Pesach and the Holocaust - Connecting To Your Roots

this Torah class is brought to you by Torah anytime.com welcome everyone it's a great honor and pleasure to be here in uh this High School is actually my second opportunity to speak for the girls of shalamas I was asked to speak about PES let's start by speaking about Yumer 1946 it's the first yum Kipper after the war they had just finished in a DP Camp called felink which was a gathering of many of the broken shells those who had survived the terrible catastrophe and were groping to put the shattered pieces of their lives back together again they had just finished reading the Tyra on yum Kipper and they received news that General Eisenhower you may have heard of him he was supreme commander of the Allied Forces and later the 34th president of the United States Eisenhower was going to come to visit this DP camp and they were told they would have to appoint a representative or maybe two Representatives someone to greet Eisenhower and there was going to have to be a speech maybe maybe two speeches someone who could relay the feelings of the survivors to Eisenhower some someone who could vent the storm inside their souls someone who could give over to Eisenhower what the survivors were going through and a fight broke out in the camp who should be appointed to be the representative the shro the observant Jews in the camp said there's only one person who could represent us to Eisenhower and that is none other than the kenberg Reba who although he lost his wife and 11 children he was the one who would go from one broken soul to the next breathing life into their Embers to reignite the spark of Judaism he's the only one who feels our pain he's the only one who could represent us only the kenberg rebba who is known as the father of all the orphans in the camps however the more Progressive Jews the more enlightened Jews they said him Batman we long forgot about that type of Judaism he's an embarrassment us we want someone who could speak to the general a man of today not a man of ancient past we want someone who we don't have to be embarrassed of and there was a big dispute should they allow the kenberg rebba to speak to greet Eisenhower or not so finally they came to a compromise they said the rebel will speak on three conditions number one he cannot mention hashem's name he can't say the name of Hashem number two he can't give any muser he can't tell us what to do he can't speak about Judaism and finally we have to appoint someone to speak after him because we need to have the last word okay so Eisenhower came and they built a big platform and Eisenhower goes up to the platform and they call on the kenberg rebba to greet the assemblage and as he's going up the stage he grabs the Talis and he puts on the Talis and with a lot of Cav he says balis and he manages to get in the name of hasem and I have to share with you that a very short while ago a close friend of mine whose father was the shamish of the kenberg rebba found a picture of the rebba in his Talis in 1946 and the first time I'm sharing it with an audience it's not the top left picture by the way [Music] or the second picture it's coming there we go right over here that is kenba 1946 and F the think you could see surrounded by yiden who were y who had lost their entire family and he greeted The General and he says thank you General we the Jewish people will forever be grateful to you to the part that you played in saving the lives of The Last Remnant of a people who are persecuted for no fault of their own General we are eternally grateful to you and then the CL Clen bbba turns to thousands of Jews who had gathered on that faithful day on yuram and he says my dear brothers and sisters we must never forget that we are the amem that we are the nation of God we have a purpose in this world we have a tless in this world and if God selected us that we should survive the disaster then we have to realize he has a purpose for us we have a mission to fulfill in this worldes to sanctify the name of hem and as the rebba is talking he's pulling on the heartstrings of all these broken Jews and the people began to cry there were many thousands of people who all of a sudden rivers of Tears were streaming they said they had not cried in six years the river the Wellspring of Tears had long dried up and Eisenhower is sitting there and this Gentile supreme commander of the Allied Forces seeing this Rabbi wrapped in a Talis he is shaking he's visibly and profoundly moved and all the others all the progressive of Jews who had prepared speeches to give after they said would you like to speak would you like to speak and everyone no no no no no no no there's nothing left to say Eisenhower goes up to the closenberg rabba he looks him in the eye and he says holy Rabbi what could I do for you whatever you want what could I do for your people and the rebba thinks and he looks Eisenhower straight in the face he says there 4 days to suus we need we need a you think he could get usim and Eisen how cannot believe what he's hearing here you have a man he lost his wife and 11 children the Jewish people were decimated and all this man wants isah of that very day Eisenhower sent a plane to Italy to retrieve Dal minim for thousands of survivors the night of the SAR there's a very important mission that our parents and grandparents have to accomplish and that is to give over to us the agony of Jewish history and the glory of our survival you know what kind of great task it is that our parents and grandparents have to try to convey to us what does Jewish history mean to us what does it mean whates does it mean what does it mean that God took us out this is a very Monumental task now I would like to share with you today a question that I had very recently and I'll tell you the truth I'm sort of kicking myself you know how come I never thought of this question before and I'm going to share with you a teaching of the Aral and I bet that every one of you heard this teaching of Aral but it's it's so inexplicable so hard to understand I'm going to share with you what the arizal says and the question the arizal teaches us something very powerful and very frightening theel says that there are 50 levels of t t you have 50 levels of impurity and 50 levels of kadha 50 levels of sanctity theal says that the Jews in Egypt were on such a low level they were on the 49th level of T that had they remained in Egypt one moment longer we would have fallen to the 50th level of T which is called the point of no return that's why we say God had not taken us out of there that had God not taken us out of Egypt then we and our children our grandchild we would have been enslaved to par so I have a very simple question for you you ever hear this arizal before that the arizal says had we remained in Egypt one more second end we would have fallen to the point of no return never been able to be removed there would have been a lost cause okay I heard this a hundred times a thousand times everybody every Jew knows this that we would have fallen to the 50th level of T and then I'm thinking about it think to myself what does that make any sense the point of no return there's no such thing as a point of no return can't a Jew always do chuva can't you always repent aren't hashem's arms always open for somebody to change what does the AR mean had we remained in MIM a moment longer we would have fallen to the point of no return what Hashem could not take us out he's not able to take us out is something Beyond hashem's ability so I'm thinking about this question I you know what I don't get it I don't understand what does that Aral mean and then I was reminded of a comment of the rambam you ever hear the rambam was he Jewish okay just make sure you're listening okay so what does the rambam say the ram says in in Ram talks about the development of idolatry right where did idolatry develop from where did it come from how did people start worshiping Idols so raham says that at first of course ad marish believed in one God but then as the generations progressed people looked up at the heavens and they saw the sun sun and they saw the moon and they figure to themselves these are God's servants these are Generals in God's Army so to speak and they also deserve honor and respect after all the same way somebody uh worships a king or bows down and shows honor to a King a way of honoring a king is by honoring their top executive officials so people felt and thought as a way of honoring God we need to show honor to the Sun to the Moon to the Stars Etc and and then the ramam says people forgot about God entirely until they only worshiped the Sun the stars and the moon and they forgot about Hashem says the r that's until Abraham ainu came to the scene and abrah ainu asks himself who's running the show over here how's the Earth rotating who's spinning it how's the Earth revolving around the sun does anybody know what's the hardest part the toughest part in the human body the teeth the teeth are harder even than the bones you know why the teeth are so hard they have enamel know what enamel is enamel is so dense the strands of enamel are so dense that you could fit more than 100 strands of enamel in the space of a hair's breath so they're so dense it's almost impossible to crack it's much stronger than bone ad thinks to himself who in the World created such a tough substance right where we need it to chew on food I mean that's nobody could make such a thing and why do the teeth stay in your mouth and what anybody know what keeps teeth in your mouth the gum is what the gums the gums are soft like any you could take a plastic knife and cut gums what holds the teeth to the gums cementum it's basically a chemical produced in the body that is stronger than cement it cements the teeth to the gums I ask you a question Abino thinks to himself cementum who told the body to put cementum between the teeth and the gum did you ever meet anybody that accidentally produced cementum between their two lips I know a few people who would be a good idea for but imagine if imagine if the body instead of producing cementum between the teeth and the gums produced it between the lips or between the eyes andu says who in the world's running the show over here and Abraham ainu realized that there is one Creator and one God and he began teaching the world that there's one Hashem does anybody know how many followers Abu had the ram writes more than tens of thousands of followers says the r listen carefully yeah camera says that planted in the hearts of all of his students and descendants this teaching the teaching that there's one God and Abraham taught it to Y and Y taught it to yob and then they go down to M and they're living in a society which is immersed in idolatry and slowly slowly slowly the Jewish people began to forget that there is one God listen to the words of the rambam had we remained there a moment longer then the planting that ABR ainu planted in his descendants would have been lost forever and it occurred to me that the ram is explaining what the Aral teaches us had we remained in MIT a moment longer and we would have fallen to the 50th level of T we could have recovered we could have regained ourselves we could have done shua we could have reached our old level there is one problem that would have occurred if we would have remained in Egypt a moment longer you know what have happened then the teaching of Abraham ainu the tradition of ab ainu that Abu instilled in the DNA of his descendants that would have faded maybe we would have once again believed inem maybe we would have once again had but the planting the seed that abrau placed in his descendants it would have faded completely you know what would have have happened there would have been a gap in the tradition of the Jewish people there would have been a gap in the Messiah there would have been a gap in the chain it would have been Abraham yob Ley stop and then maybe a few hundred years later again the Jewish people would continue we would never be able to say that we are MIM descendant of abah a because this is the teaching thato implanted in us the M would have been severed and how KES cannot let that happen and therefore listen carefully when we celebrate P we're not just celebrating you know we got out of slavery and now we're free it's much deeper than that we're celebrating the fact that there's an unbroken chain that goes back all the way to abru that as the chain was about to be severed forever the re said no we cannot let that happen we every Jew for all eternity has to be able to say with full conviction that I don't just believe in God because I believe in God but it's something Abu put in my DNA now it's interesting the Mitzvah of the night of the there is different than any other mitah sh so what do you do with the shaar so you go to sh and you listen to it does your father have to blow Scher for you no does your mother have to blow Sher for you no lul van es what do you do you pick it up you shake it and finished where do you get it from wherever you want who has to buy it anybody your parents don't have to give it to you the Mitzvah of the S there is a very different Mitzvah anybody ever say let's say you pick up a sid to Davin does your mother have to Davin to you no you Davin yourself you pick up the Sid yourself there's one mitah the you know why don't we get around pesak night and everyone picks up the everyone says it and then it's time to eat if you do that nobody gets any Mitzvah the Mitzvah is your father needs to tell you the ha and I will tell you you know in in many schools everybody's busy preparing the and booklets and pamphlets and coming to the table ready to be M that's not the mitzvah not the Mitzvah it's a beautiful thing to have a lot of the the Mitzvah is one thing to ask the question and then to listen the MIT is for your parents and grandparents to tell you why is this the only MIT the T that your parent Your Grandparent has to tell you because what we're celebrating is The Unbroken chain back to Abraham ainu and if your parent Your Grandparent doesn't tell you your teachers are not telling you you're missing most of the story you're missing most of the benefit it's to be able to trace back to abrah aino so I want to share with you very briefly a few things that maybe I picked up over the years from my grandparents and if you're privileged enough at your say there you have grandparents at your say there maybe some people have great grandparents at your say there it's your responsibility you're going to have booklets you're going to have sheets you're going to have I'm tell tell you something now much more important ask your parents ask your grandparents what did your parents say they look like how did your grandparents celebrate pesak how did they dve in how did they treat mitz that's the job of a yid on pesak I going tell you a few stories some of the stories are so miraculous it's almost impossible to believe but I'm telling you stories that were Witness iwitness stories the first one is not a remarkable story actually not remarkable at all something that stuck with me so it's before rash one year and I call up my grandfather my mother's father I say zi I call to wish you a you know sh so my grandfather tells me dannie I just want to tell you something when you D in on Rashana dve in well Hashem listens to your Tria something that everybody knows but the way my grandfather said it he really felt that when he says the words of the Sid Hashem is listening very carefully and that's something that made a big impression on me that's something that Stu stuck with me when you hear something like that from your grandparents that's very meaningful but I'm going to tell you now something that happened to my father's father my father's father was was a RV in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania since 1951 that's before maybe your parents were born and Kar is 102 years old he still alive and my grandfather was a survivor of all the camps aitz D all the terrible camps there was one particular Camp the name of this Camp was radam radam is a a brutal labor camp and he was successful to smuggle in a pair of thin now in Ram if you are caught with a pair of thin the SS officer shoots you in the head on the spot there's no it was at risk of death and he was together with his brother his brother Uncle the two of them would wake up every morning at the crack of dawn to put Onin first my grandfather and then his brother H one particular morning my grandfather finished putting on the fillan he hands them to his brother his brother puts on the Yad his brother then puts on the just then Fus who's the brutal Nazi officer runs into the room he sees the on the head of my great uncle he picks up the gun to shoot but then he looks at the and and he was gripped with Terror he put down the gun and he ran out my grandfather said it was an open miracle and the gamar tells us there's a PK in yesah that says the nations of the world will see that God's name is on you and they'll be afraid of you says the gar that's the sh the name of hasem is on the there's a shin on the there a shin on the sh there's a DED on the knot in the back and there's a y on the hand 1945 the Nazis had to make a very important decision they could dedicate all their resources is at the war front to try to win the win the war the Americans and the Russians were coming or they could sort of give up on the war and try to exterminate whatever Jews were still left in in the camps my grandfather included and they chose the latter they chose to lose the war to be able to kill more Jews so they rounded up all the Jews and they put them on cattle cars like animals they would stuff 100 Jews on one car no food no drink no facilities for days people would die of choking on the cattle cars in fact I came across a book that at one particular cattle car all the people thought they were about to die in fact they even writes in the book that my grandfather was a rabbi on the cattle car Cried Out Jews were about to die let's say V let's say shay is and miraculously somehow they survived the American Army sees the train now these cattle cars you know where they were going they were going to the Tero mountains in the Tero mountains the Jews would be let out of the cars they would dig their own grave and then they would be killed and the American Army sees the train going on the tracks They bomb the railroad tracks the general of the American Army was General Henning Lindon the American Army lands the SS officers realize their end is near they take off their army uniforms they put it on the Jewish inmates to try to masquerade as Jewish survivors the not the American Army was not fooled the German officers were fat pigs and the the Jewish inmates were skeletons they were almost in the next World the general of the American Army came over to my grandfather handed him his gun and said take it take revenge against the enemy and my grandfather said Revenge I leave Revenge to it's been 5 years since I've been able to open up my gamar now I have freedom now I could learn gamar I leave Revenge to the re after the war ended Holocaust was over so my grandfather is interviewed by the media and the media says Rabbi you know you witnessed the destruction of European jury brutality of the Germans the mass murder of your brothers and sisters did you at any moment in time lose faith in your god did you at any moment in time lose faith in the promises of the T it's a tough question and my my grandfather said lose faith of course I lost faith I lost faith in man I lost faith in humanity How could a civilized society like Germany shed their conscience how could the United States of America people don't realize this turn around turn the other way bury their heads in the sand and make believe they didn't know what was taking place in Europe yes I lost faith I lost faith in man but never for a moment did I lose faith in who could even imagine the deep-seated amuna of the sikim who could even imagine growing up in America in the five towns we don't even know what amuna is we don't even know what sacrifice is we don't know what mes is the Judaism of these sikim is from a different Stratosphere the Mitzvah of P the is to try to go back as far as possible and glean and connect yourself to the roots of CLA Isel you look at the tree I look in the background I see these houses and there's this tree that's like five stories tall the deeper the roots of the tree are the taller the tree is going to grow you want to hear an amazing thing you know who the three greatest individuals of all time possibly were mosa Aron Miriam wow who are their parents they should give parenting courses can you imagine if you could put on your resume I produced a mha and Aro and aam what did they do right I know we we should Market it and sell it how do you produce such three great sadik like that this farno says you know what was so great about M Miram their grandfather was cahas cahas lived longer than anybody else of the generation before their great-grandfather was Ley Ley lived longer than any of the descendants of yakobo mosa Aon and Miram you know why they were greater than anybody else because they had more exposure to their grandfather and great-grandfather and that was the key of their greatness the deeper you go the stronger you connect to your roots to your parents to your grandparents to your great-grandparents in school why do you think they always teach about you know this sadic said that this God is said that the more you connect to the tradition of the Jewish people the higher you climb the ladder of success and I'm very proud to tell you that when my grandfather was liberated from theica um from the Holocaust by the American Army he was appointed the head of the religious Department Of The Joint distribution committee but he knew English he was a a Polish Survivor and he knew English and in that capacity he was able to be the liazon between the American Army and the survivors and when Eisenhower came to felda my grandfather was Eisenhower's translator to the Survivor and the kenberg rebba translator to Eisenhower and I'm very proud to tell you that when those D minim came to felda they arrived at my grandfather's desk and in 1946 and 1947 1948 he gave out those do minim to those survivors and when I saw this picture today really I was very moved here we have a picture after the Holocaust of my this is by the way this is my grandfather my grandfather Distributing mat to the survivors right after the Holocaust can you imagine that what do you think these survivors need they lost their families they L lost their livelihoods they lost everything but to them the Tyro Mitzvah was their life and that's what they were worried about so I'm all of you that God willing this P may we all be open ears and Open Hearts to all the lessons that our teachers teach us and our parents and grandparents teach us and may we all be this to see the coming of thank you you've just experienced another Torah class brought to you by Torah anytime.com