Rav Tzvi Yehuda Kook The Holocaust - Why
On Holocaust Memorial Day at Merkaz Harav Yeshiva decades ago, Rabbi
Kook approached the question from a perspective which embraces all of
Jewish history.
Introduction: Many scholars and philosophers have put forth theories
which attempt to explain the Holocaust. One Haredi point of view
focuses the blame on the Reform Jews in Germany who broke away from
the Torah. Another attitude blames the secular Zionists for having
brazenly established a non-religious settlement in the Land of Israel
before the Mashiach’s arrival. Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda HaCohen Kook had a
different understanding. These theories, he said, failed to embrace
the whole sweep of history. The workings of Divine Providence cannot
be isolated to any one moment, or group, but must be seen in the
context of the “Divine Historical Plan” which spans generations.
Accusations that blame this group, or that group, fracture the unity
of the Jewish Nation. Just as G-d is One, the Nation of Israel is one.
Only from this encompassing perspective, which embraces all of Jewish
history, can one hope to fathom the Divine Will in the horror of the
Holocaust. Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda spoke the following words on Holocaust
Memorial Day at the Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva in Jerusalem:
"Everything that happens in the world is a Divine mystery. The
understanding of Divine Providence, in all of its complexity, is not
revealed to us. Analytical studies of the Holocaust are a juvenile
activity. Only with great sensitivity, and with a mature spiritual
perspective, is it possible to approach this awesome topic. "First,
one must remember that there is a difference between human
comprehension and Divine Reckoning. The true understanding of the
world, and the true understanding of faith, demand an understanding of
the Torah verse, ‘Remember the days of old; consider the years of many
generations’ (Devarim, 32:5). This sweeping historical perspective
includes a deep faith that everything comes from G-d. But along with
this, one must remember that, ‘My thoughts are not your thoughts; My
ways are not your ways, says the L-rd. For My ways are higher than
your ways, and My thoughts are higher than your thoughts’ (Yishayahu,
55:8-9). "A weakness of faith, and a narrow world outlook, causes one
to measure Divine Providence according to the yardstick of our
understanding, which is limited. Human understanding is finite and
cannot grasp the workings of ‘Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom’
(Tehillim, 145:13). Our reckoning is a reckoning of the here and now,
whereas the Divine reckoning is an accounting of ages. Sometimes, man
forgets that matters are not dependent on, nor begin with him. In
truth, events are connected by a Divine Historical Plan. Thus our
comprehension of them is dependent upon our ability to elevate
ourselves and recognize the overall Divine Reckoning. "Rising to this
level is not easy. Therefore, there were people who abandoned their
faith on the heels of the Holocaust, because they did not succeed in
lifting themselves up to the knowledge of the true G-d. Obviously, one
sympathizes with them. As our Sages said about Job, ‘A man is not
blamed for what he utters in his agony’ (Baba Batra 16B). There is
room to understand errors committed in an hour of suffering. Yet
difficulties do not justify abandoning our faith. One must not subject
G-d to our reasoning and perception. Only with this understanding is
it possible to approach, in fear and awe, a comprehension of a tiny
part of the Holocaust. “In our generation, we have seen an awesome new
form of destruction (the Holocaust) and an incredible new revival and
building (the State of Israel). There are people who don’t agree with
this order of Divine Providence. They become confused when they
encounter these events. But nothing happens randomly. There is not a
thing which transpires that isn’t carried out according to the
Providence of the Almighty. Not only the good events, but also the
things which appear evil to us, they all happen according to the
Divine Plan. "There are no words to describe the shocking,
frightening, and horrifying atrocity of the Holocaust. It will remain
this way forever. It is impossible to stop the anger one feels against
the Nazis, may their names be erased. They not only perpetuated an
unspeakable evil against us, they also damaged our psyches, leaving us
psychologically scarred. All of our national identity and pride was
uprooted by them. This is even more pernicious than the killing and
murder. All of the national, social, and political uncertainty we now
experience, all of our confusion in our world outlook and lifestyle,
follow from this destruction of the Israelite community. The Holocaust
caused an upheaval in our attitudes and worldview, and it damaged our
faith in G-d. "We are commanded to rise up to a sublime vision, to
‘Contemplate the years of many generations,’ to rise up over trivial
explanations, to peer beyond mere superficial perception. One must
guard against thinking in a condensed and myopic fashion when
clarifying the historic reckonings of Clal Yisrael – the entire
Community of Israel, past, present, and future. The Nation of Israel
is a single unity which arrives at its wholeness only after a
continuum which spans all ages. The whole truthful vision beholds the
entire Nation of Israel in all of its generations. It is true that
there are many levels in the Nation of Israel, from the completely
righteous, to people of average deeds, to doers of evil. However, all
of these categories compose one complete entity. Just as ‘The Torah of
the L-rd is whole’ (Tehillim, 19:18), so is the Nation of Israel
whole. Like the body of a man, that is made up of different organs
having various functions and levels of importance, yet which together,
each performing its task, constitute the complete man – so is the
Nation of Israel, each tribe has its unique value, and all of them
together make up the Nation. "A perspective of the Nation of Israel
which divides the whole into parts (religious and secular, Zionist and
anti-Zionist), without sensitivity to the overall oneness of the
Nation, is a narrow-minded perspective that brings many divisions and
crises in its wake. All of Israel’s millions are bound together, in
one body, in one soul. "This single, complete body of the Nation of
Israel is whole only in Eretz Yisrael. In the exile, we are not in our
normal national situation, nor in our vibrant state. The return to the
Land of Israel is a return to national Israelite normalcy and to
health. G-d’s presence among the Jewish People on appears in its true
form only in Eretz Yisrael. There is even a difference in the value of
a mitzvah which a Jew performs in the Land of Israel, compared to the
value of the same precept when performed outside the Land. "The
actualization of the Jewish People in all of our wholeness is only in
Eretz Yisrael. Outside of the Land, we are not healthy because the
national component of Clal Yisrael is shattered, and we exist as
solitary individuals, the remnants of Israel. The exile causes a
fracturing of G-d’s light on the Nation, and in the world. Galut
destroys our National Format, and we remain isolated, lifeless souls,
like the Dry Bones of Ezekiel’s prophecy. "However, the bones of
Ezekiel’s vision do not disintegrate forever, and we wait the
appearance of a new burst of life (Yechezkel, 37:3-5). And now the
time has come to return to health. The end of exile has arrived.
Everything has stages, and the Redemption does not appear all at once,
but gradually, a little at a time (Jerusalem Talmud, Berachot 1:1).
The Master of the World arranges history in such a way that for a
certain time we are confined to exile, and afterwards He brings about
historical events which cause the national body of the Jewish People
to awaken in a developing process spanning generations. This awakening
builds in momentum toward a complete Revival. "There are situations
where it is difficult to separate from the exile. However, the time
has arrived for our Nation’s revival, and for the redemption of our
Land. The Revealed End has come, the time when, ‘You O mountains of
Israel shall shoot forth your branches and yield your fruit to My
people Israel, for they will soon be coming’ (Sanhedrin 98A). The time
approached for Israel’s return to Zion, and this caused the rebirth of
the Land. "But as the time arrives for our departure from the darkness
of the exile, situations arise which resemble the Hebrew slave who
rejects freedom and says, ‘I loved my master’ (Shemot, 21:5). Jews
fell in love with the exile and refused to come back to Israel. But
the Diaspora cannot continue forever. The Diaspora is the worse
Desecration of G-d that there is, as we find in the words of Ezekiel:
‘And when they came to the nations into which they came, they profaned
My holy Name, in that men said of them, these are the people of the
L-rd, and they are gone out of His Land’ (Yechezkel, 36:20). "When the
time comes for Redemption, complications arise and large portions of
the nation are embedded in the tar of the galut (exile). The facts
bear witness – multitudes of Jews grew accustomed to the impurity of
the Diaspora, and refused to extricate themselves from it. Thus begins
a Divine surgery, a deep inner, esoteric purification from this decay,
a treatment of amputation and healing. All of Israel’s millions are
one single body, an indivisible organism, and when it is delayed from
returning to health because of its clinging to a foreign land, then a
cruel Divine amputation is needed. "The time came for the Jewish
People to return to their Land, but since they refused, there was no
way to bring them back other than, ‘He took me by the sidelock of my
head’ (Yechezkel, 8:3), in order to bring them against their will to
Eretz Yisrael. When the end of exile arrives, and all of Israel fails
to recognize it, there is a need for a cruel Divine amputation and
severance. We are not speaking here about a Divine Reckoning against
this person or that person, since this is a secret matter of G-d,
belonging to the secret world of souls. We are speaking of a reckoning
that encompasses all of the Nation, which arises from a situation of,
‘They despised the desirable Land’ (Tehillim, 106:24). This is an
amputation which causes the Nation as a whole to separate from the
Diaspora and return to its life in the Land of Israel." May the
memories of the murdered be avenged. (Excerpted from the book, "Torat
Eretz Yisrael - The Teachings of HaRav Tzvi Yehuda HaCohen Kook,”
compiled by Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, Rabbi David Samson, and Tzvi
Fishman.) © Arutz Sheva
