Rosh Hashanah Inspiration: Rosh Hashanah in Auschwitz 1944 - What is Our Akeida?

this torah class is brought to you by torahanytime.com communities of nayamar galicia and heading a great yeshiva of hundreds of talmidim srihirsh maizos became the chief rabbi of sin in 1930 14 years later in 1944 the rav along with his entire community was deported to auschwitz in the introduction to remission safer shiloh he records with great emotion how miraculously he was successful and smuggling a shaufer into auschwitz on that faithful rosh hashanah in 1944 he writes the recollection of that faithful rosh hashanah shall forever be implanted in my memory against all odds i was able to bring a shayfer into the camp on the first day of rosh hashanah i went from black to black shay for in hand to blow this kiosk my life was in danger the entire time but thanks to hashem's kindness i was able to avoid both the nazis and the kapos i had the privilege to sound the shaffer on that rosh hashanah 20 different times this literally revived the spirits of my emaciated brothers and sisters blowing new life into their souls i then blew the scheifer for a group of about one thousand a group who were about to be herded onto trains for transport i can still hear the sobs that burst forth from these men and boys as i blew that's chaos at that moment i recall the explanation written by the shloch about the mystical meaning of the kiosk says shlock the sound of the shaffer begins with its kia a long straight blast and then it breaks down into shivarim trua this is compared to the state of the jewish people who at one time were strong who were upright in the times that we had a base hamikdash and we were in arts israel and we had great naviam and great sages but now we are broken and bent in our long and bitter galas yet despite our suffering there is a great ray of hope just as the kiosks end with its kia gedoyla so too we have a long majestic and glorious future to look forward to that will endure and last until the end of time after i finished blowing this chaos in many many blocks there was a group of 1400 boys who were locked in a separate block to be sent to the crematoria when they discovered that i had a scheifer they shouted they plead they cried they begged that i should come blow schaefer to them on their final night here on planet earth they so wanted to fulfill this precious mitzvah on rosh hashanah before they would give up their lives our kids hashem when i heard their request i was pained and terribly confused there was really nothing that i would have wanted more than to blow shauper for them but on the other hand it was a terrible risk because it was nearly dusk and a very very dangerous time very soon the nazis would be coming back to try to carry out their diabolical plan if the nazis would have shown up when i was there blowing the shauffer i would have been taken to the crematoria as well the ruthless capos would never have allowed me to escape i stood there by the entrance besieged by great doubt the decision was excruciating i was really not sure that taking the risk and entering the block was justified but the children did not let up they cried they pled rabbah rabbah please have mercy on our souls we beg you please allow us to fulfill this last mitzvah in our last moments here in life rise from sweet harsh miserals i stood there frozen in indecision to go should i go should i not go suddenly my dear son zalman labe he comes over to me he cries he begs he says tata tata don't go don't put yourself in danger you're going to turn me into an orphan there won't be anyone to care for me please don't enter the block you're ready blue shirt for so many times today you already risked your life again and again you've done more than your share says of sri harsh myself when i gazed at my son who i loved so much i was overcome with emotion with compassion and i decided to accede to his request but the boys in the condemned block continued to cry continued to well their pleas reached the very heavens meanwhile some of these see them in my block joined the pleas of these boys urging me to hurry saying there was still time go rebba blow schaefer for them so i said to myself perhaps i should risk my life and give these boys one finals ahus before their lives would be snuffed out my decision was made come what may i would enter the block and blow the shaiphar for the desperate boys ignoring the cries of my very own son i started to negotiate with the capos begging them to allow me to enter eventually some of the inmates bribed the capos to let me in the money hungry capos warned me that i was risking my life if the bell at the gate sounded signaling that the nazis were coming then i would be my feet would be sealed together with the boys and i would be sent to the gas chambers together with them i agreed i asked my son to serve as a lookout he i told him if the ss are coming cry out and i will stop even if i'm in the middle of the kiosk rights of sri harsh missiles the truth is my decision was not in accordance with halacha that forbids a jew to endanger their life for the mitzvah of kia shaifa but my reasoning was as follows either way i didn't have much of a chance of survival either way our life in the camps was not a life day after day we saw our fellow inmates shot gassed burnt collapsing in the field in sheer exhaustion of malnutrition at least i said to myself let me help these boys fulfill one last mitzvah this was my justification there is no writer gifted enough there is no pen whose ink can possibly do justice to my emotions as i entered the block where the boys were herded together awaiting their fate it is a miracle that my heart was not rent asunder when i saw these precious boys and heard their bitter sobbing they pushed toward me to reach me to kiss my hands to touch my clothing rabbi rabba have mercy on us their whales reach the shamayim when i started to prepare myself for the two that's kios and i cried out from the depths i call out to you the ribanus oil the children exploded into a fresh sobbing demanding that not only i blow shauper for them but they said rabba reba give us one last russia they crowded around me they didn't let me continue what could i say i was afraid that giving a drawshot would delay and put my life in even greater peril than it was but i could not ignore their pleas and i tried to speak to them words of hope after i blew this chaos i tried to hurry out of the black before the doors would be locked a few boys followed me they said rebba do you have maybe a kazias of bread in your pocket so that we could fulfill the mitzvah of eating on rosh hashanah the does not allow a person to fast on this holy day and i was bitterly disappointed that i had nothing to give them and i would have to return to my black never to return again what a heart-rending fate i said to myself and adding to their sorrow they would have to fast on rosh hashanah i escaped the block in the nick of time that night the boys were taken to the gas chamber the memory of these precious boys will remain forever etched in my mind right from sweethearsh mizells and then he reveals to us a very insightful comment right sweetheart now i understood for the first time why on rosh hashanah we read the myself because generation after generation the day of rosh hashanah had been dedicated for claudius for all to be mekadesh in public just as these boys had done throughout our history the actual akidas yitzhak was not the only act of sacrifice that claudius endured many of rosh hashanah have we sanctified and sacrificed our lives for the performance of mitzvos on the highest level when our holy ancestors took out the safer torah on the second day of rosh hashanah and they read about the akedah this was an act that they had a lot of connection to many times did they face challenges of sacrifice in earlier generations for them every day every rosh hashanah was a reenactment of but how do we relate to that what connection do we have with the akedah and it's quite a frightening thing the shlock tells us at the end of pashas that we always like to invoke if we don't live up to these types of actions if we're so far removed from their level of greatness if we have no connection at all to this type of behavior then not only do the actions of our forefathers not bring us merit but they actually serve as a kit shrug an accusation that why are we not living up to the example of our voice so why do we even bring it up of what merit is the akhidas to us in the year 2015 in tough shania involved but says every generation has their own challenges every generation has their own asean noise we today are faced with a very different type of nissan the challenge of freedom the challenge of liberty the challenge of success the challenge to pursue the american dream the challenge that makes us forget what life is all about what our purpose is and slowly slowly it starts to dull our drive to be punctilious to be careful in matters maybe to be careful to daven with a minion to be careful to learn every day to be careful with our eyes what we look at for women the opportunities of america the opportunities to be part of the workplace create pressures to dress in a certain way a way that may not be in sync with sneos everybody knows that when it comes to see us there's certain exacting what has to be what has to be covered but then there's an entirely different aspect of the spirit of the law and that is an area of sneeze that we're bombarded with the currents the undercurrents of the society we live in counteract the entire concept comes the khadosh writes you know what our archaic is you know what our sacrifice is the says is to get up early in the morning to fight our laziness to fight our inertia to come to a minion to come to davaning to come to learn to come to ashir when a woman says she's going to fight the trends and fight the tide and swim upstream and follow the spirit of theos and not the spirit of what we see on the streets that is herakeda these challenges says whatever challenge a person is faced with in life one should think that three bunnishly has designated this challenge to them this is their akida says the person should say that the ribosome has prepared this challenge for them so that just like when avraham avinu passed with flying colors the challenge of the al-qaeda we every individual has their own akedah so that our children and our grandchildren can reap the benefit of that mitzvah until the end of time and at the time of the midst of the qia that the horn of the isle the rams horn reminds the rival of the akitas everybody should think into their own lives where there may be an area that is challenging to them that is difficult for them and in terms of observance and then identify it and say this year this is my akedah this year this is my challenge this year this is where i will sacrifice for hashem and this way we will be able to tap into the most powerful zakhus that we 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