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8.29.2006

SCHAR V'ONESH-----holocaust

Q. Wait let me get this straight 6 million Jews were brutally murdered and tortured for talking during davening.?!

That’s the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. Nobody knows why the Shoah happened and I think it's really inappropriate to come up with answers like that. Unless you personally spoke to G-d, don’t bother coming up with answers to that. I hope you don’t go around telling stuff like that to Shoah survivors. This is in response to Aaron's comment



A. Imagine the Nazis invading a town. All the residents know what this means and they rush to get out of town as quickly as they can. They leave all their possessions behind and make for the railroad station.

But when they get there, they find their old friends from the other side of town who also ran to the station to catch the last train out.

The friends start shmoozing, catching up on old times. Just then, the train pulls in, and everyone is running to get on board.

But these two friends are just standing there shmoozing, all caught up in their conversation, ignoring the train and the conductor's yelling "all aboard!”

Then, as they notice the train pulling away, they start running after it screaming "Hey wait for us!"

But it’s too late. They missed the train, too busy with their shmoozing to escape the last train out of Nazi occupied Warsaw.

Does this mean that their being killed was a punishment for them talking while the train was leaving? Nope. All it means is that these people were morons and when they could have saved themselves they instead were busy yakking.

That’s what talking in Shul is. Tefilah is our salvation. Sometimes, our last chance. If you want to talk while Hashem is there listening to the prayers and arranging for your escape, that’s your business. But if those who are busy yakking during davening while their salvation is waiting for them in their prayers, well, don’t blame G-d, because He gave you a fair chance.

And PS - the reasons for the holocaust were given to us by Chazal. When suffering happens upon Klall Yisroel we must attribute it to our sins.



...Furthermore, I don't know anything about Rav Shach saying the holocaust came because of sins, but I do know that the Chofetz Chaim ZT"L and Rav Meir Simcha ZT"L of Dvinsk predicted the holocaust because of Jewish sins. The Satmar Rav ZT"L and others have said clearly, that the holocaust came due to sins, and not only that, but throughout history after every Jewish tragedy, our leaders have sought to find the sins behind the punishment.

That includes everything from the destruction of the Bais HaMikdosh (Gemora - sinas chinam) to the Inquisition (Chosid Yaavetz - philosophy), to World War I (non-kosher food and assorted other sins - Achiezer). Your saying that such a statement is "false" is simply baseless and against thousands of years of Mesorah, never mind beyond your authority to make.


...

As I mentioned above, throughout history, we have always sought out the reasons for our sufferings, regardless of whether - and especially in a case where! - the sufferings were horrific.

The Churban Bayis was attributed to SInas Chinam -- was that "heartless?"

And what does it mean that its heartless to identify a "reason" for the suffering of millions of Jews. How many Jewish deaths is it OK to identify reasons for? Nobody in the history of Klall Yisroel ever said that a tragedy was "too big" to identify a reason for it. Why does the amount of people who suffered change the rule of ain misah b'lo chet? And at what point does it change?

Had he merely said that he does not know the reason, or he believes that others cannot know, that would be one discussion, but surely he concedes there is a reason - G-d surely does not hurt people for no reason! - and so why is it "heartless" to be knowledgeable enough to know what that reason is? It makes no sense.

The opposite is true -- if I suffered c"v, I would want to know the reason I am suffering so that I should not suffer any more. If I went to a doctor and he told me the reason I got sick I would thank him. If a doctor was wise enough to figure out why an epidemic took place, we would be grateful. And the bigger the tragedy c"v, the bigger the hero would be the man who would tell us what made it happen.

If someone would withhold from me the reason I have suffered, him I would call heartless, because he would be withholding the key to prevent it from happening again.

As the Chavas Daas writes in the introduction to his commentary on Eichah, there is no point whatsoever to recount tragedies unless we at the same time recount the reasons that caused them, in order to ensure that we are careful not to allow them to happen once more.

And besides --- there were Gedolei Yisroel predicted the holocaust because of the aveiros that were happening. So these reasons were already known.

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