The Miracle of Jewish Survival

The Navi Yeshayah calls out, “Your heart will muse in dread, ‘Where is the one who counts? Where is the one who weighs? Where is one who counts [all these] towers?’” (Yeshayah 33:18). Where can one locate the scribe, where can one locate the analyst? Who can possibly describe the full extent of the pain, the overwhelming burdens of suffering, the bottomless grief, that has been brought upon our people? Are there words? Are there expressions that can capture the tragic saga of our history?

The answer is no. There are no words. To borrow the phrase from the Vidui on Yom Kippur, “What can we say … what can we tell?”

Burned at the Stake

June 30, 1680, marked the celebration of the marriage of King Charles II of Spain and his French bride, Marie Louise d’Orléans. This most historic marriage merited fabulous festivities. A magnificent auto-da-fé was held in Madrid, with victims gathered from Inquisition tribunals all across Spain. A seventeen-year-old girl, Francisca Negueyra, was one of the eighteen Marranos condemned to die at this event.

As was the custom, the mournful procession of terrified victims and “holy” clergymen snaked its way through the city streets past great multitudes of joyous onlookers. The procession entered the main city square, where pyres had been prepared for the executions. The king and queen were joined by hundreds of dignitaries, who were seated all around the public square.

Suddenly, the voice of the young girl rang out, loud and clear, breaking the eerie silence. “Have mercy, Madame Queen! How can I renounce the faith that I drank in with my mother’s milk?”

The young girl’s cries could have pierced a heart of stone. But there was no response at all from the Catholic majesties. They sat on their thrones impassively. The ceremony proceeded.

King Charles II took the oath to annihilate the enemies of the church and to always provide any needed aid to the Inquisition. A lit torch was then placed in his hand, and he ignited the pyre with his own hand.

The king and queen remained seated as the flames rose up, engulfing the entire wood structure, their hearts

cold as stone. They sat, eager spectators, as Francisca and the other seventeen Marranos, including a sixtyyear-old widow, her two daughters, and her son-in-law, were entirely consumed by the flames and their bodies reduced to ash.

This is our history. This is the story of our travails.

We sit on the floor and mourn, but we are at a loss for words. We have trouble expressing ourselves. We feel like Yirmiyah HaNavi, who lamented, “If only my head would be water and my eyes a spring of tears so that I could cry all day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!” (Yirmiyah 8:23).

The Warsaw Ghetto in the Words of My Grandfather

I read an article written by a Holocaust survivor in the book, Theological and Halakhic Reflections on the Holocaust. 1 This article gives a vivid firsthand account of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. It was written by a great Rav and tzaddik, my grandfather, HaRav Mordechai Leib Glatstein.

In this article, he writes:

I am the man who has seen the afflictions of my people. I am a victim, and I am the witness. I saw the Warsaw Ghetto with thousands of skeletons extending their bony arms as if begging for mercy and life. I saw the Warsaw Ghetto, littered with corpses, their faces distorted and swollen, their eyes wide open, skulls crushed. There was blood everywhere, the blood of our children, of our brothers and sisters, of our fathers and mothers. No imagination, no matter how daring, could conceive of anything we have seen and lived through. No language has been created that can describe the enormity of the Holocaust and the slaughter of European Jewry.

I subsequently discovered another article my grandfather had written, published in Dos Yiddishe Vort, Adar I, 5757. He writes about the indescribable spiritual heroism of these kedoshim.

It is the deepest desire of the Jew — not only to live holy, but also to die holy. David HaMelech declares,

“Al zos yispallel kol chassid eilecha l’eis mitzo.” For this very pious person prays in time of need to ultimately be zocheh to kevuras Yisrael, to be interred among fellow Jews. May the Ribbono Shel Olam never forget Rav

Yitzchak Zev Kanal, Hy”d, the senior Rav of Warsaw and the vice-chairman of the Vaad HaRabbanim in

Poland. While standing among others in the “gathering place,” he attempted to wrestle the weapon out of the hands of one of the guards, which was a clear act of suicide, in order to be shot on the spot and thus be zocheh to kever Yisrael. We were hauled to the forced-labor camp of

Bedzin, where we labored under the most brutal conditions. During the bitter winter, in the darkness of the early mornings and despite the freezing temperatures, we had to perform backbreaking labor under the threat of constant whippings. What gave us the mysterious strength, the endurance to live, to breathe, to carry on? “Had Your Torah not been my preoccupation, then

I would have perished in my affliction.” We would stand together with our dear, unforgettable friends, the great brothers Itche Meir and Avrum’che Ziemba, together with the well-known Rabbanim of Warsaw, Rav Dovid Shapiro and Rav Shimshon Sztokhamer z”l, and with many other Torah scholars with whom we were able to have discourses in Torah during the dismal nights. During the galus nights, the Gemara, the Talmud Bavli, that these precious Jews remembered and were able to recite from memory served as a ner tamid, an eternal light that provided illumination to their gloomy and demoralized hearts, giving them hope for a future. My grandfather writes further: The aftermath of the uprising. The Gehenna of Gehennas. On that day when we first saw men, women, and children being led into the house of death, I shed bitter tears of despair. We suffered most when we looked at the children, accompanied by their mothers or walking alone. Within a few minutes, their lives were snuffed out.

The shouts of the women, the weeping of the children, the cries of despair and misery begging for mercy, for God’s vengeance, still ring in my ears to this very day.

“O God of vengeance, Hashem, O God of vengeance, appear! Arise, O Judge of the earth, render recompense to the haughty.”

We Know Not Why

Can we dare ask why? Why did this happen? Why was one-third of European Jewry murdered by the German people, while the entire civilized world stood by mutely?

I am not prepared to give reasons, to offer explanations as to why this happened. But if you are searching for meaning, looking for something that we can take out of the Holocaust, then I have something important to tell you.

Searching for Meaning

I would share a very personal thought that I have been feeling since I read this article, a feeling that intensified in the weeks leading up to Tishah B’Av. But first I would like to share one more story — a chilling incident that my grandfather recorded.

My grandfather writes:

From Radom we were transported to Dachau, the emek habachah, the valley of weeping, of the German malach hamaves. Killings every day, total humiliation in the eyes of the Germans, who derived the greatest pleasure and joy from the spectacle. My dear brother Henoch and I were kicked and chased to the entrance to the gas chambers. At the doorstep of the beis hasereifah, the house of burning, where tens of thousands were choking and feeIing the most shocking convulsions, my brother told me that he wanted to ask for some water. I responded that it is better without water, so that death will relieve us of our pains sooner. We were mere inches and moments away from the next world. But then a Heavenly miracle occurred. Standing there, as we were, at the threshold of death, an SS officer appeared. He grabbed us and remarked in a commanding voice, “You are capable of work!” He dragged us away.

This Godly wonder will remain seared in our memories forever.

Hashem Saved Each One of Us!

Where was the Ribbono Shel Olam during the Holocaust? Where was G-d?

I will tell you where: He was at the threshold, at the doorway of the gas chamber, and He miraculously pulled my grandfather out.

But then a very simple thought occurred to me. It wasn’t only my grandfather whom Hashem pulled out of that gas chamber. Had the Ribbono Shel Olam not saved him, I would not be here today. I would simply not exist.

Hashem rescued my grandfather from the gas chamber, and in doing so He also rescued my father, myself, and my children. Hashem saved us all.

The Ribbono Shel Olam wanted us. He must have wanted us. And, if you are reading this, then Hashem rescued you, too! Hashem has been looking out for you for a very long time.

People say that if they would only witness a miracle, then that would really boost their belief, that would really fortify their emunah. “If I could only have seen the splitting of the Red Sea!”

You want to see a miracle? Look around your shul, around your community — look at the faces of the Jews around you. A living Jew in 2021 is the greatest miracle you’ll ever see.

If you only knew how the Ribbono Shel Olam has been looking out for you!

Over thirty-three hundred years ago, our grandparents were in Mitzrayim, where eighty percent of our nation perished. Yet, Hashem preserved our ancestors so that we could be here today.

At the time of the destruction of the first Beis HaMikdash, the death toll was enormous. But the Ribbono Shel Olam wanted you, He wanted me, He wanted us to be here today. Hashem made sure that we made it through Churban Bayis Rishon.

The number of people who died at Churban Bayis Sheini was similarly staggering. Josephus writes that the number of people who perished or who died by the sword was one million, one hundred thousand. Then, the Romans hunted down every single Jew they could find.

But the Ribbono Shel Olam wanted you — so He saved you’re ancestors.

Thousands of Jews were massacred during the Crusades, but Hashem wanted you. In 1391, two hundred thousand Jews were forcibly converted in Spain, but Hashem invested in you. Three hundred thousand Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, and tens of thousands were killed. Hashem saved you from the Chmielnicki pogroms so that you can be here today. He has been looking out for you for threethousand-three hundred years. Your immediate ancestor was rescued from the horrors of the Holocaust. For a Jew to be here today, it is not statistically unlikely. It is not highly improbable. It is downright impossible. It is an open miracle of the highest proportion.

In the introduction to his Siddur Bais Yaakov, Rav Yaakov Emden (who was referred to as a Navi by the Chasam Sofer) writes, “How can the heretic in G-d’s Providence not be ashamed? Simply analyze our situation in this world. We are the exiled people, the scattered sheep. Despite all that has happened to us over thousands of years, we are still here. I swear that when I marvel at this wonder, it is much greater to me than all the miracles that Hashem performed for our ancestors in Egypt, in the desert, and In Eretz Yisrael.”

If Rav Yaakov Emden was astonished by the wonder of a Jew in the eighteenth century, can we even begin to imagine what he would say about the miraculous nature of a Jew in 2021!

He may say it is a neis she’ein kol malach u’berya yecholim l’sha’er — a miracle that no angel or being could comprehend.

Tishah B’Av commemorates the greatest miracle of all: the miracle of Jewish survival and eternity!

The Greatest Miracle Ever

Think about it. The greatest miracle in the history of the world: Hashem performed it for you. Because the Ribbono Shel Olam wants you. He wants your tefillos. He wants your Torah. He wants your mitzvos. He has so much invested in you.

Throughout the history of the universe, there is nothing that Hashem has invested Himself in more than in the existence of each and every Jew. The Ribbono Shel Olam saved you from Egypt, from the Churban Bayis Rishon, from the Churban Bayis Sheini, from the Crusades, from the Inquisition, from pogroms, from the gas chambers — performing miracle after miracle just so you can be here.

Perhaps this can explain why Tishah B’Av is referred to as a Yom Tov. Yirmiyah HaNavi writes, “He [Hashem] proclaimed a moed against me” (Eichah 1:15); Tishah B’Av is a Moed. This actually has halachic ramifications as the Shulchan Aruch codifies that we do not recite Tachanun at Minchah on Erev Tishah B’Av as it is considered a Moed. How can Tishah B’Av be considered in any fashion a yom tov?

According to the comments of R’ Yaakov Emden, we are privileged to understand a great treasure. Just as Pesach commemorates the miracles of the Exodus from Egypt and Sukkos commemorates the miracle of the Ananei HaKavod, Tishah B’Av commemorates the greatest miracle of all: the miracle of Jewish survival and eternity! We Can Bring Mashiach

More so than any previous generation, we can honestly cry out to the Ribbono Shel Olam, “Ahavah rabbah ahavtanu, Hashem Elokeinu, With a great love You have loved us, Hashem, our G-d! Chemlah gedolah v’yeseirah chamalta aleinu, With exceedingly abundant compassion, You have had mercy on us.”

And perhaps we can be so daring and bold to suggest the following idea.

The Chofetz Chaim raises a question that we often ponder: How in the world can our generation hope to bring Mashiach if the prior generations, who were on such lofty spiritual levels, were unable to do so? The generation of Moshe Rabbeinu could not bring the Geulah. The generation of David HaMelech couldn’t do it. The Neviim, the Tannaim, the Amoraim, and the Geonim couldn’t. Neither could Rashi, the Rambam, or the Vilna Gaon. Yet somehow, we, who are paupers, spiritually impoverished — yasmei d’yasmei — orphaned from Torah knowledge, are expected to bring Mashiach!? If they couldn’t do it, can we be the ones to do it?

Can we be so daring to say, Yes! We do have the koach, we do have the power! Because never has a Jew had more value in the eyes of the Ribbono Shel Olam than a Jew living today.

Do you know how much Hashem has invested in us? Do you know how many miracles Hashem had to perform so that we can be here today? Why us? We don’t know why. But for the last three-thousand-three hundred years, the Ribbono Shel Olam has been looking out for us.

He wants YOU! He wants YOUR Torah! He wants YOUR mitzvos! He wants YOUR tefillin!

He wants YOU to cry out to Him to bring Mashiach!

For the last 3,300 years, Hashem has been investing in YOU!

While we sit on the floor and mourn, as we cry out as we recall the tragedies of our histories, our hearts are ennobled, our hearts are aflame, because our generation has been entrusted with the most important job in history: to bring the Geulah Sheleimah.

May this Tishah B’Av bring the end to all Jewish suffering, b’vias goel tzedek, bimheirah veyameinu, with the coming of Mashiach, speedily in our days, Amen.

1 Edited by Bernhard H. Rosenberg, coedited by Fred Heuman; K’tav Publishing House, 1992.

This article has been excerpted from Rabbi Glatstein’s sefer, From Darkness to Dawn, published by ArtScroll/ Mesorah.

Rabbi Daniel Glatstein is the Mara D’asra of Kehilas Tiferes Mordechai in Cedarhurst, NY, and author of numerous seforim in Lashon Hakodesh and in English for ArtScroll. He is an international lecturer and maggid shiur. His thousands of recorded shiurim are available on Torahanytime.com, podcast, his website rabbidg.com, and other venues.

Rabbi Glatstein is currently running a campaign to build a new international learning center in Cedarhurst called Machon Maggid Harakiah. Go to Charidy.com/mmh for more information.