This week's Torah Portion is one of those that are most about the essence of the Torah: lots of moral edicts that differentiate between people who love G-d and follow Him and those who don't (like the Nazis). It is a beautiful portion, and I really recommend reading it and thinking about it. In it we are commanded to fear our parents (unlike the Eichmanns of the world who say: "If I was ordered to shoot my father, I would"), not to steal, not to lie, to leave some of the fruit of our fields (or our salaries today) to the poor, not to gossip or speak evil things against other people, not even to hate others in our hearts - a commandment that is inner, and only G-d can know whether we fulfill it or not. Not surprisingly, many times during this Portion, the verse "I am the Lord your G-d" appear, telling us that some of these commandments that we perform cannot be witnessed or judged by others around us. They can be witnessed and judged only by G-d. He is the only one who knows our heart and our thoughts, even much better than we do. We can lie to ourselves about our true feelings or intentions. But we cannot lie to G-d. He asks us to purify our hearts and be holy. If He asks, it means that it is possible. Perhaps not in a moment, but in a process that takes a life time to better ourselves, to purify ourselves, to improve our ways, to change, to be good. It is possible, and this is the work we do in this world.
I'm under the impression of the holocaust stories we heard everywhere on the Holocaust Memorial Day that took place this week in Israel. I have just finished Haim Guri's book about the Eichmann trial, and some stories that appear there haunt me. My thoughts are that people who cling to the Bible - Jews, Christians - usually keep their morality. People who leave the Bible, even if they talk about G-d, they lose their morality and step by step might slip to very dark places. The Nazis talked about G-d. Hitler thought he was G-d's messenger, kind of a Messiah in this world. He talked often about G-d, but it didn't bother him to instruct his people to burn the Bible, all the copies of the Bible they could get their hands on. He didn't believe in the validity of the Torah as G-d's word. Eichmann too talked about G-d and believed in Him, but he despised the Bible. His beloved wife was a devout catholic woman, and Eichmann ripped her Bible apart twice. In the end, he allowed her to keep the torn copies and read from them. So strange, when the Israeli Mossad caught him in Argentina and brought him to trial here, she sent him a letter telling him that she is praying to G-d to get him released. She was praying for a person who boasted of being in charge of killing 6 million Jews (he bragged about it to his Nazi friend in the infamous Sassen Interviews, before he was caught). She was praying for the release of a man who was disappointed that he couldn't complete the original plan of killing 11 million Jews. Did she really think that the G-d of mercy should have mercy on her husband? Bringing Eichmann to justice was a merciful act for the victims and their families, for all the people of Israel. To feel that the evil ones are not sent free to celebrate their lives while their victims suffer forever. Justice is an act of mercy. Had Eichmann achieved his original goal of killing 11 million Jews worldwide, I would probably have not been sitting here today writing to you.
By the way, Guri's book about the Eichmann trial is not the best choice of book for someone like me who reads it after the fact. As I was reading, I was feeling like he was talking to people of his generation, who experienced the trial together with him and know what he was talking about. He referred to many things as known facts - they were indeed known to people of that time, but not to people of our time. When I reached the end of the book, I realized my feeling was right. This was not really a 'book', but a collection of newspaper articles that he wrote about the trial as it was going on. So if you're thinking of reading about the trial, another book might be a better start. Anyway, I did get a picture of what was going on then, so I do not regret reading it.
One of the commandments that repeats in the Torah Portion this week is about the Shabbat: "You shall keep My Shabbats and reverence My sanctuary: I am the Lord." (Leviticus 19:30). It appears in other parts of the Bible, such as: "You shall sanctify my Shabbats, and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that you may know that I am the Lord your G-d". (Ezekiel 20:20).
Keeping the Shabbat is A SIGN between G-d and Israel: a sign for all of humanity to know that the world was created in six days - therefore we rest on the seventh (and all the Darwins of the world are wrong); a sign that the Torah is true and that there is a moral code that man should follow; a sign that G-d exists, and that He is the one and only G-d. We haven't forsaken the Shabbat since the time we received the Torah. There is a famous saying: "More than the Jews kept the Shabbat, the Shabbat kept the Jews" - keeping Shabbat helped us survive spiritually and physically. People who know me know what it means to keep Shabbat - the peace, the tranquility, the spirituality, the time to pray, to think, to reflect on things, to be with G-d completely, to thank Him, to learn His Torah, without the hassles of everyday life. It is a day, that if observed properly, increases one's wisdom. It is a day that frees people - frees them from the need to work and make a living, frees them from the need to be available online or on the phone constantly, frees them from thoughts about business and mundane things and allows them to lift their eyes and hearts high up, to life their thinking up, to get close to G-d. Without this day, it would be very hard to look at the world with spiritual eyes. It is no coincidence that many of the abuses that the Nazis inflicted upon the Jews were deliberately done on Shabbat and on the religious holidays. They wanted to annihilate what the Shabbat and the Torah symbolize in this world.
Anyway, I think I need a break from reading Holocaust books, it is not easy and it brings me down. I read them because I'm trying to fathom the psychology of the perpetrators, to know what went through their minds when they did what they did. But I guess it's impossible. I will never understand. And maybe it's not something to regret. We'll leave it at this.
I wish you all Shabbat Shalom, and have a restful, beautiful weekend,
R.
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