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Yom HaShoah Message
By: Rabbi Dr. Bernhard Rosenberg
I have taught Holocaust studies for most of my life on the high school and college level. When I discuss the Holocaust and God, I share many possible views. In truth, after having written numerous books on the subject I don’t have an answer. I cannot in good conscience believe that the Jewish people were punished, because if I believe that, then I would not be a Rabbi, and probably be an atheist. One and a half million priceless Jewish children were murdered. What was their sin? The answer I give myself and others is that mankind caused the Holocaust, not God. . It is the only answer I can live with.
Yet I just read Rabbi Avigdor Miller’s “Divine Defense of Hashem Madness In The Matter of the Holocaust ” and I remembered my father telling me the Shoa is predicted in the Chumash, the Tocha Hah. The Holocaust according to some occurred because of sinat chinum , hatred of each other This is now occurring in ISRAEL and AMERICA FOR THE ENTIRE WORLD TO SEE. . The neo-Nazis and anti-Semites are having a field day watching Jew fight Jew. We are not only democrats and republicans, We are Americans. We are told that both temples were destroyed because of sinat chinum. If someone attacks you with horrible comments, delete them, instead of having an ongoing tread of insults.
My students ask me “Can the Holocaust happen again?” My answer is a definite yes. A number of nuclear bombs thrown at Israel by its enemies would annihilate the Israeli population. One is naïve to believe that anti-Semitism does not exist throughout the world. If we have learned anything from the Shoah, it is that it is possible for a madman to arise who wants to annihilate the Jewish people. Never fool yourself into believing that you are safe anywhere. We must always be alert and fight against prejudice wherever it may exist. Jew-hatred is an obsession like no other.
Anti-Semitism simply won’t go away. Hamas is obsessed with murdering Jews and destroying Israel rather than building anything. Even a cursory examination of the cruel attacks on Oct. 7 reveals the obsessive nature of our foe’s implacable hatred. Please do not call this horrible war a Holocaust. However, the ramification of this war is the same as the Holocaust. Many will seek all their lives for survivors not knowing they are dead or alive. Iranian leadership in responding to criticisms of its program to acquire nuclear weapons, sounded much like Hitler when they proclaimed, “Israel must be wiped off the map!” and that the Holocaust is a “myth!”
What’s most amazing to me is that this war with Amalek continues—that the world is still so concerned with the fate of Israel and the small number of Jews in the world who do not even amount to a percentage of error when calculating the world’s population. The rhetoric is apocalyptic, even Biblical. Why care about Israel and the Jews? It must be a spiritual struggle of the generations. The Torah then has been proven to be incredibly wise in warning us never to forget or worse, to underestimate Amalek the anti-Semite—no matter how he may appear. I predict the college demonstrations on behalf of Hamas and against Jews and Israel on college campuses and other places will BECOME WORSE AND MORE WIDESPREAD, we must have JEWISH UNITY TO FIGHT THEM.
