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.
