Stories of Hope The Shoah, or Holocaust was our most recent national tragedy. There, we faced Amalek, the archenemy of light and truth, the archenemy of the Jew and his Torah. It is not the first time that Amalek attacked us on our journey to Erets Yisrael. Rav Tzadok HaCohen writes (Yisrael Kedoshim, pp. 94ff): "In man's heart, Amalek is the power that "freezes" man, causing him to see only "absurd chance" and therefore deny any ethical conscience and the moral perfection it entails. "In the physical body, Amalek fights to destroy the sanctity of Brit Mila [The Covenant of Circumcision]. "In space, Amalek covets the Land of Israel, and is sworn to prevent Israel from attaining its perfection-which is interdependent with its dwelling in the Land. "In the history of mankind, Amalek symbolizes the foremost evil among nations, and has always risen up to destroy Yisrael when the time of redemption is imminent." The first time was when we were leaving Mitsrayim (Egypt, but literally, the narrow place), when he attacked our young and our weak. Amalek attacked again, only historical moments before we returned to Tsion, returned to the Promised Land, from Bavel. We of course learn about this in Megillat Esther when we celebrate Purim. Yom HaKippurim is often compared with Purim; it is k'purim (the letters can be pronounced as such to mean "like Purim"). It is also clear that the Nazis are the modern manifestation of Amalek. That we survived at all is miraculous, that we were able to manifest the presence of God, within the Hell that was Nazi Europe, sings of HaShem's incredible bounty. It is the song of truth triumphing over illusion, of spirit conquering the corporeal, of Light defeating Darkness. It was Hoshanah Rabba in the Janowska Road Concentration Camp. Sounds of hundreds of screaming young children and infants seemed to fill the entire universe. A "selection" was taking place. Hundreds of young children and infants were being rounded up to meet a terrible death in the gas chambers. A woman was frantically rushing to and fro, begging camp inmates to give her a knife. Many camp inmates were concerned that she was planning to end her life with her own hands. Her pleas went unheeded. As she came upon a German guard, she took him by complete surprise when she asked him for the pocketknife she noticed in his pocket. Strangely, he complied. She turned to a pile of rags neatly placed a few yards away. Hidden in these rags was her newborn son. She proceeded to circumcise the baby and recite the blessing over the mitsvah with deep devotion. Looking heavenward she cried, "Master of the Universe, you have given me a healthy child and I return to You a wholesome, kosher Jew." She then, with a deep sense of inner calm, delivered the bloodstained knife and her child into the hands of the soldier. *** A boy tells the story of his father, who became the subject of a brutal beating. The Nazi pounded and kicked his father until he became bloody, but he refused to scream or cry out. Frustrated, the Nazi knocked off the father's kipah. The father lifted his hands and cover his head, blood flowed down his face and he laughed at the Nazi; he actually laughed, "Do you think, that because you knocked off my hat, I'm going to change my religion?" ***

Articles Laws & Customs Poetry From the Mouths of Our Sages Torah and Commonetary Home