evidence of God's Commanding
Voice in the death camps. Fackenheim asserts
that the rupture brought about by the Holocaust
must be mended by similar acts of repair.
Previously Jewish mysticism depicted the
disasters that beset the Jewish community as
catastrophes within the Godhead; such rupture
separated God from Himself.
According to Fackenheim, reconciliation in
both the earthly and heavenly spheres can only
take place through prayer and ritual practice. In
contemporary society, however, acts of
resistance must take the place of religious
observance. Hence, the most important reaction
to the Holocaust is the establishment of a Jewish
state for the survivors of the camps. In the
Jewish homeland, Jewry is able to find a refuge
against any future catastrophes. Fackenheim
argues that the post-Holocaust tikkun involves
both religious and non-religious Jews who share
a common ancestry. Together they can ensure
38
world.
References/Fackenheim's major
writings
Dan Cohn-Sherbok, Holocaust Theology,
London, 1989
Emil Fackenheim, God's Presence in History:
Jewish Affirmations and Philosophical
Reflections, New York, 1972
Emil Fackenheim, Encounters between Judaism
and Modern Philosophy, New York, 1973
Emil Fackenheim, To Mend the World:
Foundations of Future Jewish Thought, New
York, 1982
Further reading
S.Katz, Post-Holocaust Dialogues: Critical
Studies in Modern Jewish Thought, New
York, 1983
M.Meyer, 'Judaism after Auschwitz: The
Religious Thought of Emil L.Fackenheim',
Commentary, 1972
Michael L.Morgan, The Jewish Thought of Emil
Fackenheim, Detroit, MI, 1987
SOLOMONFORMSTECHER
Born in 1808 in Offenbach, Solomon
Formstecher studied philosophy, philology and
theology at the University of Giessen, later
serving as a rabbi at Offenbach until his death in
1889. An active member of the Reform
movement, he edited the periodicals Der
Freitagabend and Die lsraelitische
Wochenschrift. His major work, Die Religion
des Geistes (Religion of the Spirit) was
influenced by the writings of the German
philosophers Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von
Schelling and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.
In this study Formstecher maintains that ultimate
reality is the Divine World Soul, a cosmic unity