Volumne 12 Number 4
March/April 1996
Adar/Nisan/Iyyar 5756
Yom Hashoah-Remembering
the Lessons of the Holocaust
by Barney Kasdan, Messianic Rabbi
It defies logic. It is almost incomprehensible. How can we imagine the
depths of the Holocaust? Six million people murdered simply because they
were identified as Jews. Among those were 1 1/2 million Jewish children
who were killed because they represented the future of our people. We
can never forget that additional victims included an estimated five million
Gentiles who were murdered for various reasons, some of them for their
stand for their Jewish neighbors. These were not war casualties (some
30 million total) but people targeted for death because of their race
or belief. That the Christian community should also be concerned about
Yom Hashoah is best illustrated by the insightful quote of German Pastor
Martin Niemaller (himself a prisoner of Dachau): "It is shocking to
realize that Hitler essentially accomplished his 'final solution to the
Jewish problem' in the lands that his Nazi troops conquered. One can only
wonder what would have happened if the Nazis would have not been defeated
by the Allied forces".
Thankfully, the last question is merely hypothetical. Am Yisrael
Chai! Out of the darkness of Nazi Europe rose the light of the modern
state of Israel. The Jewish community worldwide is finding renewed growth
and strength. Yet, Yom Hashoah leaves many people with some lingering
and disturbing questions. Many still wonder what the Holocaust tells us
about G-d. It seems the better question is what the Holocaust tells us
about the human heart. As for G-d himself, I believe He tells us through
the prophets what He has been doing at times of this kind of suffering
for Israel:
"In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the Angel of His Presence
saved them; In His love and in His mercy He redeemed them; and He lifted
them and carried them all the days of old" [Isaiah 63:10].
While we grieve (as G-d does) as we remember the 1/3 of our people who
perished, we should also recall that if it wasn't for the intervention
of the Holy One, the remaining 2/3 would not have survived! While the
sceptic is tempted to blame G-d for things like the Holocaust, the person
of faith actually becomes stronger. We can see with spiritual eyes the
victory of G-d's kingdom over the falleness of mankind in this present
age.
What makes the Holocaust even more difficult to understand for many
of our people is how such atrocities could occur in a so-called Christian
Europe? For this, I will not offer a superficial answer. Clearly, many
of these people, while claiming to be Christians were not following
his clear teachings. Yeshua even warned of people who would claim to be
his but whom he didn't even know! In his words, "a good tree cannot
produce bad fruit" [cf. Matthew 7:18-23]. Many people are heartened
by the fact that both the Catholic and Lutheran churches have recently
sought forgiveness for any antisemitism, theological or otherwise. The
sad history between the church and synagogue is a deep wound that has
caused a massive chasm between the Jewish people and our own Messiah,
Yeshua. What is the most important lesson to be learned from the tragedy
of the Holocaust? If mankind is not to fall into such wickedness again,
we must live the words of Yeshua as he was asked which was the greates
t of the mitzvot:
"The foremost is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our G-d, The Lord is One;
And you shall love the Lord your G-d with all your heart, and with all
your soul and with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second
is this, You shall love your neighbor as yourself". [Mark 12:29-31].
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