Supernatural Catastrophe

Supernatural Catastrophe

While visiting the old Jewish cemetery in Krakow, a group of Orthodox Jews met a Holocaust survivor who was an Orthodox Jew. He had been in the Lodz Ghetto and eight different camps, including Auschwitz. He had now brought his two sons from Australia to see where he had grown up. When he was asked how he could remain an Orthodox Jew after all he had gone through, this was his response: “How could one not believe in God after the Holocaust? Anyone who survived had to have experienced miracles. In fact, the Holocaust itself was supernatural[1] — that the Germans should wish to utterly eliminate a sector of the population that posed no threat to them. It made no sense at all without putting God into the picture.” He said further that he would challenge any survivor who didn’t believe in God on these issues, as a survivor may be angry at God, want nothing to do with Him, even hate Him, but would not believe that there was no God.

R’ Avigdor Miler[2] writes, “The fact of universal hatred against our people is one of the great miracles of history. Men formerly thought that the differences between Israel and the nations which were caused by the Torah as opposed to other religions, were the reason for the universal hatred. But this was disproved by the case of German Jews who were formerly in conspicuous garb, beards, language and customs which should readily have excited the animosity of the non-Jews. When the German Jews forsook the Torah, intermarried with the non-Jews or had been converted to Christianity and therefore gave their neighbors less reason for animosity, there arose against them the mightiest wave of hatred in history, at a time when religious bigotry was at its lowest. There can be no doubt that the background of this hatred was the religious bias of the Germans’ ancestors. But that this should come to such a catastrophic climax in a time of extreme religious laxity and against Jews who were entirely assimilated proves the miraculous nature of this hatred… These were all miracles. They were the most horrible of events but we are justified in calling them miracles…”

The Nesivos Shalom commented that the Holocaust is beyond our comprehension. Normal intelligence can’t explain the success of Hitler ym”sh: his sudden rise and his unbridled control of most European countries, as well as his maniacal hatred of the Jews! Simultaneous with his victorious conquest, he regarded the Jewish people as a whole, despite their insignificant power, as his primary enemy. Whenever he spoke publicly and got into the subject of Jews, he would lose his sanity entirely and screech like a madman.

It is similarly beyond human comprehension how millions of Jews were murdered and cremated in broad daylight, while none of the nations that had the power to prevent the annihilation lifted a finger to stop these beasts. Such was the will of divine providence: to anesthetize even the Jewish communities in every part of the world to keep them from crying out bitterly and shocking all mankind, to keep the Jews from putting to use the rescue plan of לך כנוס ,  assemble all the Jews and fast…, and hand out sackcloth and ashes,[3] whether for lack of awareness or appreciation of the scope of the tragedy taking place in the vale of blood, or for other reasons that can’t be specified.

The scope of the tragedy was entirely unnatural, solely a decree of Hashem.[4] We can apply to the Holocaust לו חכמו ישכיו זאת יבינו לאחריתם איכה ירדף אחד אלף…וה’ הסגירם, were they wise, they would have comprehended this…how could one pursue a thousand, and two cause a myriad to flee, if not that…Hashem had delivered them over.[5]

A Holocaust survivor once said, “It was impossible to survive the Holocaust. It had to be due to Hashem.” Speaking of the divine providence in the Holocaust of those who were chosen to live, R’ Shalom Mark,[6] also a Holocaust survivor, would quote the pasuk, יפל מצדך אלף…אליך לא יגש, “A thousand may fall victim at your side and a myriad at your right hand, but to you, it shall not approach.”[7]

R’ Betzalel Stern (1910-1988) rules[8] that since any Holocaust survivor experienced miracles, the bracha of ברוך…שעשה לי נס במקום הזה, …Who performed a miracle for me at this place,[9] should be recited in the camps if visiting there.

Let us conclude with the following. It has been said that the greatest miracle nowadays is a Jew. Every Jew today should contemplate what a miracle it is that he is here today. This is because in Mitzrayim, 80% were killed, but not your ancestors. Similarly, many were killed at the time of the First and Second Beis Hamikdash (over one million Jews), during the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, Chmielnitzki Massacres, and the Holocaust, among other calamities. However, your ancestors were not part of those killed. Hashem looked after you for thousands of years for you to be here today.