Rabbi Mordechai Kraft - Tisha BAv 2011

first of all I'd like to thank everybody for staying it's not so easy to to sit during a Tiny's it's easier to speak believe it or not you know so I appreciate everyone's desire to hear more now I thank the the previous were abundant locals so just the inspiration being offered today is something really special and it's a I'm extremely inspired by it I have in front of me a document that dates back to an order that was given from Berlin to the Gestapo in the year 1940 and the document actually is was given to the chief of the German occupation power in Poland and was given to the central office the German security forces I was called the SS it's a document that the Germans had Poland were instructed to be very careful not to allow all student to leave all student means the Jews from the east Poland the Jews from the Western European countries Germany and France Switzerland places like that and their Jews from Eastern Europe especially Poland the Nazis were given a special communique to do everything in their power not to let East European Jews leave apparently at that point in 1940 there was still a live an amount of exit visas and the Germans had an opportunity to give to certain people but they were instructed the Jews from Eastern Europe did not let them leave the reason why says this communication is because of the Orthodox of ice shell because of the Orthodox way of life I think the Jews in Eastern Europe we know held very much onto to Torah and the Nazis wrote because they hold on to the Orthodox a night show because they pull out to the orthodoxy to the Toto these Austria would provide the Rabi neural and Talmud liver from these people will come the rabbi's and the teachers of Talmud that was a Nazi communique in 1940 both of the rabbi's leave don't let the teachers of Talmud leave because any continues it's from the rabbi's and teachers of Tarleton who would create the cool create a completely new spiritual regeneration of the Jews of Newark that's the Nazi son don't let the rabbi's leave don't let the teachers of talent leave because with that they'll keep judy's I'm alive how interesting it is that sometimes our enemies know better than we do where the heart of Judaism lives this with those who know the Turner teach the toe sometimes we forget it but enemies sometimes have to remind us of it I want to be short talk today about a topic which has bothered me for many years especially when I was in high school a teenager I was very bothered why the Jews in Europe during the Holocaust never resisted why don't they fight back certainly there were situations where we outnumbered the Germans in many many thousands against a relatively few and if there are fully few cases where there was physical rebellion the the Warsaw Ghetto was definitely one of them it's a very gallant attempt and something very heroic but one right there more like that and that bothered me a lot when I was younger with maturity I realized the question really wasn't a question because it was very difficult to rappel when someone stands before a family with a machine gun and says that you know the whole family will die if anyone does anything it's a very difficult choice to say a person is gonna fight and even on railroad tracks and things like this where a person might have been successful in killing one Nazi but everyone understood that they would open up with guns and machine guns and and there the blood would be flowing sit was a very difficult choice and it wasn't easy and of course the Nazis were masters at propaganda and he would trick us to the last moment even as we came at Auschwitz concentration camps they would say put your luggage over here you'll be getting it later we had people write postcards back from the camp saying everything is fine we didn't believe it to the last minute either was not the Jewish way to believe such horror about 20 years ago I remember a new set of literature began to appear on the the market and the Jewish bookstores and was it literature that pointed to what I feel is the real heroism of the Holocaust it wasn't the heroism of fighting back with guns it was a heroism of something we call spiritual heroism fighting back in a way in which a person maintains who he is and what he believes no matter what happens and I dare say that that type of heroism is even the deeper heroism and made me a greater heroism I've read once that after the war in 1945 Mike trusts a great American activist went over to Europe he was in the displaced person camps and in the camp he met a Hasidic Jew and was interesting about this Jew in 1945 and it doesn't sound so startling saying in in 2011 but in 1945 this Jew had a beard and the beard was a beard that took many years to grow and everybody knew that if once survived the war in Europe it was impossible to do it with a beard either the Nazis forcibly shaved us in the concentration camps or if a person was fighting with the partisans or fighting in any unit he had to shave his beard he was hiding it to look like a non Jew therefore for a Jew of this this person to have such a beard like this it was unusual and remarkable Mike Trust looked at and I said I just have one question how'd you keep the beard so this gentleman said to him he said it's been on part the Sun I'm a partisan partisan so might trust him to go a partisan are you fought in the forests he said no said you were part of some paramilitary group that was blowing up railroad tracks he said no he said you were hiding in the city doing something underground he said no so what do you mean you were a partisan he said there are many different types of partisans sometimes a person fights with a gun I fought with my beard no matter where I was no matter what happened to me I was committed that I would not shave my beard I would look like a Jew no matter what happened how he did I do not know but he succeeded there are many ways to fight are we going to be Jewish are we gonna live like jewels in the most difficult situation I dare say if a Jew can do that there's a heroism in that which is beyond anything that we can imagine the Talmud tells us there are three traits that exemplify a Jew and in fact if you smeet a Jew any claims to be a Jew it doesn't have these three traits you have to question whether he's really Jewish the traits ar-rahmanu mercy by Charlotte which means shame sense of his dignity a sense of feeling bad about things and goalie has sudden Agatha suddenly someone who wants to do somebody who wants to give person it doesn't have those traits meet somebody he doesn't have any compassion and kindness and shame yet the question is he may Sarah Avraham I dare say that sometimes a shuttle needs to test us in order to bring those traits out from who we are sometimes those qualities can can be colored and covered by the society that we live in but a chef has to squeeze us sometimes in order to see do we have those qualities going back my own life around 30 years ago I was asked by some friends in Jerusalem to go up north to visit a husband and wife we're known to be miracle workers husband and wife would survive the Holocaust who lived in a one-room house with the dirt floor and people come from all over the world to get blessings from them so I said sure I didn't no idea who they were so I remember we went in a van and we drove up north to a little town a little farm and we got this farm and there in fact was a dirt hut and a wooden floor two very happy people in front of the hut with big smiles and I looked down the road there were a whole line of sports cars people have flown in from London and Brussels other parts of Europe to get blessings and advice for these two people and I went in I remember this individual kissed me on that right shoulder which I was always wondering what that was all about and we spoke and I left feeling there's a very very special people and the experience always stayed in the back of my mind for many many years but I don't way of tracing it I didn't remember the people I had got up there with but six years ago I was walking past the store Jerusalem and I saw a book that had just come on the marketplace it was a book and title the holy woman and I don't know why but my eye went towards the book and I opened it up I saw some pictures I looked at the pictures I saw that was the woman and that was a husband I started reading turns out he was from Hungary he went through the health of concentration camps he survived the war came to Jerusalem she was in fact one of the victims of Mongolia maximo the doctor in Auschwitz who took people for operations to see if they could survive without anesthesia transplants in fact a lot of we know about how long pilots will survive in freezing cold waters based on these experiments that these so called people did she was one of his victims she made it to Jerusalem in the meeting this side because there was Moshe Kramer and there was Caius our friend where they married she was unable to have children due to the fact that Mengele one of his operations completely undid her in sight but instead he brought people to their homes their home people who were so disabled and so disadvantaged and so in need of help that families didn't want these children but they took them in sometimes five or six at a time and care for them and raised them so I was reading the book little further I found that wine kissed everybody on the right shoulder I was expecting a capitalistic reason it was not used to kiss everybody on the cheek but his wife said it wasn't sanitary so he started kissing on the shoulder what fascinated me was introduction the author of this book was a woman who had found Judaism later in life and it searched through all sorts of Eastern religions spent time in Nashville and she came to Jerusalem to complete her search didn't know it was the beginning of her search really and someone suggested that she meet this woman I saw Kramer and she did and she went up to where she lived up north and they were sitting across the table from each other and she said sir listen can I ask you something personal she said sure ask me whatever you want she said I know you were in Auschwitz the Holocaust was always so much a part of my life and so important to me and I've always wanted to understand it can you tell me what Auschwitz was like so this woman highest Sarah Kramer who've been operated on by Mengele looks at her says I wishes it wasn't so bad and they won't throw this book it's Rigler she looks at I saw Kramer and she says don't give me any of this religious garbage ouch it was a horror it was terrible how could you claim it wasn't so bad so this woman said we were picked up at hungry Chuck's back you hungry in the cattle car we managed to stay together myself and a bunch of religious girls from my hometown while it was still on the way we said to each other that no matter what we're gonna live for each other we're gonna make sure that anyone in need will have and that's what we did if a girl was sick we'd sacrifice our bread portion one girl had memorized the whole Russian Shana domine on Rosh Hashanah we stood next to her and she doubted for all of us another girl somehow it's smuggled in a portion of the beginner dester I'm furring she read it to us all we'd lived for each other she said you on the other hand you spent the last ten years studying in an Indian ashram that was all about you if you're in a place where you can give it's good if you're in a place where it's all about you that's a bad place you are a bad place the author of this book heard this she writes that her head was turned around 180 degrees the definition of good the definition of bad was completely altered goodness means that you have the opportunity to give to grow to be like the Almighty that means you're in a situation where it's all about you my friends sometimes the republished Oliver has to squeeze us in a way that the wheel jus has to come out what is the real jewel compassion kindness shame I've once asked my father-in-law question my father-in-law was from chuckles is from Czechoslovakia and he was picked up by the Nazis hi when he was hiding in Hungary he was deported to Auschwitz from Auschwitz he was sent to Mauthausen not houses was it death the camp where they worked you to death in Austria and once asked him the question what was it like of liberation finally when you were liberated from that hell what was it like so I remember the first thing he told me was that where he was they were liberated by the Americans the Americans came in with trucks he said it was the first time he ever saw black apparently Europe didn't have blacks in those days American army did then I asked him I said what happens to the Nazi guards on liberation he said he put on civilian clothing and they vanished into the local villages as if nothing happened I said one of the prisoners do he said the prisoners went after them it's before the Americans were able to fully establish control in the camps I said they captured sunny I said yes that thing went into these villages they will identify this was a guard we took him back to Mel house like I said what happened then said prisoners picked up clothes and made a circle and they made these guards walk through the circle and as they walk through each prisoner clubs the garden until he was dead as I follow more questions and I said can you tell me something did you participate you have every right to participate I killed your father they killed your brother with his de forma you remember right to participate did you he said no I didn't and then he said something which struck my heart in a very deep way he said most of those who did were not Jewish there were not Jewish prisoners at the camp as well most of those who took clubs and beat these Nazis to death were the non-jews in the camp he said the Jews couldn't do it not because Jews are cowards we aren't not because we're not great warriors of soldiers we are but the Jewish hearts is different the Jewish heart has traces of compassion and mercy the Jewish heart can't just take a club and beat someone to do sometimes it has to squeeze us to pull out from us who we really are the wrong column dust a little assess that that the shuttle brings darkness into the world in order that we should work harder to show there's light if anyone has any doubts that the Nazis were shoves darkness it's interesting you could think about it the numerical value of Sal Cal one of the names for the Sultana Saavik mem I love love and some quell some else at Cal the Gemara happens to be 131 the numerical value which is interesting because it's also the same numerical value as a common argument was the chief executioner of Hitler was even more interesting by the way if you spill out some can you spell the salmon you stop the The Aleph and you spell both accomplished all beloved you get another good mantra you get that the mantra of 254 I can't do the math for you here because I'm a boring father B but that happens to be the good mantra of the name of Hitler the job of the Sultan is to squeeze us to test us and sometimes a chef brings agents of darkness into this world to squeeze us and to test us to see what comes out you know anybody who studies in you Sheba's today knows that the one of the greatest Shiva's in Europe were in a place in the palainian called Kolff no it's the place that called me she was the places about the issue but my ship the Germans came into kono with one intention to destroy the robot name and they succeeded very well as part of the desire to destroy us he wanted to keep a testimony to who we were and he kept the library Jewish books and one rough Rev asteroid one of the great type of a problem of the time was put as creator of the library there was a library that would testify to the destruction of the Jewish people fortunately he had access to sources and people asked him questions he was able to answer I'd like to share with you a few of the questions that was asked him there's a volume we can get eight volumes called mean of a maken for thousands of pages of responses apparently he would write it up and hide it and he found it after the war in English you could find it in a book called responsive from the Holocaust which is a created version some of the questions that came to him and let me ask you as I read for these questions are these questions are simple people are these the questions of heroes a man came to him actually this was a questions asked to thee coughing the rough man knocked on his door the middle of the night and said my son has been taken to the train station everyone understood that being taken to the train station meant being deported to a death camp he said to the caller Ravi said oh I know the guard and I can bribe the guard and if I bribe I might get my son back am I allowed to because there's one problem the Germans were so meticulous with numbers if they said 500 the med 551 off it means one has to go in his questions the corner of was am I allowed to get my son hours if it means someone else's son has to go in company I'll turn to him said please do not ask me that question I'm weak to answer questions of life and death you have to be in a strong state of mind I haven't eaten I'm not healthy or not well these are questions for me at the best of my abilities not now so this man said I'm willing to ask you again can I save my son if it means someone else's son has to go come the Rope said please do not ask me this question still ask you one more time can I save my son come over said please don't ask me this man turned to the cause of Robert he said if you're not giving me I yes I assume the answer is a no I cannot save my son he left the cup the rouse Oh people saw him on the street and they heard a whispering to himself Asham tested either wrong with that I can't ask its really you give your son to God if you need to are you willing to sacrifice the life of your son at the last minute God changed his mind this man turned to ash my shadow I gave my son for you father was only tested I passed the test I did it he rose simple people could resistance be something war and fighting back with machine guns a cow was smuggled into the ghetto people who are starving malnutrition they had a question we have shot and we could check this cow we know people trained to investigate to see what scalar the ones not fatal close your fat and not close your fat we have people can examine the lungs we don't have to eat trace no they have one problem we don't have any salt because you don't salt the meat the problem is blood is present and to eat blood we know it's a very serious correct so he went to eyelash fly and he proposed the fine solution we know it says in hallo ho that if you roast the beat you can draw out all the blood in fact that's how you cash your liver you probably know that my ghosting over fire draws the blood out you know deep salt we can roast the meat and draw out the blood without salt but there's a long problem with doing that the starvation had so affected the people of their stomachs shrunk and they couldn't tolerate roasted meat it's only way we could serve people in a way that's gonna help them nutritionally is to boil meat so laughter I suggested the following cut the meat up into very small pieces and cook it in a very large pot so there will always be 60 times more water than meat and therefore you'll always be able to nullify the blood 16:01 beautiful solution and that's what he did and it took a lot of time to cut the beef off very small and to cook very small amounts of meat with a large amount of water so they'll always be that nullification 60 to 1.2 the shisha my friends starving people finally there's a cow and there's a question of how are we gonna eat this not just to eat it but how are we gonna eat it to fulfill the halacha for the best of our ability you squeeze at you what comes out is that to the slaughter as people want to say is that victims are those heroes I suggest those are heroes my gooosh and Weiss what a beautiful safer by his experience concentration camps he survived a war he was learning it there as well and in there yes well one of his roommates asking the questions in 1950s how did he keep your faith after what you saw he said I never lost my faith and the reason I kept it is for the following one time I was in the camp and a Nazi guard burst into our barrack and said there's been sabotage and unless we find the saboteur we're going to kill everybody in this barrack a hammer was missing the hand was missing those Mississippi sabotage against the Third Reich and this guard said unless somebody confesses to having stolen this hammer I'm gonna hang everybody here so one little juice step forward 17 years old skinny he said to this Nazi guard he said I stole a hammer that's not so looked at it said I don't believe you your skinny little Jew will run up a person I don't believe you stole and this little Jew was teenager he said my father's a rabbi it's my grandfather is a rabbi I grew up in a family but we were trained not to lie and I demand on your German honor that you keep your puppet if you said whoever confesses will be killed and the rest will live this German officer couldn't do anything about it he took this Jew out any helmet later in the bog the barrel at night the rest of the Jews were sitting and talking about this event and he says it is do you have a right to do that is it you allowed to sacrifice his life to save other Jews and they concluded by saying he wasn't a Jew he was an angel and Robert Weiss said when I saw that I understand I understood what a Jew is a Jew was an angel I never lost my faith sometimes my friends the rabona Shalom used to squeeze out from us who we are in the most dire straits under the most severe situation and circumstances and I suggest to you that the heroism of the Holocaust was a heroism beyond anything we can imagine it wasn't the resistance of guns with guns although there were times with the resistance of angels a resistance of Jews limited live for each other and give to each other and die for each other and ask questions to keep Valhalla mother starving that's the Hera was a Holocaust that's the legacy that we take with us and that's the realization we have to appreciate as to who and what you and I and all of us and all the Jewish people really are