Q:
This week marks the 50th anniversary of the end of World War 2. What was the Rav thinking fifty years ago when the war ended?
A:
What I was thinking is not so important, but I’ll tell you. I was happy that Hakodosh Boruch Hu brought the war to an end. That for sure, I was thinking.
But that’s not the only thing. It’s impossible for a logical person to overlook the tremendous phenomenon of what took place in Europe. As a result of what happened in Europe everything has changed. And all of us have to change because of that. The only trouble is that there’s a great ocean of sheker that has covered up the entire story – among the frummeh too.
Now, I don’t want to bring up the subject now; it’s a painful subject and people become excited and angry when they hear it. But they’re acting as if Hakodosh Boruch Hu had nothing to do with it. All we hear is, it was Hitler’s fault, it was the Nazi’s fault; Hakodosh Boruch Hu had nothing to do with it. Years ago at these lectures, a European survivor stood up: “So Hitler was a tzadik?” he said to me. He was so angry. Who said Hitler was a tzadik? But Hakodosh Boruch Hu brought him and tzadik Hashem b’chol ma’asav.
How was this nobody elevated to become a dictator over eighty million people? He was a nobody; he wasn’t educated. How did such a miracle happen that a paper hanger should have such power? Don’t you see the yad Hashem?
What lessons are there to learn? Certainly there are very big lessons – it’s the tochacha. “Ohhh,” they say to me. “You mean to say you’re going to talk lashon hara against the kedoshim?” You have to know that with this kind of attitude, Hakodosh Baruch Hu is pushed out of the scene entirely. Yes, He’s in the chumash, He’s in the tochacha. But when it comes l’maisah, no no, He didn’t do it; Hitler did it. The frummeh too; they become very angry when they hear this.
It’s because they’re not frum. The frummeh just have chitzonius, but where are the dei’os? Where is their belief that Hakodosh Boruch Hu is the same Hakodosh Boruch Hu as He was in the chumash? It’s no different. And what was foretold in the tochacha, was foretold for all generations. And so there’s a great deal to talk about. We should not let that tremendous phenomena go lost, when so many neshamos were destroyed. It’s for a purpose.
Only, I don’t want to speak about it right now – but there’s no question that we must dwell on the subject and talk about it at a very great length. A subject that cost six million nefashos is certainly deserving of a very great amount of time.
TAPE # E-9 (May 1995)