Many a Jew has asked themselves as well as G-d: Why? How could this happen? And while many faiths condemn those who question acts of their patron deity, Judaism is not one of them. To question the will of G-d is, according to Jewish Law, is to reaffirm that the Lord has complete control of the universe. In fact it would be wrong to NOT question everything.
But this night marks a day of memories, and as we turn to think about what happened, we think about why.
Every person experiences Yom Hashoah differently and every person still has a different story to tell of the horrific event. This blog post will not be telling stories of what happened, but rather, my personal thoughts on why.
Before I continue, I wish to compare the Holocaust to another Jewish holiday that is celebrated quite differently, but tells a story so similar. I speak of Purim. On this day that tends to fall in early March, we all wear costumes and drink incredible amounts of alcohol, all while listening to the book of Esther. When one pays attention to the story though, they realize a scary truth. The stories of both Purim and the Holocaust have near identical beginnings, but their endings are more different than night and day themselves.
In the story of Esther, a wicked man named Haman decided to wipe out the Jews and convinced much of the known world to aid in this genocide. Rather than stand and watch, the Jewish people stood their ground and fought. The queen of Persia, the nation which presided over much of the world as well as a majority of the Jewish population at the time, happened to be a Jew named Esther, the same person the story is named for. With the help of her cousin Mordechai, she helped the Jews defend themselves by making their struggle against the Persian Immortals legal by the King's decree. G-d had positioned these two heroes in the perfect place to prevent a tragedy and they acted justly and goodly and so the Jewish people were unharmed, down to the last woman and child.
Now, I will turn back to the Holocaust which tells a very different tale. A series of wicked men and women: Hitler, Himmler, Mussolini, and Eleanor Roosevelt being chief among those I refer to, decided that they wanted to destroy the Jews which they blamed for the economic problems of that time period. As World War II dragged on, the Nazis decided instead of using them as slaves any more, were to just kill them all instead, as efficiently as possible. Jewish people had gained positions of power all over Europe and the USA, but they all remained silent, none wanted to be the first to step forward. Due to this lack of bravery, many many many (around 6 million) Jews were brutally slain and the world stood silent, not caring at all until the end of WWII. But by then the damage had been done.
The lesson that can be gained from the meaningless sacrifice of so many innocents, is quite simple in theory, but quite difficult to execute. When the Jewish people stand and fight for what is right, justice prevails, but when we do not defend ourselves and assume that the world will come to our aid in our darkest hours, we will get nothing but silence from the rest of humanity.
Jewish people will be chanting, posting, tweeting and all other forms of sharing, the message: "Never Again." This is a message I completely agree on, but unless the Jewish people are willing to stand up for justice, then these are nothing but words, that fall flat in the face of evil.
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